You are what You Remember

You, like everyone, have memories that can affect how you feel. You can remember a happy memory and feel a bit of the happy emotion. Just as you can remember a sad memory and feel the sadness.

There is a definite connection between what our memories have stored and how we generally feel. If there is very strong emotion associated with a memory, a person may tend to feel that emotion in some way, constantly, below the surface.

Memories with traumatic emotions can cause disorders like post-traumatic stress and depression. They can also cause other disruptions in your life like problems with anger, fears, and stress.

The most popular way to deal with these sorts of problems is prescription medication. But, medication only tries to help the 'symptoms' instead of treating the 'cause'. Long term results are usually just long term symptom management.

The key to long term help with these issues would appear to be the emotional association with the memory. What would happen if that association could be erased, reduced or even changed?

There is research using a medication called propranolol that can be used as an "amnesia drug". The purpose is to directly disrupt the connection between our memories and the emotions they are associated with.

The study, described in the Journal of Psychiatric Research, talks about psychiatrists at McGill University and Harvard University using the amnesia drug to interrupt the memories of trauma victims. The drug reduces the emotional part of the memory while leaving the conscious part of the memory.

With this process, people still have the memory, but the emotion is reduced or detached. The potential problems with this process, such as permanence or side effects, are not known.

There are also ways to reduce and change the emotions associated with memories. These processes are well established and have no side-effects.

Specifically hypnosis. Proper hypnosis seems more effective for this process since, when you are in hypnosis, you are using the emotional portion of your mind. This is especially true with memories containing strong emotion from childhood. When experiencing memories from childhood will generally 'feel' the age you were when you created the memory.

Before using hypnosis techniques to address a strong emotional memory, the hypnotist needs to be appropriately trained. With a trained and experienced hypnotist, the process is reliable, quick and effective.

Working with issues with these methods are about updating perceptions, and beliefs. Not just in a conscious way, but also in a subconscious, feeling way.

About the Author

Glancy Hypnosis for Hypnosis in Salem Oregon