Emotional trauma memory loss

Can psychological trauma cause memory loss? What are the long-term effects of emotional trauma? How does emotional trauma affect your brain? How stress can lead to emotional trauma?

Physical Trauma and Memory Loss. Along with our bodies having a strong reaction to trauma , our minds are affected as well.

Memory loss can be a symptom of severe trauma and is a serious way that the human mind reacts to severe stress that can include emotional overwhelm, repressed memory and intrusive thoughts. Emotional overwhelm is a main part of trauma and stressful situations. Short-term memory loss causes the inability to remember recent events.

People might experience short-term memory loss due to treatment for an illness. When the brain is put on high alert due to a traumatic experience, the adrenal glands secrete cortisol readying the victim to fight or flee. This usually translates into greater severity of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder ( PTSD ) symptoms over time, as the remembered trauma “grows. PTSD also causes sufferers to experience both long- and short-term memory loss.

Trauma can have a profound impact on a person’s memory. But conceptualizing how trauma can impact the different types of memory can be challenging, so we created a free tool for practitioners that breaks down this process.

Psychological , or emotional trauma , is damage or injury to the psyche after living through an extremely frightening or distressing event and may result in challenges in functioning or coping normally after the event. Emotion is a large part of trauma , especially near death experiences. The effect emotions have on memory in different instances is an integral part of the effect of trauma on memory.

Emotional events tend to be recalled with more frequency and clarity than memories not associated with extreme emotions. Psychological trauma can cause memory loss because it causes stress, and the stress response directly affects the brain. A number of prescription and over-the-counter medications can interfere with or cause loss of memory. Possible culprits include: antidepressants, antihistamines, anti- anxiety medications, muscle relaxants, tranquilizers, sleeping pills, and pain medications given after surgery.

Alcohol, tobacco, or drug use. PTSD symptoms are a significant cause of memory loss. Most of us are very aware that trauma can cause us considerable anxiety.

People who have personally been exposed to a life threatening event or have been confronted with the potential loss of a loved one usually develop acute stress. Research has shown that amnesia can be caused by head trauma and damage to the hippocampus, mammillary bodies and dorsal thalamus. Grief and emotional trauma can cause memory loss. Usually, as the person recovers, memory returns. Grief from bereavement is especially painful but there are other causes of grief.

In our lives, we have other losses. We can lose our hearing, our vision, and our mobility. Circumstances can require a move away from home and we lose our sense of place.

In all cases where emotional abuse is inflicte the brain is actually attempting to protect itself by re-routing abundant levels of stress and pain to avoid overload. This can interfere with the ability to have a healthy response even when there is no longer a present threat or traumatic situation. There can be gradual improvement in the memory over time. Memory disturbances are predominant in the presentation of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and are part of the diagnostic criteria. The re-experiencing symptom criteria of PTSD include intrusive memories of the traumatic event, and the avoidance symptom criteria include the inability to recall important aspects of the trauma.

In addition, patients with PTSD often complain of experiencing everyday memory problems with emotionally neutral material, although these problems are not.