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What You Remember And How You Act
There is obviously a close connection between our emotions and memories. Almost as if the emotion is part of the memory. Our memories are always in our minds so it makes sense that the emotions in our memories can constantly have an effect on how we feel. The strong emotion associated with memories can cause disorders such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. The emotions can also cause more normal life problems, such as anger, stress, sadness, or fear. 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. Described in the Journal of Psychiatric Research, they talk about psychiatrists at McGill University and Harvard University using the drug to disrupt the memories of trauma victims. The drug reduces the emotional connection with 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. It all seems a little too sci-fi to me, when there are more reliable, established, and safer methods available. Hypnosis seems better suited for this process since, when in hypnosis, you are using the emotional part of your mind. This is particularly true with traumatic memories from childhood. When re-experiencing memories from childhood (revivification) a person often "feels" young again, rather than experiencing it with their current age and experience. Before a hypnotist uses modern hypnosis methods with traumatic memories, they must be properly trained. With the proper training, this process is safe, rapid and reliable. Clients often notice a difference after one session. Addressing issues in this is about gaining real, inner perspective on your past. When this is done, it creates a sense of distance from the memory. A memory that no longer influences how you feel. Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com Patrick M Glancy, National Guild of Hypnotists Board Certified Hypnotist |
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