Do You Ever Question Your Trauma?

[Hush92]

The two main people pushing the "false memories" stuff, are the parents of a researcher into dissociativ...

A lot of the false memory dilemma also rose up during a period of history a while back when therapy was still based on "every issue you have is due to a repressed traumatic experience." This did cause an outbreak of false memories and research was done as to how memories could be "implanted" by therapists. There was even this whole awful time period where there was this "therapy" where they would beat people or otherwise put their bodies under a lot of strain, even children, in hopes that the physical stressor would trigger memories of what traumatic event they had been through. It ended up with people (especially the kids) just making up things that had happened to them so they could end the horrible "therapy."

So that scare did start up for a good reason. But therapy has changed now, and you're right that it is much more unlikely for false memories to be planted with today's methods.

 

[Sideways]

@Hush92 - therapy has changed, but not all therapists have kept up with the times... Beware the therapist that says you need to be hyponotised to uncover repressed memories. Particularly if you dissociate as one of your symptoms, people can be very open to suggestion under hypnosis.

 

[Klo]

The false memory brigade just knows that it would be socially unacceptable to say YOU'RE LYING, so instead they do it covert-aggression style with YOU'RE CRAZY. It's like highly-organized gaslighting, or an amazing case study opportunity of what happens when a bunch of narcissists form a movement.

 

[Anarchy]

It's like highly-organized gaslighting, or an amazing case study opportunity of what happens when a bunch of narcissists form a movement.

Trying hard not to spin off on a tangent here

Thanks Klo, that is really insightful.
Other examples of narcissistic movements and their implicit gas lighting:
Government: you're too damned stupid to tie your own shoe laces without us to govern you wisely and our cops to beat the crap out of you, now pay your taxes- because it's your voluntary duty.
Priesthoods: you're all contaminated with original sin, and far too stupid to understand sacred writings.

Any attempt to assert superiority over another person, rather than consensually demonstrating it by better serving other people's needs, is narcissistic and abusive.

Asserting a superior reality to another person, without being able to argue the logic, is one example of that narcissistic and abusive mind set.
@

 

[Klo]

Trying hard not to spin off on a tangent here

Thanks Klo, that is really inciteful.
Other examples of n...

I've just seen it so many times with my own mother, it becomes highly predictable after a while.

Tactic 1: Just ignore the victim, give them the silent treatment, hope they believe there must be something wrong with them and that they just shut up.
Tactic 2: Try various covert intimidation methods that have worked in the past whenever the victim tries to bring up the topic.
Tactic 3: Guilt trip the victim and act like you think they are lying, act like you are the real victim and they are the evil one trying to make you feel bad.

Tactic 4: Make implications that the victim is actually crazy and just imagining things, act like you are very concerned for their well-being.

When the victim tries to defend their sanity, revert back to Tactic 1, which will likely push the victim over the edge so that they freak out; then use that as 'proof' that they truly are crazy.

That is my mother's entire cycle, in a nutshell. Luckily I eventually figured it out, which makes it soooo much easier to ignore it and not sucked into it. I don't even seek her out for validation anymore, so that means she doesn't even get the opportunity to start with Tactic 1.

But yeah, a lot of the "false memory" material I have read has been pretty in line with my experiences with a PD parent, it's just that it's on a much larger, organized scale, and probably full of parents just like my mother.

The only legit false memory material I have read has just been about advising therapists not to use hypnosis due to the risks, and pretty sure over 99% of the people who remember childhood trauma were never hypnotized by anybody.

 

[Anarchy]

Oh feck! Thanks, That's a good description of some of the shit I've seen from my mother.

I've been avoiding her since before Christmas, when she pulled 2 and 3 on me.

I'm now working in easy walking distance of her house, so she'll probably call in sometime soon.

You've just made clear what I've been suspecting. Its a wierd feeling, as another of the things i thought i knew about my life, turns out not to be correct after half a century of believing it implicitly. My first clue was 2014 when I told her that I have PTSD and asked her some questions about my first six months. She tells me that she is ever so worried about me, but she has done sweet f all reading up on the few links that I gave her.

There's other stuff too, but it's even further off topic.

Sorry for the hijack

 

[hotrod351]

always and still

 

[Deleted member 29920]

At first when I had flashbacks two years ago, I found them hard to believe but only because the only other times I had flashbacks was thirteen, and nineteen years ago. I didn't know that the human mind can block trauma out (especially childhood, interpersonal by close family members).

 

[void]

The cognitive memory only stores 18 % of the surroundings it experiences, the sub-cognitive mind recor...

@Mr Laurie I have not heard that before, do you know where i could read the research on that?
Where did u read that? Source?
Links?

Thanks in advance:happy:

 

[void]

I know this might be a weird question but lately I've been thinking about this a lot.

I read somethi...

@Katiee_co

Many of us struggle with this.

Trust the damage.

Eg. You come upon a car that is mangled but you did not see the cause.
You can infer that a severe collision occurred because 'something' had to have cause that amount of damage.

Same with you.
If you are damaged...'something' had to have caused that damaged.
You do not have PTSD for no reason.
You have it because an experience or multiple experiences damaged you.
Your memories are the clues.
Trust yourself.:happy:
You wouldn't make up stuff, you have no reason to.

 

[I_will_recover]

The body remembers what the mind forgets. I was very ill until I acknowledged the memories of my trauma. My memories (& yours) weren't false they were just hiding inside as a form of self-preservation because I couldn't deal with them. YOU ARE NOT ALONE in your pain.

 

[void]

The body remembers what the mind forgets. I was very ill until I acknowledged the memories of my...

@I_will_recover

Fantastic POST!!!!!:happy:
You will recover...I believe in you!!:hug: