Your Cells Remember
Most of you out there have heard of body memories and I have written at least two pieces covering that subject. However, there has been some new research that may eventually help those who are trapped in their memories of trauma.
This author will do her best at approaching this subject. I hope you feel more average afterward because your traumatic experiences in childhood which are affecting your body and mind today, are further explained.
Your Brain and Traumatic Memories
Your brain processes sensory information using two areas of the brains memory system, the precognitive and post cognitive circuits. The precognitive circuit holds the lower brain centers that react without thinking to perceived danger. The post cognitive circuit involves activating the prefrontal cortex allowing us to assess the situations we find ourselves in and think about our reaction.
When we feel endangered, our brain does a marvelous thing, it prepares us to run away. It does this by using chemicals, known as stress hormones, which are released by the body. Our precognitive circuit, which includes the amygdala, fires making us anxious sometimes for no apparent reason.
In situations where we were abused as children, we perceived a high level of threat. This threat activated the precognitive circuit reducing our ability to engage our prefrontal cortex, our thinking brain.
The high arousal we experienced also damaged our hippocampus as well impairing our ability to remember the details of what occurred. Instead, we formed memory fragments of the physical sensations we encountered during the abuse.
Our Cells Remember
While it was once thought that only the brain formed memories, it has been discovered that not only are our brains stimulated by abuse, but we are also changed at the cellular level.
Research has found that cells throughout your body store information about what happened to you in the past, including both physical and emotional sensations. This means that our cells are acting like little memory units that sometimes the conscious mind may not recall. This new breakthrough is known as “cellular memory” and is used to explain how trauma can manifest physically for long periods of time, perhaps a lifetime,
Our Cells are Changed
A dark side to cellular memory, added to body memories, is that your cells may be partly responsible for epigenic changes. Epigenic changes are modifications of your DNA caused by your environmental factors that alter gene expression within your cells. These changes change how we respond to future stimuli.
What I am trying to relate is that your DNA is altered by cellular modifications and that means your children inherited the propensity to form mental and physical problems later in life.
Ending Our Time Together
I know what I have written here comes as a surprise to you, it did me. I hadn’t considered that traumatic memories stored in my cells could be why people who were exposed to trauma early in life have so many physical and emotional problems.
I don’t think there is anything right now that can be done to reverse the damage. Understanding why we feel like we do physically and the storage and recall of body memories.
References
McClaskey, T. R. (1998). Decoding traumatic memory patterns at the cellular level. American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress.
http://www. aaets. org/article30. htm.
Perry, B. (1999). Memories of fear. Splintered reflections. Washington, DC: Basic Books, 9-38.
Good article, Shirley!!!
Thank you!!!
I’ve read about these issues before since I’m always researching ever since I was diagnosed with what was then (1990) called MPD.