While it might sound a bit confusing, sometimes we repress memories that are too hard to handle. These memories come back up at the worst times and really leave us wondering how to cope.
Discovering your repressed memories can open up a lot of wounds you didn’t even realize you had and bring you to a place full of trauma that you’re not quite ready to deal with. If you at some point have gone through something that hurt you on a level like nothing else, you might not remember it, and coming to terms with that in itself can be quite hard.
Don’t get me wrong our memory itself can be unreliable but if something is coming up that needs to be brought into the light we shouldn’t just ignore it. These memories can come back up in lots of different ways and you don’t have to suffer through their presence alone. Sharing them with someone you trust is a great way to get them off your mind at least on some level.
Now if you were wondering what repressed memories were, the following from Healthline may give you some insight:
The idea of memory repression dates back to Sigmund Freud in the late 1800s. He began developing the theory after his teacher, Dr. Joseph Breuer, told him about a patient, Anna O.
She experienced many unexplained symptoms. During treatment for these symptoms, she started remembering upsetting events from the past she previously had no memory of. After regaining these memories and talking about them, her symptoms began to improve.
Freud believed that memory repression served as a defense mechanism against traumatic events. Symptoms that couldn’t be traced to a clear cause, he concluded, stemmed from repressed memories. You can’t remember what happened, but you feel it in your body, anyway.
The concept of memory repression had a resurgence in popularity in the 1990s when an increasing number of adults started reporting memories of child abuse they hadn’t been aware of previously.
While there are some people who will try to discount your experiences because your memories only recently came back from these events, those people are not able to truly understand your story. This kind of thing is something a lot of people experience even though there is no clear cut proof that it is possible. As someone who has dealt with repressed memories myself, I know all too well how painful it can be for them to come back up.
When these kinds of things come forth it’s important to keep as grounded as possible. While these memories are often painful, you are now at a place where you can handle them. That is why they are coming forth.
Don’t beat yourself down over something that happened to you in the past. Grow and learn from it. You are stronger now if you weren’t these memories would not be presenting themselves at this point in time.