Exploring Trauma and Memory: The Body's Way of Remembering
Trauma can affect us all, and understanding how memory works can help us better understand why it is so impactful. Memory isn’t just about what we can remember. It also involves how our bodies and unconscious mind store information. In this blog, we’ll explore the different types of memory, how trauma impacts them, and how our bodies remember experiences.
Types of Memory
What Is Explicit Memory?
Explicit memory is the type of memory that we use for things we can consciously recall. It includes facts and experiences that we can think about and describe. Types of explicit memory include remembering your best friend’s birthday or identifying what you ate for dinner last night.
Explicit memory allows us to recall specific events, details, and information. It helps us move through our daily lives by remembering important dates, learning new skills, and solving problems. This kind of memory is like having a mental library where you can pull out the information you need.
What Is Implicit Memory?
Implicit memory, on the other hand, works differently. It’s the type of memory that lives in our unconscious mind. It affects how you perform tasks without thinking about them. This includes skills and habits that you've learned over time and have become second nature. For example, riding a bike, typing on a keyboard, or tying your shoes are all tasks that rely on implicit memory.
Our bodies also have implicit memories. These are memories that influence how you react to certain situations, even if you're not consciously aware of them. For instance, if you’ve learned to ride a bike, you don’t have to think about how to balance or pedal every time you ride. Your body just knows how to do it. This is because these skills are stored in implicit memory.
Trauma and Memory: Explicit vs. Implicit
Trauma can affect both explicit and implicit memory. Here’s how:
Explicit Memory and Trauma: Trauma can impact explicit memory by making it hard to remember specific details about the traumatic event. You might have gaps in your memory or find it hard to remember what happened before, during, or after the trauma. This may be protective. The brain might be trying to protect you painful memories.
Implicit Memory and Trauma: Trauma can also affect implicit memory, which is stored in our bodies and unconscious mind. When you experience trauma, your bodies can remember it even if your conscious mind does not. For example, let's say you experienced a traumatic event that involved loud noises. After the event, your body might react with anxiety or fear whenever you hear a similar sound. This occurs even if you can’t consciously remember the original trauma.
How Your Body Remembers Trauma
Just like you don’t have to think about riding a bike, your body can remember trauma through implicit memory. If you are reminded of something that triggers a past trauma, your body may react automatically. This is because your body stores memories of traumatic events in a way that can be triggered by certain sensory inputs.
Here’s how this works:
Seeing, Smelling, or Hearing: If you see, smell, or hear something that was present during a traumatic event, your body might react as if the trauma is happening again. For example, the smell of a specific perfume or the sound of a car engine might trigger a response if they were associated with a past trauma.
Touching or Tasting: Similarly, sensations like touch or taste can also bring up memories of trauma. If you touch something that feels like an object related to a traumatic experience, your body might react with stress or anxiety.
The Importance of Implicit Memory
While implicit memory helps you with everyday tasks and skills, it can also influence your responses to trauma. This is why it’s important to address both explicit and implicit memories when dealing with trauma. Here’s why implicit memory is significant:
Unconscious Reactions: Implicit memories affect your unconscious reactions. For example, let's say your body tenses up when you’re in a certain situation. This might be a reaction stored in your implicit memory. This can happen even if you don’t consciously remember the trauma.
Building Resilience: By understanding and working with implicit memory, you can build resilience. PTSD treatments that focus on body awareness to help process and heal from trauma like somatic therapy, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), or Internal Family Systems (IFS) can be helpful.
Everyday Functioning: Implicit memory helps you complete daily tasks so you don't have to think about them. This frees up mental space for you to focus on other enjoyable aspects of life. This could be spending time with loved ones or enjoying a beautiful hike.
Noticing and Managing Reactions
Recognizing how your body reacts to certain stressors is an important part of healing from trauma. Here are a few steps to help manage these reactions:
Mindfulness and Awareness: Practicing mindfulness can help you become more aware of how your body responds to different situations. This awareness can help you identify trauma triggers and work through them.
Therapeutic Techniques: Therapies such as Somatic experiencing or body-focused therapies can help address implicit memories and the body’s reactions to trauma. These approaches focus on how trauma is stored in the body and work to release it.
Self-Care: Engaging in self-care practices that promote relaxation and well-being can help regulate your nervous system and support healing. Activities like deep breathing, gentle exercise, and connecting with supportive people can help release trauma from the body!
Begin Trauma Therapy in Michigan Today
Do you notice that trauma memories are affecting you? You have come to the right place. Embodied Wellness, PLLC provides a variety of holistic trauma and PTSD treatments including somatic therapy, EMDR, and IFS to help release trauma from the body. To schedule an appointment follow these steps:
Get scheduled with one of our trauma specialists!
Release implicit trauma memories from your body.
Treatments We Offer Through Online Therapy in Detroit & Throughout Michigan
Embodied Wellness, PLLC provides online therapy in Michigan to adults and teenagers. Our therapists are trained in EMDR, DBT, Internal Family Systems, and the treatment of anxiety, depression and OCD. Servicios de terapia in Español. We also offer low-cost therapy!
About the Author:
Sarah Rollins, LMSW, SEP is the founder of Embodied Wellness, PLLC, a group therapy practice providing online therapy in Michigan. She is passionate about expanding awareness of somatic therapy as a way to treat and heal trauma. She incorporates other holistic treatments into her practice including EMDR and IFS.