Is it possible?

Question

To literally block something traumatic that happened when you were a child from your memory?
I'm asking because ocassionally I will remember bits and pieces of something that happened to me when I was very young (maybe 5 or 6). I feel like something bad (sexual) happened to me, but no matter how hard I try, I can only remember tiny little things about my life afterwards. The things that I do remember make me think that something happened. No one in my family has ever talked to me about it (I don't want to ask either), and I think I might possibly have blocked it from my memory. I've heard of people doing this before, but I didn't know if it was a myth, or the truth.

Answer 1

It is a true phenomenon and it is possible you have a repressed memory there. However unlike most psychologists I do not think it is necessary to dredge up every single memory in order to "deal" with it.

Memory repression is a natural defense mechanism and it is there for a good reason. For instance my sister has only one memory (dressing her one year old son) from the day she was in a severe head-on collision. Does she need to remember every detail of the accident? NO...she knows she was in an accident and was dealt consequences which she had to deal with, had she been obsessed with the memory of the accident she wouldn't have been able to move on.

Just like you have a whole life to deal with and dredging up memories from your childhood may make it impossible for you to move on. Just follow your brain and forget it and move on.

Answer 2

This case holds true in a lot of car accidents. If you have noticed most people cannot recall details of what happened right before and during a car accident. Not from head injuries, but just from the fact that it was a very traumatic experience and for some reason the brain wants to block it out. I don’t exactly know the reasons why and it doesn’t happen to all people. The only thing is in your situation I don’t know which is worse… remembering or not remembering. =(

Answer 3

yes it has happened to me too, ALOT. Sometimes i am certain i remember a strange situation i KNOW i faced as a child and my sister (who is the only one i talked to about this) is always telling me i'm "making it up". At other times, horrible images simply pop-up in my mind and i get so scared and i try to figure them out and they seem to fit in my life history but then again, i can only back it up by what i'm seeing in my mind, since apparently i was always alone when those things happened. Sometimes i wish i could go on hypnosis to see if these memories can come alive and have a place in my life.

What i fear the most is if i was really making up all these memories, since they have affected me greatly and i would feel lost if i knew they were simply not real...

Answer 4

It's very true... When something is blocked it's like this bad memory that gets filed away under those circumstances and when you're young, (as in people in general),
since you don't understand them or since they were just too much for you to handle it gradually gets forgotten...

The same happens with me. I had seen alot of violence when I was younger and although I can remember certain things, there are others that I know escape me, though I know it's related to the trauma...

I hope I didn't blab too much

Answer 5

no myth. not for me anyway. The mind has a way of protecting one from too heavy damage at that point... so it is possible. it is also possible that you have memories that are not accurate... I do too...so figuring out what is memory and what is mental addition... is sometimes quite tough.

Answer 6

Yes, that is a way that our mind tries to protect us. It is certainly very possible. It's a defense mechanism.

Answer 7

i think it's possible