Dreaming and daydreaming, ruminating, or hearing traumatic keywords associated with a trauma can turn on enough noradrenaline to unlock the cabinet.

As I’ve discussed before in this blog, memories, particularly traumatic memories can be very inaccurate recordings of events. I think I’ve come across a good explanation for why that is so – and what can be done about it.

Neuroscientists at The University of Queensland explain how emotional events can sometimes lead to disturbing long term memories. During studies of the almond-shaped part of the brain called the amygdala – a region associated with processing emotions – Queensland Brain Institute (QBI) scientists uncovered a cellular mechanism underlying the formation of emotional memories – and it involves a well known stress hormone – noradrenaline, the brain’s version of adrenaline. Noradrenaline affects the amygdala by controlling chemical and electrical pathways in the brain responsible for memory formation.

Think of this interaction between chemical and brain structure like a file cabinet.

When an emotional event occurs noradrenaline is released in the brain – the more emotionally traumatic the event, the more adrenaline gets turned on in the body and more noradrenaline released in the brain. This chemical is like the key to the file cabinet. Once open, the drawer assigned to that particular kind of event reveals many folders full of data – images, sensations, sounds and more that are similar in nature to the current event being experienced.

Into the currently open folder go all the personal interpretations of the event. We don’t get to store accurate information – oh, no! – we store emotionally charged interpretations. And because noradrenaline, a stress/survival hormone, is present, the memories take on a much higher priority than those of, say, your 4th grade math instructions.

Unfortunately, because these stress hormones tend to distort perception, the high stress of trauma fills the memory folders with inaccurate and sometimes wildly distorted data. Further, when the noradrenaline is removed, the file folder tends to LOCK UP tight against further “writing” or filing. In other words, you can’t just go back in and “rewrite” the files. You must open the cabinet again – and that takes noradrenaline – stress.

“But wait just a minute…” you might say. “You mean you can’t release stress without using stress?”

You must find a method to induce the stress response in the brain in order to release enough noradrenaline to open the cabinet and look through (and perhaps rewrite) the files. As these files are high priority survival folders, the brain is not easily persuaded to open them. You need enough noradrenaline – the key – to open the cabinet. After which, any sensual input similar to the original trauma will open the file folder assigned to that type of trauma.

It doesn’t take much noradrenaline to “turn the key.” Dreaming and daydreaming, ruminating, or hearing traumatic keywords associated with a trauma can turn on enough noradrenaline to unlock the cabinet. But just unlocking the cabinet is not enough – in order to release the emotional energy tied up in a traumatic memory, you must also access the RIGHT folder and the RIGHT files during a time when the stress hormones are present at a sufficient level.

In an earlier post (http://powerstates.com/fear-its-in-the-eyes), I considered how emotion can affect eye movement. And in another post (http://powerstates.com/rewiring-the-brain), I quoted Dr. Hensch, “The eye is telling the brain when to become plastic, rather than the brain developing on its own clock.” (Hensch 2008) It seems the eye might be called upon to open the cabinet using plasticity (learning) chemicals. In other words, a back door approach not requiring noradrenaline or stress.

Practitioners of Rapid Eye Technology (RET) know very well how eye movement and blinking affect and are affected by emotion – and know that eyelid blinking can be used to release the energy tangled up in the trauma files. If plasticity chemicals can be turned on with eyelid blinking – as describe by Hensch, et al – then perhaps the eyelid blinking along with the rapid verbal keyword flooding involved in the RET processes and techniques might be shown to quickly and effectively open the cabinet, find the files, clear out the junk data, and reorganize the folders within each drawer – all without stressing the brain or body.

After RET, one is left with a clearer picture of events – unclouded by emotional trauma. Clearer traumatic memories can result in better memory altogether. Seems reasonable to me.