ACUTE AND POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER

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• Occurs when one is exposed to a severe traumatic event associated with disturbing recollections and hyper-vigilance.

• Memory at is most rudimentary level allows us to remember good and bad. A good experience for example would be a safe place and where the find it, and a bad experience would be harm and how to avoid it.

• If were not able to remember danger, and everything associated with danger, from how it appears, to how it sounds, to even how it smells, or anything other association for that matter with it then we may not be able to identify it soon enough and consequently compromise our safety, risk injury and even death. This is one of the key features of a Traumatic Disorder. The recurrent memory of the event and the reaction to that memory as if it were actually taking place whether it be triggered by something that resembles it or in the form of a dream or nightmare rather.

• We are more likely to remember things if we are able to make associations or links with other memories and experiences.

• Memory is obviously not as simple as this and there are of course many other mechanisms associated with it.

• The more significant something is in our lives the more likely we are to remember it and less likely to forget it.

• It is not possible to forget about the event but it may be possible to suppress thoughts, feelings etc. which unfortunately compounds the condition.