For example if I ask someone what they had for breakfast or what song was on the radio yesterday, they may not know.
But if I asked them what they did the day their loved one died 30 years ago, they could probably tell you: I had Cheerios for breakfast. The mail was late. I got stuck in traffic. Boyz II Men was on the radio.
Why does our brain store these tiny details in times of trauma?
In: 7
We don’t actually. There’s been good research that we don’t actually remember the details better for traumatic events than we do for ordinary ones. But what we DO do is “tell” ourselves the story of the traumatic event over and over and over, and the story becomes the memory. Over time the details of the story can drift, just like anything else. People will recall very specific details that didn’t happen, or didn’t happen that way, and be extremely confident that their memory is accurate.
([Here’s an article](https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/media-spotlight/201503/remembering-911) about the affect, where they followed up with thousands of people directly after, 1 year, 5 years and 10 years after the 9-11 Attacks.)
Latest Answers