Your brain and body remember trauma differently than other events. How fear makes your brain write memories differently.

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A traumatic memory can be near impossible to shake.
Carolina Heza/Unsplash, CC BY

▼ Most of what you experience leaves no trace in your memory. Learning new informationoften requires a lot of effort and repetition—picture studying for a tough exam or mastering the tasks of a new job. It’s easy to forget what you’ve learned, and recalling  details of the past can sometimes  be challenging.
But some past experiences can keep haunting you for years. Life-threatening events—things like getting mugged or escaping from a fire—can be impossible to forget, even if you make every possible effort. Recent developments in the Supreme Court nomination hearings and the associated #WhyIDidntReport  action on social mediahave rattled the public and raised questions about the nature, role, and impact of these kinds of traumatic memories.
Leaving politics aside, what do psychiatrists and neuroscientists  like meunderstand about how past traumas can remain present and persistent in our lives through memories?
Bodies respond automatically to threat
Imagine facing extreme danger, such as being held at gunpoint. Right away, your heart rate increases. Your arteries constrict, directing more blood to your muscles, which tense up in preparation for a possible life-or-death struggle. Perspiration increases, to cool you down and improve gripping capability on palms and feet for added traction for escape. In some situations, when the threat is overwhelming, you may freeze and be unable to  move.
Threat responses are often accompanied by a range of sensations and feelings. Senses may sharpen, contributing to amplified detection and response to threat. You may experience tingling or numbness in your limbs, as well as shortness of breath, chest pain, feelings of weakness, fainting, or dizziness. Your thoughts may be racing or, conversely, you may experience a lack of thoughts and feel detached from reality. Terror, panic, helplessness, lack of control, or chaos may take over.
These reactions are automatic and cannot be stopped once they’re initiated, regardless of later feelings of guilt or shame about a lack of fight or flight.
Brains have two routes to respond to danger
Biological research over the past few decades has made significant progress in understanding how the brain responds to threat. Defense responses are controlled by neural systems that human beings have inherited from our distant evolutionary ancestors. (▪ ▪ ▪)

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