Many people struggle with unwanted thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations that stem from upsetting memories and events in their past. This often leads them to feel as if they can’t “move on” with their life. Instead, they find themselves repeating old behavioral and thought patterns, struggling with the same unhealthy internal dialogue, reliving difficult memories, suffering from low self-esteem, always feeling on-guard or anxious, and/or avoiding any person or situation that vaguely reminds them of past upsetting event(s) or memories.

It is common for people’s thoughts to change after they experience, or even remember, an upsetting event. Often, people’s view of themselves and others shift, and they may find themselves placing blame or responsibility of those events onto themselves, all of which can be incredibly distressing.

The reasons why our past can feel like it haunts us, hindering us from “moving on” and thriving, and why we experience these different, unwanted symptoms is because, according to leading trauma experts, particularly distressing and traumatic memories are processed and stored differently in the brain than non-traumatic memories are.