Triple Crown Psychology

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Triple Crown Psychology

What I've learned

After doing my research on these topics. I’ve learned that memory loss can be caused by both the trauma from the time period but it can also be caused from the accident / addiction itself. After a traumatic experience such as substance abuse / a traumatic accident people can lose memory from that time as a coping mechanism and will act as though that time period simply never occurred to avoid thinking about it. There is also the amnesia part where the drugs / accident does actually cause memory loss and that experience is completely wiped from your memory.

What happens to the memory after accidents?

After an accident, the victim may experience 1 of the 3 following types of memory loss: Post-traumatic amnesia, Anterograde amnesia & retrograde amnesia. Post- traumatic amnesia is the state of confusion or loss of memory immediately after the accident occurs. Anterograde amnesia is when you lose the ability to create memories for a certain amount of time after an accident. This causes the person to not remember a period of time after the accident. Finally, retrograde amnesia is losing the memories that occured before the accident happened.

Severe hits to the head from falling, car accidents, workplace injuries, etc can all cause short term and long term memory loss. Depending on the severity of the accident, the person may be able to gain back the memories over time. Memory loss after an accident is a result of a traumatic brain injury.

Do certain drugs / medications affect human memory?

Finally, with sleeping aids “Non Benzodiazepine sedative-hypnotics” the medications that help cure insomnia and other mild sleep problems. Like the previous medications, Sleep Aids act on the same chemical messengers and pathways. These drugs can also cause amnesia and trigger dangerous / abnormal situations and wipe memory of the events before awakening.

Narcotics are used as painkillers but can also lead to a severe addiction for others. These drugs can affect memory loss since they’re stemming the flow of pain signals to the brain and central nervous system by changing how humans react to pain. This can lead to the drugs affecting both short term and long term memory if used for excessive periods of time.

You may also see these medications being used during anesthesia so that the patient is unable to remember the procedure that they’re experiencing. These medications are typically only prescribed to older adults for very short periods of time. If prescribed to younger children in very small doses.

There are many drugs and prescriptions that can be linked to memory loss. This can include medications such as antidepressants, muscle relaxants, tranquilizers, sleeping medications, anti anxiety medications & antihistamines. Anti anxiety / depressant medications, muscle relaxants & tranquilizers are called “Benzodiazepines” This medication can affect the activity in the brain that affects the transfer from short-term memory to long-term memory.

My thesis:

Substance abuse can cause both memory loss as a result of trauma but can also cause amnesia from the effects of drugs on the brain. This is because drug addiction does not only affect your brain activity and the ability for the brain to function properly but it also causes a traumatic memory loss due to the trauma that one experiences during their addiction.

After addiction recovery / recovery from accidents, is the loss of memory a trauma response or amnesia ?

Treatment to this type of memory loss takes two parts. Detoxing and therapy. Detoxing to cut the drug out and therapy for mental recovery. When looking at accidents, as said previously, memory loss from accidents can be caused by both the traumatic aspect and amnesia. With that being said. Memory loss can be both a trauma response or amnesia and will typically come down to a case by case situation.

Drug addiction can cause Dissociative amnesia is actually a mental illness that can cause short-term and long-term memory loss. It can also cause a loss of memory from a specific time or event. (Time of addiction). This type of memory loss is caused by the trauma that comes along with addiction. Drug / alcohol addiction may also cause Drug-Induced amnesia. This occurs after the person is experiencing dissociative amnesia. Drug-induced amnesia is caused when the drugs make significant changes in the brain. The memories from this amnesia will return after the use of the drugs has stopped. Although, it’s incredibly difficult to simply stop using the drug when addicted which also makes the return of memories much more difficult.

Why does too much alcohol cause you to lose memory from the night?

You’re unable to recover any events from when they were intoxicated. It’s almost as though the night had just never occurred. Blackouts can occur when your BAC (Blood alcohol concentrations) reach 0.16%. Blackouts can occur at a much lower percent when the consumer is also on anti-anxiety medications and sleep aids.

When a person consumes enough alcohol it temporarily blocks the transfer of memories from short term to long term storage in the hippocampus. There are two different types of blackouts. They’re separated by the level of memory impairment. The first type is called a “Fragmentary blackout” when your memory from that night is spotty. You’re able to remember bits and pieces of the night but not to a full. It can also be known as a “Greyout”. The second type is an “en bloc” blackout is the most severe blackout.

Alcohol induced blackouts can lead to impared memory of any events that occurred while under the influence. It also heavily increases the risk of dangers and injuries. Alcohol induced blackouts cause gaps in the person's memory of any events that occured while intoxicated

The 3 different types of memory

Long Term Memory: Once a strong neural pathway has been created by rehearsal / repetitiveness the memory will enter the “Long-Term memory” A memory that enters the long term phase is almost always permanent. Long term memory is essentially unlimited. Long term memory can be split into two different categories: implicit and explicit. Implicit memory (also known as procedural memory) is the category that focuses on the “how” & skills. How humans do things. This means that overtime after repetition and practice we will not have to actively think about how to do things and it will become a second nature. Explicit memory (also known as declarative memory) is the collection of events and facts. This type of memory requires the person to actively think and recall the memory.

Short Term Memory: After being processed through sensory memory, certain memories are “chosen” and sent to the short term memory storage. Short term memory can hold small amounts of information for short periods of time. Approximately a few seconds - a couple minutes. Short-term memory is brought tso that it can be handled in a certain manner. This is so that it is not just constantly adding new information for long term memory and / or altering previous information. You can think of short term memory as information / a concept that is not completely formed. Short term memory goes through sensory memory and from there the brain will keep certain words or concepts as a short term memory.

Sensory memory: is the most basic form of memory. Sensory memories are extremely short-term memory as a result of external stimuli being perceived by the brain. It uses your 5 senses and transmits the information to the brain. Sensory memories decay rapidly and will typically only last a few seconds. Memories that involve smell and taste are not understood as well as the other senses. This is due to the proximity of the olfactory bulb and olfactory cortex to the hippocampus and amygdala. These two parts of the brain are essential for memory function.