Your mind has a way to protect itself from major traumatic events. This is why people tent to not remember the point of impact during a accident, like how women can exactlyrecall the pain of child birth. The ability extends to mental trauma as well. An event can occur and to protect your psyche your mind may block part or all of a memory. Your mind is also adept at making it difficult to percieve the blocked event; otherwise it defeats the whole purpose of the block.

How to tell? If you have events that others remember and your recollection is fuzzy or hazy, or missing this is a hint of one of those events. You have to become aware of that event in your concious mind in order to find it. When you try to recall the event you are fighting the block your subconcious put in place; which can be difficult. Meditation or hypnosis can help reveal the event(s) - it's not easy and it may take some work.

You have to ask yourself why you want to unviel this event. Sometimes it's necessary to work through a trigger but if its idle curiosity may not be a good idea.

It is true and is usually a defense mechanism. So, uncorking the genie might have unpredicatble, negative consequences.

I know traumatic things happen to me as a child from the ages of 4-6 and then again as a teenager from 12-16 years of age but can not remember most specifics or the majority of it. once in a while i will have flashbacks for the most part of the teenaged stuff but i do have brief memory of stuff when i was a little girl but most of my life is such a blur and i know things occured but dont know the whole extent and is sometimes exhausting and painful for me to not know but i also sometimes gain a bit of relief from the flashbacks after the initial shock fear and hurt i experience from the realizations. sometimes they will come up when you are not equipped to deal with them but for the most part it seems when i am somewhat stable and able to cope effectively is when i seem to have the flashbacks for the most part although in certain adult situations i freeze and cant move become like comotosed and feel the way i did as a teenager sifficating from what is happeing ot me. it at times is confusing but i also hate being unsure and not knowing but not sure i really need toknow or whether it actually keeps me down and unable to create the life i desire and feel i deserve anything more than more abuse whether it be by the hands of someone else or myself inflicted the abuse on me.

you cant always remember bad events.do u feel u may be bloking something then? talking helps,getting pro help,or self discovery.you cant tell if your bloking them out as such,but it could be the reson for feeling ill.low or worried an u wouldnt know that.somethings are left in the brian i feel for a reson also,an maybe best left there

Yes, in theory. But if that's the case, isn't it better just to let sleeping dogs lie? Maybe it will come back over time.

Yes it is true, itis a coping mechanism, someyimes people can't tell if their blocking something out but may have a nagging feeling they are. This is quite common in head injury patients.

You don't want to be reminded, if it is painful, silly. Have fun.

Sometimes medical problems, some diseases or accidents, can cause this. Also, some psychiatric disorders, can cause this. I would highly recommend you seek out a psychiatrist trained, and with a very good reputation, in reconstructing lost memories. This can be very tricky, as I think someone else mentioned, because false memories can accidentally be replaced in the spot where missing memories should be. So, you need someone who really knows what they are doing, not some Joe Blow off the street. No one can guarantee what you are going to get, and my guess is if you really are missing memories, you will need some heavy therapy once you get them back. It's not likely that they are good memories. We don't tend to block out the really good memories, unless it's with aging dementia, and even then those are the ones that often stick with us the most. I hope that you will find what you seek, I really do, but I also hope you can get some help along the way. I, however, tend to think that knowledge is power. I don't want to be missing a part of me, so opening the Genie or the Pandora's Box--I think you are bothered by the fact that you feel a part of you is missing, and I think you need to find it. JMO...Good luck, and I hope you find solace as you move ahead.

yeah i think they can.. im still trying to unblok some of mine.. be sure to let me know.. its a feeling sometihgns mising.. a part of the puzzle that isnt there

yes memories can be blocked out I myself don't have many memories from my childhood. I don't want to remember why I can't remember.

If you're blocking a memory, it will return when you are ready to accept it. No need to force it.

my cousin will ask me dont you remmeber such and such and i dont, she is 3 years older then me. there are so many years of my young life i cant recall. i believe something happened.i have tried to remember and can't. the pych dr said its better to leave it alone., as it could tramatize you.

This is true for almost everyone. Until you unblock them, confront them, and deal with them, they will rule you and force you to behave in ways you do not fully understand. To put it differently, they are NEVER truly blocked out, they simply adopt disguises and cause mischief.

Yes. You can't until something triggers it.

It's one of the defence mechanisms adopted by our bodies. Repression is strangely common. Personally, if a memory was traumatic enough to repress, I'd leave it there because there have been many cases of repressed memories coming back and emotionally damaging people to the degree of sectioning.
But the problem comes in when a repressed memory affects your conscious life. Do you leave it to affect your life forever or face it? If you do face it, see a professional and get help. You don't want to do it amateurly. You also want to be aware of false memories. There have also been cases of people remembering memories that never actually happened.

Yes you can build a wall to protect you from traumatic experiences. In the past dozen years and many years before that including being a soldier in war, I learned how to do it. The problem that I realize now is that it can create a wall that locks up some of your emotions. Such as the loss or traumatic experience concerning a loved one. The wall can hamper your conscious emotion of love and caring. Sometimes when these walls are built they affect emotion and can turn you cold when heat and love is needed as a prelivant emotion. Time is a healer so we must wait to be healed. If that time is used to block things out it can be hard to remove it.

Yes, and that is why I believe that EVERYONE should seek out counseling.

Although the painful memories may be blocked out, they usually manifest themselves through our actions.

If you've ever wondered why you may do certain things, or if you've ever looked at someone else's behavior and wondered why they continually engage in self-destructive behavior ... it's usually the result of this.