Hi Lovebirdsflying,

You were right in your first post in this thread that memories of extremem trauma are stored in a different part of the brain. In case it is useful, I'm going to describe it a little. Normally memories are kept in the left brain which is also the place where a linear concept of time is kept. During moments of extreme trauma, this part of the brain shuts down and the memory is stored in the right brain. The right brain has no concept of time and so, every time is now. Therefore, a picture or a smell or a sound that you see or smell or hear today that is the same as back then - are both happening right now as far as the right brain is concerned.

I suffered from PTSD for many years and while I have overcome it, it was not easy or immediate. There is no 'just let go of it'. I know it may be painful to hear other peoples ignorance like this, but I've come to believe that we are all ignorant about some things - and I'm glad they get to be ignorant about PTSD; it means they never had anything bad enough happen to them so that they'd understand.