Anyone else have to deal with the "recovered memory" craze?

I saw my first counselor in 1988, when I was 22. She was kind and understanding and a little worried about me because I was feeling suicidal, and she was the first person I told about the fact I was sexually molested by a stranger when I was 10.

But, she also tried hypnotherapy and kept insisting that there might be more memories that I just didn't remember.

It threw me into a very confusing time... I came to her because of what I remembered.... and she wanted me to try and remember more. Was there more? I now seriously doubt it... and I now feel angry at her because I suspect she was just caught up in the recovered memory craze, something that was very popular at the time. As it turned out, she made things worse for me.. at a time when I really needed help.

Anyone else have a similar experience?

The entire episode has made me very leery of psychology in general, and psychotherapy, specifically.

i was too young then but i'm sorry. the memory is such a malleable part of the human psyche. it's absolutely terrible what they did - i remember reading about it (in conjunction with discussing how human memory is so unreliable).

Yes, there are some crooks out there who insisted on trying to dig up memories where none existed.

However, there is also this thing called dissociative amnesia, where you don't remember certain key details of traumatic events. This happens quite often in CSA. But you don't need hypnotherapy to get those out. With normal therapy, they appear over time.

While I think it is possible for ones mind to repress memories in order to protect us for a therapist to insist on forcing those memories out is cruel. There is a reason our minds represses these memories until we are able to deal with whatever they are.

I had blocked out memories for a few years. It was while in college that I recalled my abuse. We dealt with it to a certain degree.

When talking about my abuse current T always says that she was never abused as far as she knows. Se says that it is possible she doesn't remember things but at 65 she figures they would have come out by now if it was there.

I learned from living painfully through the recovered memory controversy, and years since, that memory is just another sense, not completely unlike touch, taste, smell, having objective and subjective components.

It is malleable, it is imprecise. It is not the type of digital record keeper that we might think, not like a computer.

There is much of memory that makes me see it more as an art than a science. Valid, meaningful but not perfectly concrete.

I've learned that memory should not be weighed more strongly than other elements by which we judge our experience, and that what's critical is addressing current issues. Understanding the past is helpful, perspective is helpful, but memory witch hunts are not. I go with what I have, and I work on a better present and future.

Although I sought therapy at that time, I was fortunate that my T was both highly trained/experienced and a generalist, rather than a specialist in abuse. He absolutely believed that chasing after memories was not only unreliable and unethical, but potentially dangerous. But I did run across many Ts at the time who were running abuse groups who even orchestrated group hypnosis sessions. They were well-intentioned, but quite inadequate in their knowledge base.

Good morning,

I was thrown into therapy at that time. I remembered so much of every manner of abuse and my thoughts were " Yup, it happened, no big deal". An uncle came to apologize for sexually abusing me from ages 4-6. I started school when I was 4, so I should have remembered something. I felt totally adrift and wondered what else my mind had hidden. My sister was older and remembered the abuse by this uncle.

I saw a therapist who did hypnosis which was very helpful when I finally stopped testing her. She used it for containment when I was overwhelmed. I could call her on the phone and we could get the anxiety and terror dealt with until I saw her.

We started out working on what I had remembered and then when more surfaced, we dealt with them. I never remembered any abuse by my uncle. She never hnotized trying to unearth the repressed memories. I had enough to deal with, I didn't to go on some psychlogical dig to unearth any more.

Repressed memories do exist, I still have them. They are not interfering with my life, so unless something surfaced, they shall remain where they are. Hypnosis is not necessarily bad, it depends who is doing it and why.

Regards,

Sabra

Some clinicians tried this on me, because I appeared to be a mystery. They were perplexed because they couldn't make sense of what was going on with me. My ASD symptoms (wanting to be alone, didn't like being touched, easily startled by loud noises, no interest in romantic relationships and difficulties in making friends), depression and all the anger I had towards the bullies at school were thought to be due to PTSD caused by sexual abuse in early childhood. This interpretation was very wrong.

All the clinicians had to do was an autism assessment. They suspected it in 1994, but since I wasn't assessed as a child (I was born in the late 70s when ASD was unheard of) they ignored their own suspicions. It was easier to diagnose me with a PD and tell me I was sexually abused. It was convenient but detrimental to my emotional well-being.

This mess happened in 1994 when I was 16 and continued on until I was 20 when I had enough. It left an indelible mark on my psyche. The confusion and self-doubt I felt nearly destroyed me. Before I went into therapy I was just a despondent adolescent. Therapy messed me up. My depression increased and so did my anger. I began to lose hope and change. It showed in uncharacteristic behaviors. I began to dislike myself all because of the therapy and what those people were telling me. Eventually, I tried to take my life when I was 20. After that I vowed to never let anyone influence me again and I quit therapy.

I knew the abuse never happened. They were suggesting and looking for it. A few of my family members were accused. It was a ****ing mess. If this is what happened to me I would have remembered it all along. It would have been there in my mind hidden but accessible.

I regret this experience, not because I was hurt, but that I went along with it even though I doubted it. Accusing family members was the greatest sin I have ever committed, one that I cannot take back or undo no matter how many times I apologize.

I have never experienced that within my own psychotherapy, but, T often suggests I don't remember all the feelings I had at the time. Not all the abuse, basically because no matter how many incidents there were or weren't, once you get to the feelings, the truth will soon follow.