After an experience is "over" and we move ahead down the river of time, what remains are these synaptic linkages that shape and filter our present experiences and sensations. Drawing on these implicit elements from the past, the brain- our associational organ and anticipation machine- continually readies us for the future.
Implicit only memories and other cutoffs in the mind could be at the root of hyper arousal symptoms and; of numbing, disconnection from bodily sensations. Drawing on these implicit elements from the past, the brain - our associational organ and anticipation machine- continually readies us for the future.
Implicit only memories and other cutoffs in the mind could be at the root of hyperarousal symptoms and explosive emotions of numbing, disconnection from bodily sensations, and feelings of being "unreal"; and of various forms of reexperiencing the original trauma, including flashbacks and recurrent, distressing fragmentary recollections of the event while awake.
Sleep phenomena such as nightmares and REM disturbances are also key features of PTSD, and they offer us another window into the phenomenon of implicitly encoded traumatic memory fragments erupting into our lives years after the event with terrifying power. Before memories can be fully integrated into the cortex as part of permanent, explicit memory, they must go through a process called "consolidation," which seems to depend of the rapid-eye-movement (REM) phase of sleep. For many people with PTSD, REM sleep is interrupted, which may be a further explanation of why their traumatic memories remain implicit and are experienced as nightmares during sleep or re experienced as symptoms while awake.
Attachment betrayals and traumatic experiences produce impairments to integration. In domain of memory, this results in implicit puzzle pieces remaining in disintegrated creating re experiencing events, In the domain of memory, this results in implicit puzzle pieces remaining in disintegrated form. These implicit only pieces of the past intrude on the present, creating reexperiencing events, avoidance, and numbing.This fragmented memory needed first to be integrated into explicit memory and then incorporated into a much larger sense."
Source: Mindsight by Daniel J. Siegel, M.D
