Insight: Sept 16

This week, Insight looks at how our brains process painful memories, and whether talking about them makes them better or worse.

The episode also looks at new research into whether memories can be altered so that intense emotion is removed.

Casey is still haunted by her memories of killing a pedestrian whilst driving her car. It wasn’t her fault. She remembers vivid details like the woman’s knee high stockings.

Paul still regularly thinks about how his carriage crumbled in the Granville train disaster, almost 40 years ago.

Esther still struggles to look at a plate of rare meat after years of service as a police officer and forensic investigator.

Guests include:

Kristy Fitzgerald
Kristy Fitzgerald was crossing the road at traffic lights in January when she was hit by a car. She can’t get the memories out of her head. She’s experiencing bad dreams, night sweats and anxiety. Kristy wishes she could forget that it ever happened. She’s seen a psychologist to try and deal with the memories and believes that talking about the memory has helped her cope.

Esther McKay and Laura Reaks
Esther McKay and Laura Reaks have had very different reactions to talking in detail about their painful memories. Esther was medically discharged from the police force with PTSD in 2001. She couldn’t stop crying and food often resembled body parts. She says exposure therapy saved her life. Laura, however, found talking in detail about suffering sexual abuse as a child left her feeling re-traumatised. Her current psychologist steers clear of asking about the abuse memories and instead talks about thoughts and emotions.

John Jarrett and Scott Gardiner
John Jarrett served in the Vietnam War and Scott Gardiner served in Iraq. John says exposure therapy doesn’t work. He thinks the best thing for veterans with painful memories is to speak to someone who has been through a similar experience. Scott underwent exposure therapy and says it has dulled his memories a little bit but they never go away entirely.

Paul Touzell and Barry Gobbe
Paul Touzell was on his way to work in 1977 when a bridge collapsed on top of his train, crushing the passengers in front of him. The tragedy became known as the Granville rail disaster. Barry Gobbe was the first ambulance officer on the scene. It took Paul some 20 years to be able to speak about his memories. It took Barry even longer. Paul still struggles to be on trains or under bridges and Barry is now on medication for PTSD.

Elizabeth Phelps
Dr Elizabeth Phelps is a psychologist and neuroscientist. She’s looking at how traumatic memories can be altered to remove the fear attached to them. Her research has shown that a simple memory can be edited if new information is given within the hour after the memory is recalled. But the research is still very limited – memories are stored in different parts of the brain and Elizabeth says researchers are just beginning to understand how these parts work together.

David Forbes
Professor David Forbes is a clinical psychologist and head of the Australian Centre for Posttraumatic Mental Health (ACPMH). He says painful memories can become a problem and develop into PTSD if they’re not able to be processed. David says that trauma-focussed cognitive behavioural therapy (including prolonged exposure therapy) is the best way to confront these memories but that many sufferers are reluctant to revisit a traumatic event in detail.

Tuesday at 8.30pm on SBS ONE.