Anxiety is a normal human emotion. It is a response to perceived threats or uncertainties and is characterized by feelings of fear, worry, and uneasiness. Most individuals who deal with anxiety experience symptoms like an increased heart rate, racing thoughts, or restlessness. But did you know that anxiety can also impact the brain and how it processes and stores information?
Anxiety can distort one’s own memories. Individuals who deal with anxiety may sometimes have a difficult time recalling specific events or remembering accurate details. In some cases, they may even remember things that never actually happened. Let’s learn more about false memories and whether anxiety can create them.
What Is a False Memory?
A false memory is a recollection of details or events that is different from what actually happened. The remembered event may not have happened at all.
It’s important to note that having false memories and lying are two different things. False memories aren’t deliberate fabrications. They’re a result of the natural cognitive process. Your memory isn’t a perfect recording device. The brain pieces together information to form a specific narrative, and this reconstructive process can be vulnerable to errors, especially when anxiety is present.
How Anxiety Impacts Memory
Anxiety can change the way that the brain processes, stores, and retrieves information. When anxiety is present, the brain can become hyper-focused on any perceived threats or dangers, causing it to lose focus and function abnormally. This can affect the brain regions responsible for memory, such as the amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex.
The amygdala, which is responsible for processing emotional memories, can intensify these memories. The hippocampus, which helps to store memories, can shrink in times of stress and become less effective with anxiety or stress. And the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for making decisions and critical thinking, can have a hard time knowing what details to filter out.
These changes in the brain can lead to misremembering certain details. It can even lead to things like confusing dreams with real-life occurrences.
What Causes False Memories?
There isn’t one specific cause of false memories. However, certain factors can play a role, especially in individuals with anxiety.
Rumination
Anxiety can cause repetitive thoughts or rumination. Someone with anxiety might constantly replay different scenarios and situations in their head, especially in the case of fear or embarrassment. This constant replay can alter the original memory over time with new elements that feel just as real as the truth.
High Pressure Situations
Moments of intense stress, such as public speaking or a medical emergency, can cause an anxious brain to fill in gaps of missing information with imagined details. This can make it extremely difficult to determine what’s real and what’s made-up.
External Influences
People with anxiety are more likely to be vulnerable to outside influences. These could include emotional cues, leading questions, or taking on someone else’s opinions as their own.
The Consequences
Even though false memories are unintentional, they can have very real-life consequences and implications. They can lower one’s self-esteem, reinforce anxious thoughts and behaviors, and harm relationships.
False memories can also be detrimental in professional environments. For example, in a legal setting, false memories can cause an eyewitness to misidentify a person or incorrectly recall details of a crime, which can lead to missed evidence or wrongful accusations and convictions.
How Therapy Can Help
Therapy can provide a better understanding of the connection between anxiety and distorted memories. Therapists work with clients to help them differentiate between accurate memories and anxiety-driven perceptions, taking care not to dismiss or invalidate their feelings and personal experiences.
Anxiety doesn’t just impact how we feel. It can impact many areas of life, even leading to false memories. Taking the time to understand the connection between anxiety and memory through anxiety counseling can start you on the path to a more grounded life. Get in touch today to learn more.
