Memories are labile and for good reason. What we have to remember is that we remember not to reminisce about the past, but to make predictions about the future. This is the evolutionary purpose of memory. Forgetting is not so much the destruction of a particular neural representation of a memory as it is a change in that neural representation itself. Nature abhors a vacuum, so it would make no sense to assume that forgotten memories are just synapses selectively pruned and thrown away into some theoretical trashcan. Forgetting isn't really letting something go as much as it is replacing something with something else. Our memories are labile, plastic and ever changing---to protect us. Neurogenesis is necessary for forgetting as much as it is for memory formation. We are not then at the mercy of some mysterious passive phenomenon that will embrace us when it is ready. Forgetting is by definition, activity dependent.
This perhaps underlies the notion of cognitive behavioral therapy. You can't just rehearse old feelings and awful stories again and again. You literally have to MOVE on. move go move
Don't plague yourself for much longer. You will unequivocally forget if you are a living breathing human participating in the ever changing world around you. Nothing is constant, and thank goodness for that.
This perhaps underlies the notion of cognitive behavioral therapy. You can't just rehearse old feelings and awful stories again and again. You literally have to MOVE on. move go move
Don't plague yourself for much longer. You will unequivocally forget if you are a living breathing human participating in the ever changing world around you. Nothing is constant, and thank goodness for that.
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