To protect itself from a violent event, the brain can use so-called traumatic amnesia. It may take many years for victims to regain their memory of despicable facts which very often took place in their youth.
A protective barrier to high stress levels that can lead to death, traumatic amnesia is a kind of lifeline to victims when the nightmare is untenable. The brain “breaks” and memory can return many years after the acts endured.
According to an Ipsos 2 survey, commissioned by the Mémoire Traumatique et Victimologie association dating from 2019, "39% of victims experienced periods of amnesia which for a third of them lasted more than 20 years. amnesia is much more frequent when the victims have been raped (47%), when they were under 10 years old at the time of the first violence (up to 61%), if the violence was incestuous (52%). "
Personalities like Sarah Abitbol, Andréa Bescond, Nadège Beausson, Marie Rabatel, Mie Kohiyama and Muriel Salmona are committed to two very important points: the imprescriptibility of sexual crimes and a waiver of statute of limitations in the event of traumatic amnesia and crimes serial.
Thanks to their fight, in 2018 they obtained an extension of the prescription period to 30 years after coming of age. Traumatic amnesia is very common in children who are victims of sexual violence.
What is traumatic amnesia?
"Traumatic amnesia belongs to the psychosomatic disorders which follow a major traumatic event. And which leads to a loss of memories. The person is no longer aware of the facts that have occurred. This amnesia can be total or partial. It is dissociative because it is linked to safeguard mechanisms The brain disconnects at the time of the violence, which means that the victim no longer has access to their emotions or to the memories of the act experienced.", explains Muriel Salmona, psychiatrist and president of the association Mémoire Traumatique et Victimologie, created in 2009.
This mechanism is present during sexual violence, but also in time of war. All the more so when the abuse took place during childhood. "The younger the victims, the longer the violence has occurred, the more it has been repeated and if it comes from the family, the amnesia is significant."Says the psychiatrist."We can in figures which range from 40% on average to 60% risk of traumatic amnesia when all the factors are combined", she adds.
In a struggle for survival in the face of repeated violence, moreover when the executioner is a close relative, an emotional anesthesia takes place. There is thus a void created, an absence even.
"We are a spectator of the situation. Traumatic amnesia allows us to survive because stress causes very significant damage to the heart and the brain. We can die of stress if we experience horrible things.", Testifies Dr Muriel Salmona. .
For the specialist in the question, "everything turns gray" and the amnesia lasts as long as people are in contact with the aggressor. Over the years, elements gradually emerge, but there is "an avoidance of thinking about it". What should be noted is the discomfort that is felt because dissociation makes it possible to survive but the trauma is indeed there. "Imagine an open fracture, with amnesthesia you no longer feel the pain, but not as long as you do not have it. The victims will feel bad because they feel this ambient void. It is an inner psychic death. They see themselves as automatons. ", says the psychiatrist.
How do you spot the signs of traumatic amnesia? The person is not really present in a conversation. She doesn't have the right emotions at the given time and can smile under excruciating circumstances. His pain tolerance threshold will be amplified. "We took care of children who had witnessed their mother's murder, they were disconnected, they were playing and smiling," says Dr Muriel Salmona.
This mechanism explains why the executioners, in domestic violence, for example, can shamelessly continue their assaults for long periods. So you have to be careful before saying: 'in his place, I would have left'. In an extreme situation, we are deprived of our capacities by the trauma. "Children are trapped, prisoners of vices. A child's brain is extremely sensitive to trauma. 'there was no this process of amnesia, the child could die of stress (cardiac arrest, stroke or epilepsy). "A child raped every day cannot survive without this mechanism", confirms the president to us. from the Association.
In history, there are already proven cases of traumatic amnesia. The inmates of the concentration camps survived with a state of extreme distancing, they were like zombies.
How to get out of traumatic amnesia?
According to Muriel Salmona, "most often people get their memories back when they are finally able to get out of them". The process does not come from the person but from the brain. When there is a safe atmosphere, the memory system reconnects and people relive the events. But for the doctor of psychology, the shock is less brutal to relive it later than at the present moment.
"I have a patient who lived through a massacre in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and who forgot this trauma for 20 years. All the facts came back suddenly.", Testifies Dr. Muriel Salmona
The latter claims that if a patient is protected and treated early, traumatic amnesia will go away more easily. For children, it is when they are placed with foster families that they can feel safe and talk about the violence they have experienced.
"From the moment the victims feel the pain of the trauma they have experienced, they are in a process of healing."
Protect victims from the start
A big problem arises for the psychiatrist. "We have a lot of traumatic amnesia because we do not protect children. The vast majority of children, over 81% of victims of sexual violence, have not been protected, nor recognized, nor even obtained justice. must therefore survive on their own. If a child is protected from the start and if we treat him immediately, he will not have these traumatic amnesias. "
From a medical point of view, Muriel Salmona insists on "training doctors to diagnose situations of distancing. We must not wait for victims to take years to recover. The process can be accelerated through a better understanding of their condition. state, putting them in physical and psychological security. Confidence allows their safeguard system to rise. "
Another problem that results from this anesthesia, a victim is more at risk for further violence. "Predators take advantage of this because it is easy. Traumatic amnesia is therefore never over, it is a vicious circle. They are always attacked, again and again," said Muriel Salmona.
"Imagine a world where we can forget all the horrors lived? The attackers could do whatever they want, like the pedophiles who take advantage of the safeguard mechanism. That is why they are spotted so long after." she does.
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