The women that come to see Deane Aikins, a clinical psychologist at Wayne State University, in Detroit, are searching for a way to leave their traumas behind them. Veterans in their late 20s and 30s, they served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
...On top of all that, some of the women had been sexually assaulted by their military colleagues. After one woman was raped, she helped her drunk assailant sneak back into his barracks because she worried that if they were caught, she’d be disciplined or lose her job.
These traumas followed the women home. Today, far from the battlefield, they find themselves struggling with vivid flashbacks and nightmares, tucking their guns under their pillows at night. Some have turned to alcohol to manage their symptoms; others have developed exhausting routines to avoid any people or places that might trigger painful memories and cause them to re-live their experiences in excruciating detail.
Despite their sometimes debilitating symptoms, the women, who have all been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), are working hard to carry out the tasks of day-to-day living. “They’re trying to get a job or go back to school,” says Aikins. “They’re just trying to get on with their lives.” Aikins is hoping to help the veterans do just that, using what may seem like an unlikely remedy: a cheap, generic pill commonly prescribed for high blood pressure. The drug, a beta blocker called propranolol, has gained attention for its potential to dial down traumatic memories, making them less emotionally upsetting when they’re recalled.
However, promising studies have also stirred controversy, with some bioethicists warning that memory-dulling drugs could have profound, unintended consequences for our psyches and our society. The debate is raising tricky questions about what—and who—memory is for. The European Union’s highest court recently ruled that, at least when it comes to the Internet, we all have the “right to be forgotten” for things no longer relevant. Do we also have the right to forget?
http://nautil.us/issue/15/turbulence/if-trauma-victims-forget-what-is-lost-to-society
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