A year ago at this time, a rapist was terrorizing the North
Hills area. In case you may have
forgotten, last January two Ross
Township women were
accosted outside of their apartment complexes after returning from walking
their dogs. They were forced inside
their homes and assaulted. One of the
women was raped while her four-month-old baby was in another room and her
fiancé was bound. Arthur Henderson of
the North Side was arrested later that month and charged with a laundry list of
crimes in addition to the rapes.
I often drive down McKnight
Road, and throughout the past year, whenever I
passed by their apartment complexes, I would think of them and wonder what their
lives were like now? How are they
coping? How do you put something that
traumatic behind you?
Another person I think about is the mother of the little boy
who was killed by the painted dogs when he fell into their exhibit at The Pittsburgh Zoo.
What was her Christmas like? How
do you face a New Year without your little boy? When she closes her eyes at
night, is she tormented by scenes of her son that no mother should ever have to
envision?
My heart aches for all three of those women, but for all the
sadness, fear, and pain I may feel, I know it doesn’t even approach the depth
of their suffering. Other than saying a
prayer for them, there isn’t much else anyone can do for them. That is until now.
Recently, I heard a report about how neuroscientists may
have discovered how to erase painful memories.
In this particular study performed at Stanford University
on mice, the rodents were administered a shock every time they were exposed to the
scent of jasmine. After conditioning the
mice, each time they smelled jasmine, they exhibited signs of fear, waiting for
the accompanying shock. Before falling
asleep, the experimental group was administered a drug while smelling jasmine that
blocks protein synthesis in the part of the brain that is believed to store
painful memories. When the mice awoke
and smelled the jasmine again, they exhibited much less fear.
This is not the only study trying to unlock how memories are
established and retained. If you are like me, you probably are under the assumption
that a memory is a fixed thing in your mind, kind of like a DVD recording, and
never changes. However, scientists have
learned that remembering something actually changes that event in your mind. As the author Jonah Lehrer said in a February
2012 Wired Magazine article, “New
research is showing that every time we recall an event, the structure of that
memory in the brain is altered in light of the present moment, warped by our
current feelings and knowledge. That’s why pushing to remember a traumatic
event so soon after it occurs doesn’t unburden us; it reinforces the fear and
stress that are part of the recollection.”
They call this process of restoring memories reconsolidation.
Like the other study, the one cited in Wired Magazine found that synthesizing a protein is involved in
reconsolidating the memory. Eventually,
researchers believe that soon they will have a pill capable of blocking that
protein and erasing painful memories.
When I heard about this pill, I immediately thought if
anyone would be deserving of this treatment it would be these women. But after thinking about it, I’m not so
sure. This magic pill raises many
issues. Among them educational ones. Some of the most important lessons of my
life, I learned while attending the “school of hard knocks.”
Fortunately, I never suffered such traumas as assault or the
horrific death of a child, but the things that I’ve gone through have taught me
much and have made me a better person. At the time I was going through them, a pill
to make things better would have sounded mighty attractive, but in hindsight, I
wouldn’t trade those times. Countless
stories have been written how people have come back from overwhelming
challenges to be better than ever. The
saying if it doesn’t kill you, it makes you stronger is true, but unfortunately,
there are some who can’t seem to put the past behind them.
I guess the efficacy of this drug would have to be
determined by those who are suffering and by their doctors.
My only concern is how often something starts
out sounding good and then morphs into something else.
For instance, plastic surgery was developed
to correct the deformities suffered during war, but now we have Hollywood
starts going under the knife for every little perceived imperfection sometimes
with disastrous results.
With the power
to wipe out painful memories, we may also do away with one of the most
wonderful things about being human—being able to arise from adversity and learn
from life’s hard lessons.
This article appeared in the January 2013 issue of Northern Connection magazine.
