Trauma? Take a pill, you won't remember a thing.

[Norlamand]

I've an inner hate and disgust for anything that manipulate my brain.
Bah !

Does that include caffeine and nicotine?

 

[Renata]

Does that include caffeine and nicotine?

Or adrenaline, or testosterone, or glucose, or insulin, or oxytocin, or ...?

I think you get the point.

It doesn't particularly matter whether some people would be too paranoid (or even simply cautious) to ever take such a drug. It only matters whether or not the drug can do any good in those who do take it, and whether or not that good outweighs any side effects of the therapy (not just traditional side effects, but also abuse of the drug, etc.)

A lot of people seem to be making knee-jerk statements like "I'd never get rid of any of my memories" without actually reading what the article said, which was that the memories are not intended to be removed at all, just distanced a bit emotionally. If they can make it work, this could be a life-altering (in a good way) therapy for millions of people who are currently held back in life by the effects of their traumatic memories.

I was raped once, at knifepoint, by an intruder. (Yeah, yeah, TMI, get over it. ) For the first few months afterwards, I would remember the incident maybe a dozen times a day. It was constantly popping into my mind -- similar to how someone whose wife had just died might remember her painfully a dozen times a day. There was almost always a physiological response involved: fear, anxiousness, increased heart rate, sweaty palms, the whole bit. I dealt with it, probably the same way millions of people deal with similar traumas: I acknowledged the memory, sort of said, yep, there you are again, and moved on. Over time the intrusiveness and intensity of the memory gradually decreased; after a year or two it took actually re-telling the story or reading details of a similar rape in the newspaper to bother me to the same extent, and I almost never remembered the incident unprompted. In other words, I healed.

But millions of other people don't. I don't know why, but they're unable to distance that memory enough to let them live full lives. For them, it's continually like the first few months were for me: the memory at full intensity, being reminded of it a dozen times a day. If this drug would work as advertised, and let them finally heal ...

Anyway, that's all. My 2c.

Renata

 

[Tassadar]

I am afraid that the drug wont be selective, playing the apprentice sorcerer with long therm memory is too risky, i will never suggest to anyone to try that.

For myself , i just tryed an anxiolytic ( like valium, it was bromazepam) a few days and i stoped immediatly, my memory wasnt as effective. I must admit i have a super photomemory ( like remembering/visualising 3 D sterochemical structure).

So i prefer to deal with my built in anxiety then to mess up my super memory.


As a last resort, for someone who is realy ''lost'', you are free to be the guinea pig.

 

[sourboy]

Why oh why didn't I take the blue pill?

I think it's horrible. You're essentially erasing your memory - which in the end, is all you have left. Why not just become cyborgs now and get it over with?

Now where did I leave that EMP...?

 

[cgannon64]

They already have drugs very similar to this which many hospitals use before and after surgeries. It's nothing really that new. Not to mention, there are hundreds of other drugs out there that have pretty much the same affect...

They wouldn't use that without your knowledge, would they?

 

[Tassadar]

They wouldn't use that without your knowledge, would they?

Just think about it, a surgon can cut your 2 leg and a arm and you will be like a baby, powerfull drug isnt it ?