Secrets: In Time, Truth Will Out

Difficult things happen to all of us. Sometimes when this happens we often protect ourselves from these traumatic memories by removing them from our conscious — effectively, forgetting them. This automatic process may work for us in the short term, but sometimes it doesn't end there. In time, truth will out.

Image credit: © Kasia Bialasiewicz - Bigstockphoto.com

The agony of re-emerging memories

In simple terms, these memories then form part of our unconscious. These memories can back come back to our consciousness at some point in the future and when they do they can be difficult to deal with by ourselves. These re-emerging memories can be the reason that people seek out counselling or psychotherapy. When the memories are conscious we can deal with them and work through them.

The influence of the unconscious

In other cases the memories don't come back to our consciousness and remain hidden. However, when these memories remain unconscious they can still be influential on our thinking and especially on our behaviour. Simplistically, when we have difficulties we often look for resolution through expression and when we can't get resolution through conscious processes, we have no option but to seek resolution through unconscious processes.

Acting out

Typically, these unconscious processes find their outlet through our behaviour and this is termed ‘acting out’. In its most basic form what we don't remember we act out. The difficulty with acting out is we don't know we’re doing it.

Taking time to explore

Psychotherapy can help here. When we take the time to explore ourselves in a safe environment, unconscious thoughts tend to gradually come to consciousness and from there to verbal expression. When we do this, we tend to defuse the unconscious processes that drive our troublesome and maddening behaviour.

– Tim Hill

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