ANXIETY and false memories

anxiety and false memories

Our memory is influenced by many emotional aspects, such as depression and anxiety. These many aspects affect memory accuracy and can cause memory distortion. Working memory is vital ineffectively managing chunks of information in the present. Difficulty with memory can cause major problems in your work and personal life. When we struggle with our memory it can lead to mistakes,difficulty concentrating, and problems multitasking.

What are false memories?

A false memory is a mental experience that is mistakenly taken to be an accurate representation of an event in one's past. Our memories can be false in minor ways, such as believing you left your wallet in the kitchen when it's really in the living room. False memories can also be false in major ways that can have profound implications on ourselves and others, such as mistakenly believing you were the originator of an idea.

What is the relation between anxiety and false memories?

In a study conducted by Coli, et. al, (2015) they concluded that individuals with high trait anxiety enhance the elaboration of negative emotional materials. This eventually leads to people misremembering causal antecedents of negative events as previously experienced while they were onlyinferred.

Additionally, a study conducted by Brust-Renck, et. al, (2017), found that social anxiety may have a significant impact on emotional memory accuracy.

Because working memory is vital to our everyday functions. if you are dealing with a high level of worry and have noticed memory and attention problems, it may be a good reason to seek treatment for your anxiety. Treatment might include looking for a therapist who specializes in anxiety disorders or
consulting with your doctor to try medication to manage symptoms. (Meek, 2019).

References:
Coli, T., Cornoldi, C., Mirandola, C., Toffalini, E. (2015). High trait anxiety increases inferential false
memories for negative (but not positive) emotional events,Personality and Individual Differences,
Volume 75, Pages 201-204, ISSN 0191-8869,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2014.11.029.
(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886914006618)

Crippa, J, Brust-Renck, P.,Neufeld, C., Palma, P. Rossetto, C., (2017). False memories in social anxiety
disorder. Archives of Clinical Psychiatry (São Paulo), 44(5), 113–116. https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-
60830000000133

Meek, W. (2019). Generalized anxiety disorder can negatively impact your memory. Verywell Mind.
Retrieved February 8, 2023, from https://www.verywellmind.com/anxiety-and-memory-1393133