Q: How do I know if my memory loss of a car crash is caused by repression or by trauma? I was in a car crash about four years ago and think that I may be suffering from PTSD; I seem to have most of the symptoms common with it. However, I know that the [...]

Q: I suffered abuse at the hands of my brother, including a three-year period of sexual abuse from the age of about six to age nine. All other abuse was verbal, emotional and physical, which lasted until he moved out of the house. I am 34 now and he is 40. We do not live [...]

Q: Why does depression sometimes feel good? Some levels of depression feel comforting. Why is that? A: Depression covers a wide range of feeling. I’m thinking that you’re talking about feeling melancholic — not really depressed but kind of resigned to how things are and sorry/sad that this is the state of things. To the [...]

Q: I can remember snippets of my childhood, but don’t seem to recall a lot of it. That doesn’t really concern me — it looks like that’s quite common. What does concern me is this: I recently reconnected with a childhood friend who mentioned her wedding and that I was her maid of honor. Not [...]

Q: I was wondering if could get some help to identify a strange phenomenon that’s been going on with me off and on through my adult life. I have seen various psychologists and counsellors over the years for various different reasons. But none of them had heard of this problem, and in my extensive research [...]

Q: Is it possible to uncover repressed memories of childhood sexual abuse without some kind of therapy work? I’m a 21-year-old woman, and my mom has told me that when I was 11 years old I was sexually abused by my babysitter’s son; but she didn’t tell me details. I don’t remember the event, so [...]

Q: I am 68 years old. All my life I have been unable to forget the past. I don’t mean I have some “savant”-like talent for remembering minute details. It’s just that I recall, with much melancholy, my past history, reliving various aspects of it whenever I encounter a familiar smell or a certain stimulus. [...]