Women’s Health USA – September 2019

SEPTEMBER 2019 WOMEN’S HEALTH / 99

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Why do shudder-worthy memories keep repeating like a

broken record in your head? WH health director Jacqueline Andriakos

decodes this so-relatable phenom.

Stuck on Replay

When I worked as an enter tainment journalist,

I had to cover a red carpet despite having a cold.

Crammed into a line of reporters, I waited as one

well-known reality-TV personality came my way for an

inter view. Her nail ar t caught my eye, so I bent down to ad-

mire it. Whaddaya know? Mucus dripped out of my nose...

and onto her hand. My. Boogers. On. Her. Effing. Hand.

She was so sweet about it, offering a polite laugh before

moving down the carpet, while I apologized in her wake,

listening to what I swear were people laughing.

I’d guess there’s a 0.000001 percent chance this celeb

remembers our snotty interaction. I’m mature enough

to acknowledge that it wasn’t a big deal (thank you, hand

sanitizer), nor did it affect my job. Yet, years later, the

encounter pops into my head when I least expect it: mid-

workout, lying in bed at night, on a long flight, you name it.

My tale paints a classic cringe attack: a humiliating rec-

ollection that tends to appear randomly while you’re just

trying to go about your day. But why do these flashbacks

surface without warning and make you feel downright ill

days, even years, later? The answer: Because of the way

the brain processed them at the time, we give them more

attention than they deserve, says Jennifer Wild, DClinPsy,

an associate professor of experimental psychology at the

Universit y of Ox ford in England. We focus on the worst

parts and on palpable emotions (self-consciousness, in

this case), rather than writing the misstep off as a blip.

The reason the thoughts throw you unwanted surprise

parties is a little less clear. It could be that something

in your environment triggers the memory for you, or that

another event or feeling brings it back up, says Virginia

Sturm, PhD, an associate professor of neurology and

psychiatry at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center.

Recalling these fumbles kills your confidence, at least

temporarily, so I asked the pros how to press pause. Fab

news: The techniques ahead are simpler than you think.