Forgetting is just as important as remembering.
During our lifetime, we all hear how important is the ability to remember. We have to learn by heart many things, from the times of primary school until the time of our job. Without memorizing many facts that occurred in our life, we would not be the ones which we already are. But what about forgetting? Why this function of our brain is also crucial in terms of our mental health? What helps us to forget? Undoubtedly, sleep is one of the most vital issues in this matter. When we sleep, a lot of unimportant stuff in our memory is being erased. How terrible would our life be if we were to remember all the details of every ordinary day in our lives? Forgetting empties our minds from unimportant, minor issues. I believe that forgetting is as crucial as remembering.
Moreover, I think that the ability to forget is crucial in terms of mental diseases or trauma.
When the Polish or US soldiers are coming back from missions in Iraq or Afghanistan, they often face some mental diseases connected with trauma. To be more precise, it is called PTSD – Post-traumatic stress disorder. This ordeal is strictly connected with all the things that happened during their military mission. Probably one of the best ways to cure the mental distress would be to forget the traumatic event (e.g., death of fellow during the task). Also, most people possess some memories from the past that can still disturb their present time.
Not all our memories are good.
Thus, the ideal situation would be to erase bad memories from our minds. Or, perhaps remembering traumatic events from the past can help us avoid problems in the future? I think that it is hard to clearly say. I believe that if the happening from the past disturbs our current life, then the ability to forget would be the best solution for us to live.
