Words to Walk You Through

While still being on the scientific and societal precipice of understanding mental health, certain concepts or terminology can be difficult to comprehend. Below, you can find a list of different terms related to (and referenced in) Paper Birds, complete with definitions, links to outside sources and visual representations in the form of illustrations.

Dissociation

Dissociation is an automatic protective response in which a person becomes disconnected from their thoughts, emotions, physical sensations, or surroundings when something feels overwhelming. It can make experiences feel distant, unreal, or numbed as a way of coping with stress or threat.

Explicit memory

Explicit memory refers to conscious memories of past experiences that a person can intentionally recall and recognize as memories. These may include sensory images, sounds, thoughts, or bodily sensations that clearly register as something that happened in the past. In the context of trauma, explicit memories are those a person can identify as related to a specific event or experience.

Implicit memory

Implicit memories, in respect to trauma, are past experiences that influence a person’s emotions, bodily sensations, or reactions without the person consciously recognizing them as memories. These memories may surface as physical feelings, triggers, flashes of imagery, or sudden emotional responses that feel immediate or confusing. Because they are stored outside of conscious awareness, the person does not identify these reactions as connected to earlier traumatic events, even though they originate from them.

Peritraumatic Dissociation

Peritraumatic dissociation refers to dissociation that occurs during the traumatic event itself. A person may feel foggy, numb, dreamlike, or disconnected from their body and surroundings. They may not feel physical sensations, emotional reactions, or what is happening to them in the moment. This response is the brain’s way of coping with overwhelming threat by shutting down awareness of the experience as it occurs.

PTSD

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition that can develop after experiencing or witnessing a traumatic event. PTSD affects how the brain processes threat, memory, and emotion, leading to patterns of distress that can interfere with daily life, relationships, and a sense of safety. Symptoms are grouped into four main categories: intrusion, avoidance, negative changes in thoughts and mood, and changes in arousal and reactivity. The severity and combination of symptoms vary widely from person to person, and PTSD can be acute, chronic, or delayed in onset.

Repressed Memory

“Repressed memory” is a popular but scientifically imprecise term often used to describe situations in which a person does not recall a traumatic experience for a period of time and later remembers it. However, the term incorrectly suggests a single mechanism—repression—in which the mind deliberately pushes memories out of awareness. In reality, loss of access to traumatic memories can occur for many reasons, including dissociation, amnesia, lack of appropriate reminders, or conscious suppression. Because multiple mechanisms can explain delayed recall, the term “repressed memory” oversimplifies a complex set of memory processes.  

Somatic Memory

Somatic memory refers to memories that are experienced primarily as bodily sensations rather than as visual images or verbal thoughts. These memories are encoded and stored in brain regions that process physical sensation, such as the somatosensory cortex. Somatic memories may include feelings of tightness, pressure, pain, numbness, or the physical sensations associated with specific traumatic experiences. They can also involve the embodied aspects of intense emotions, such as terror or emptiness. Unlike explicit memories, somatic memories often arise as physical experiences in the present without the person immediately recognizing them as connected to past events.

Structural dissociation

Structural dissociation refers to a deeper, longer-term division within a person’s memory and sense of self, where certain memories, experiences, or aspects of identity remain separated from ordinary awareness. This can range from blocked-out periods of life to more extreme forms where different parts of a person hold different memories or emotional states. The most severe expression of structural dissociation is Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), in which distinct “parts” or identity states operate without shared memory or awareness.