Unless you have been completely surrounded by a total blackout and lack of news information in the past 24 hours, you are aware that there is a pill that can help you to forget traumatic events in your life.  CBS's 60 minutes did a newstory on the medication Propranolol and it's benefits of reducing memories from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.  What the drug does is block  or surpress the adrenaline that is triggered by an emotional reaction to a particular situation, causing pain, panic, and stress.  Currently  this drug is being used as a beta blocker treating migraine headaches, high blood pressure, chest pain and believe it or not, stage fright.  Taken over a 10 day period, a woman was able to forget the traumatic experience of being knocked down by a cyclist and left laying in a busy Boston street.  Three monoths later when checked, she still did not present with any side effects or recalled PTSD.  What are the possible side effects?  Well, congestive heart failure, depression, disorientation, short term memory loss as well as irregular heartbeats to name a few.  But that's okay, because you won't remember being stressed.  Now on the other hand, a woman who was treated in a control group that was not supposed to have a memory block, did.  She has no memories at all of being raped.  Hmmm?  Obviously,  there are still tests to be run, and long term effects to be considered, more data to collect.  The Army has given approval to test the drug on some of the soldiers coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Memories, events, relationships, accidents, traumas, they area a part of who we are.  To erase them is to erase a part of your tapestry of life, leaving holes and blank spaces where life once existed.  To look at a tapestry from the back, you see a bunch of different colored threads running in and out of the fabric, sometimes looking tangled and unorganized, definatley not planned or coordinated.  But when the artist is finished, the front of the tapestry is a beautiful picture.  So it is with our lives, there are ugly, foul things that we live with, sometimes by our own doing, and other times at the hands of others.  We have knots, zig zags, currents of color that do not match on another at all.  However, by working it out, dealing with the issues at hand with a good therapist, good friends and a positive support system these things become part of your tapestry, and make up the beautiful picture that is you.  Facing the demons and walking through the fire which they are trying to consume you with, only burns off the dross, leaving you with a magnificent pure golden image that can stand strong. 

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