About 70% of people worldwide experience a traumatic event, and a psychologist says those experiences often produce fragmented, non-linear memories rather than clear chronological accounts.
During trauma, the amygdala becomes highly active while stress overwhelms the hippocampus, disrupting memory storage and making survivors relive sensations, images or fear as if the threat is still present.
Those brain effects can drive freeze or fawn responses, leaving survivors outwardly calm, compliant or unsure what happened—behaviors that outsiders may wrongly treat as evidence the trauma did not occur.
False reports of sexual assault are estimated at 2% to 10%, yet lawyers, clinicians and others can still misread inconsistent recall or detached emotion as lying when survivors report or testify.
The article argues trauma-informed care and questioning—already used in some healthcare settings—can reduce victim blaming, improve legal and workplace responses, and better support recovery.