Part 9/12:
Trauma can induce an extreme form of time distortion known as overclocking, where heightened dopamine and norepinephrine levels cause individuals to perceive events as happening in slow motion. Although this may seem advantageous for survival or processing intense experiences, it can lead to problematic memory encoding. These memories are stamped with high emotional weight and rapid neural firing patterns, making them difficult to dissociate from the trauma. Over time and with proper treatment, emotional content can be divorced from the memory, reducing distress.