There’s an individual who was part of my life for two years and they made a lasting impression on me. Sadly ever since I’ve had unhealthy thoughts and feelings and figure that a trip to Lacuna would be the best thing.
Unfortunately Lacuna doesn’t exist.
How can one go about deleting memories or events from one’s life?
Extreme stimulus (stress) tends to overwrite things fairly well, be it through drug or alcohol use or lifestyle changes. You can’t just outright delete specific things from your mind since they aren’t exactly stored there in the first place - it’s more of a side effect of the cumulative state of the neural network rather than discrete physical effect. You can, however, provide yourself new associations and extreme stimulus and things fade.
Enrich your life, add new things, move, meet new people, go to war, start drinking more (not for the brain damage, although it might help, but for the experiences), join a group, leave a group, get a major hobby, change professions, wander into a jungle, whatever… it’ll all help to a certain extent.
Since there is no one correct answer, let’s take this to IMHO.
samclem
Drug or alcohol use may also cause you to dwell on negative memories, making you remember them even more.
Being straightedge that wouldn’t help.
Being straightedge is a firm principle, and firm attachment to principles makes memories much more vivid, trust me.
I’m 63. It’s been my experience that you don’t really actively delete memories from your life. (That’s like deciding not to think about a polar bear for the next five minutes; it just makes the task harder.)
You do have to give yourself time to form some perspective. Time to make new memories in new places. Time to feel new kinds of love that will be irreplaceable.
I found my truest love at 41 when I wasn’t looking. My mother fell head over heels in her eighties! You truly never know what is around the corner and you must learn to love living in the moment of not-knowing.
Do you have a chance to travel on your own? “Far away places with strange sounding names” can do a world of good in making those memories! Go where they don’t speak English!
You are going to be okay.
I once came to a conclusion about something peculiar, I told my uncle about it when I was 30. He became very concerned, said I must not talk about it to anybody, I must not even think about it.
Fifteen years later, I was talking obliquely to someone about hypnotism, and I found myself feeling seriously disturbed, as if some period of my life were missing. Three years later it all came back - I remembered what I had worked out, and the conversation with my uncle, also the events that had made me draw my conclusion. The sense of ‘missing something’ disappeared.
I am pretty sure that he got someone to plant a hypnotic block, and that it lasted for 18 years. I know he was interested in the subject, and he knew a lot of odd people.
I’m pretty sure you could get yourself hypnotized, but I would not recommend it.
Probably the unpleasant thoughts are your subconscious trying to make sense of things.
If you can tease things out into the open and build them into a structure, you might feel happier about it.