Table 4.
Examples for each of the function categories.
| Category | Example |
|---|---|
| Emotional processing (n = 22) | Location: the apartment where I used to live with my boyfriend at the time. What happens: my sister and my boyfriend are making love. When does it happen: when I was out working. It is something that I hadn’t wanted to know. That it happened is already bad enough, but I hadn’t wanted to know. Sometimes I don’t care at all, sometimes I feel so betrayed, then I see myself again at Easter giving my boyfriend and sister an Easter egg and hearing myself say: “For the two people I love the most.” That my boyfriend cheated on me is not even the problem, but that my sister could so easily betray me I really cannot understand |
| Maintaining social relations (n = 15) | A good friend – that I like very much by the way – who has been a regular fellow passenger on the train. She often sat across from me and sometimes I see her in my mind, even though in reality no one is sitting across from me. A visualized memory of those travels, which do me good |
| Warning signal (n = 12) | Memory: I once had my toe stuck between something which made the nail almost fall off. The doctor then removed the nail and it looked horrible for a while. Every time I’m wearing thongs on the bicycle/walk behind a grocery cart I’m afraid that my toe will get stuck between. There is no special location/people present/event. Just the startle moment and the image of the bloody toe. It always frightens me and I’m scared it will happen again, it’s not that I’m afraid of the pain, but the way it looked just gives me the creeps. Then I don’t feel comfortable at all for a moment |
| Non-memory: Someone is holding something valuable in their hand and I see in my mind how the objects falls down on the floor. Sometimes it’s just a bottle of wine held by my friend and I feel like I need to be vigilant and be ready to catch the bottle | |
| Mood repair (n = 8) | In [city] at the quay during the [event]. Together with a colleague a meeting with a group of guys. It happened last year. We chat some and then party on for a long time all together. Evokes feelings of joy because it was a lot of fun and hoping to run into them again this year. |
| Preparation (n = 5) | It’s more thoughts than experiences. Because I study in [country] but am from [other country], I think about my parents a lot lately and thoughts of them come to mind. Partly I wonder what they are doing now and partly I think about what it would be like if they wouldn’t be there anymore, because they are near their 70s already. Then I do wonder whether I will be able to say that I have spent enough time with them. This is not necessarily negative for me. I’m thinking about them a lot and actively take on things, which makes me feel that we ARE spending an intensive amount of time together because I realize that the time together can end |