Nicholas Alexander BuckendorfYes - self-induced PTSD - that is
  how I see it as well. and the mental loops, I suspect are not
  ethereal things but ARE quite physical; I believe memories are
  fixed in a similar way that carpet fibers are taught to lie flat
  by the pressure of a heavy piece of furniture and can be made to
  forget by the use of Steam and combing; shaking your head can
  make you forget som...ething.- sloshing the water and chemicals
  around physically moving what you were last thinking about out
  of its last seen location."