There are three generally accepted psychological models for recovery. The learning theory is that fear is classically conditioned.
Threats serve as unconditioned stimuli for strong fear responses.
Situations resembling or reminiscent of the trauma are conditioned stimuli and elicit an intense response. In order to minimize memories and fear, patients resort to avoidance behavior. The cognition and perception model suggests that humans seek to understand the meanings of experiences and images that are held in their active memory. Alternating repetitive recollections with avoidance and feelings of numbness is an attempt to integrate memories into an acceptable view of their self and their world and represents a huge challenge to typical patterns of thinking. The model of the fear based memory network activation, the network must be activated to integrate accurate information with the perception of danger.