Reminiscing over one’s most embarrassing, upsetting memory has never proven to be fun. Recalling the first time you tripped in front of your  kindergarten crush to the first time your heart was broken, the painful memories are always something we hate to remember, but unfortunately, the things we remember most.

Recently, researchers at John Hopkins University have linked the removal of proteins from the brain’s fear center to the permanent removal of certain memories. Although some may simply wish to use this process so that their most unlikable memories may never again be recounted, professor and chair of neuroscience at John Hopkins University, Richard L. Huganir, believes that this mechanism could also be applied to people with certain disorders.

“This raises the possibility of manipulating those mechanisms with drugs to enhance behavioral therapy for such conditions as post-traumatic stress disorder” said Huganir.

Though before we are consumed with the idea that all our pains can magnificently just disappear, critical doubts have been placed on Huganir’s theory by the executive director of the mental health support group NAMI Maryland, Karin Farinholt.

“Erasing a memory and then everything bad built on that is an amazing idea, and I can see all sorts of potential,” said Farinholt in an interview with the Baltimore Sun. “But completely deleting a memory, assuming it’s one memory, is a little scary. How do you remove a memory without removing a whole part of someone’s life, and is it best to do that, considering that people grow and learn from their experiences.”

However, professor Richard Huganir claims that this process can also be used to treat addictions and may even substitute for a pain killer. As a result, debate continues as to whether bettering a condition is worth a seemingly bad case of dementia.

As the director of the Emory University‘s Center for Ethics, Paul Wolpe states, “it’s a troublesome idea to begin to be able to manipulate that, even if for the best of motives.”