The subconciousness' journey into consciousness

I have had an interesting weekend of random memory recollections, that has really got me thinking. I had a conversation with my friend tonight about how vivid certain types of memories can be, and it reminded me of a discussion in one of my classes the other day. In class we were discussing child bullying, and one of my classmates shared an experience that she had when talking to a school counselor about bullying. The counselor told her to think back to a time where she felt bullied, and describe it. The counselor then called to attention how detailed and vivid those experiences are in our recollections. Our brains are such amazing memory recollection tools...they can be triggered by so many things (sounds, smells, landmarks, people, words... and the list goes on!) Memories are such powerful things, which are not always susceptible to conscious control (sometimes making them intrusive!) I guess that is what makes PTSD such a devastating mental disorder ( because it involves the inability to control intrusive thoughts/memories). The treatment for PTSD traditionally involves systematic desensitization and flooding techniques(which interestingly enough is exactly what the person is trying to avoid!) So on a smaller scale it makes me wonder if it is better to allow memories to flood you until they lose their power, or is it better to fight against them? Is it better to avoid places that hold memories, or is it better to force yourself to visit those places so often that they no longer trigger a certain memory (thus losing it's power?) I find myself pacifying myself with distraction, but is it better to just allow those memories to flood over me till they no longer hold such force? I guess life is full of trial and error experiments...and statistically there is only a fifty/fifty chance that the experiment be a success...