EVERYONE has painful or unpleasant memories.

Like the time you broke wind in junior school assembly (didn't you just want the ground to open up and swallow you?) or the day you overheard your supposed best friends slagging you off.

But now scientists have come up with a pill that makes people forget their most traumatic moments.

What a brilliant idea.

Embarrassment and upset could become a thing of the past.

Boyfriend dumped you? No need to spend three months slobbing around the house in trackie bottoms eating Ben & Jerry's. Just pop a pill.

Drunkenly told your boss to stick the job? Never fear. Get one of these down you — and maybe try to sneak one into his drink too while you're at it!

It all sounds a bit “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” I know, but apparently it really is true.

The drug, called propranolol, is currently used to treat hypertension, but has been shown to weaken memories of a traumatic experience when given shortly after the event.

The person who has popped the pill doesn't actually forget what happened to them, but rather remembers it in an emotionless, factual way.

So you might, for instance, say “I've just been held at gunpoint during an armed robbery” in the same tone of voice you use to tell someone you've just eaten a bag of crisps.

An amazing discovery . . . but isn't it the knock-backs and the traumas we suffer that make us strong and wise?

I suppose you've got to wonder how we would ever learn from our mistakes and embarrassing gaffes if we forgot them immediately after they'd happened?

Some would argue that those who have suffered real trauma — rape victims, those whose families have been murdered, soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, would be more inclined to take such a pill.

I'm not so sure.

I had the privilege thiss week of talking to a young woman who suffered from anorexia in her teens.

Although the disorder ruined many years of her life, she ended our chat by saying that she didn’t regret her past.

She knew that it was those experiences that had turned her into the bright, confident woman she was today, studying at Oxford University.

A lot of great people have suffered setbacks.

Lance Armstrong says he truly believes he wouldn't have gone on to win the Tour de France a record-breaking seven consecutive times if he had not beaten the testicular cancer that spread to his lungs, abdomen and brain.

There's also the matter of skewed justice. Judges can give more lenient sentences to offenders if their victims aren’t traumatised. So if your victim forgot their trauma, does that make your crime more acceptable?

No matter how many bad memories we have, it's often these events that give us strength of character.

To pop a pill to try and change that would often leave us worse off.