Comradeship // Freechat

I'm kind of similar.

If I spend a really long time thinking about the past I can start to remember stuff, but it's a serious effort. I could have been born when I was 16 and I wouldn't realize it most of the time.

Specifically, when, as a child, they returned to home from their school, who was the first person that would look for they asked.

Computer

Great post, I feel the same way all of the time. People twice my age will reminisce about their primary school teachers and other stuff from being that age, and I'm not even quite 30 yet but I basically don't remember a single thing from that time of my life other than the most vague non-concrete type of stuff.

I forget almost all of my friends from back then, all the people I knew and things I did. Even stuff when I was a teenager that was only 10-15 years ago I really do not remember well. My parents especially I don't recall having much of a relationship with as a child but I don't think it was that bad or anything, I just literally don't remember. My entire relationship with them is based on my experience with them as adults in my mind, they could easily just be some of my other older friends or something I met through work in the last decade.

I often feel bad about not remembering stuff mostly in a jealous sort of way. A specific example is with football/soccer. I know for a fact that I religiously watched every match my team played in say 2010 for example, but my recollection of it is mostly vibes based sprinkled with a handful of acute memories. I'm envious of people much older than me who can recall such a laundry list of specifics about menial stuff like that. This is true in basic every field of my life but sports seems like the most obvious example.

There are whole more recent years I basically don't have a single concrete memory of but I'm going to attribute that more to my lifestyle at the time. I've always felt like I have no memories though so I'm glad to hear others have had the same concern. Honestly, I've always gotten the sense throughout my whole life, even when I was a child and didn't have tools to analyze or self reflect, that I'm not really participating in the world or "life" and that I'm just watching it happen around me. Perhaps that has something to do with my lack of memories.

My memories started coming back once I finished grad school, got diagnosed with ADHD, and had some time away from being employed. So stress, anxiety, depression, being too busy, not sleeping, etc., definitely affects memory formation and retrieval.

I've heard trauma, depression, stuff like that, can impact this. Though some of it may be how a person's brain is wired too. I remember very little from my childhood, but there's at least one person I know who can recall really specific stuff from decades ago in their life, in step by step detail. Which I don't think I could ever do; my memory always seems to have been more impressionistic.

I’m the same way, essentially very few memories of my childhood that are not based on stories other people have told

Smoking weed seems to enhance my ability to remember things where normally I draw a blank. Free Association combined with smoking a bowl and I’m recalling shreds of memories that gradually add up to something even if it isn’t much.

My memory is pretty shit; the memory of one of my oldest friends is a freaking superpower as far I’m concerned.

As for radio: I remember an old radio host (I can’t remember his name because my memory is shit) who’s memory seemed to be photographic. Maybe it really was or maybe he greatly embellished his stories because it made for good radio.

One of like a handful of distinct memories I have is watching a whole marathon of this one show as I was laying on my parents bed only because I didn't know how to change the channel at the time

It could be from childhood trauma (repressed memories). I believe that's explanatory of many issues I have had in my life. It's not recommended exploring that outside of a therapist's care.

Yeah, I have the same issue. I can list things I’ve seen and places I’ve been, and if someone from my childhood showed up, I could probably recognize them, but I don’t remember any specifics. Honestly, I think most of the details I do recall come from friends retelling the stories.

It’s kind of funny to me now because I’ve reached the point where I couldn’t tell you what happened yesterday unless it was something super impactful. That’s just how it feels, most of my life hasn’t been all that memorable. I do the same thing day after day, and the only memories I really have are from moments that broke the monotony.

Same here. I have a few really intense memories of childhood burnt into my mind (mostly horrible things) and then just nothing else. No memories at all for years interspersed with the odd traumatic thing here and there. I thought that was normal though? It seems crazy to me that some people remember loads of details from their childhoods.