[Gabrielle Johnson]

As long as i can remember I've had problems remembering things like dates or what conversations I've had. This makes me super frustrated all the time and I don't know what to do to improve my memory. the things I've tried like mental exercises and meditation, etc have proven bad.:frustrating:Also, my childhood is very blurry as well. Only pieces have stuck with me.What else is out there and is this a common issue?

 

[Kat91]

Finally! I have found someone with the same memory issue as me! You just described my problem there, word for word. Unfortunately I've never even attempted anything to improve it so no help there, but at least you're not alone

I have googled this before but everyone who has spoken about their memory problems just doesn't seem like my problem...

 

[Coldplayer]

Same. I have chunks missing out of my life

 

[Kat91]

Does it make you worried that the problem is only going to get worse and worse? I have a bad fear of one day not remembering the ones I love etc...

 

[liza_200]

Just curious, is this memory failure is related to the MBTI (J/P thing) or more on the individual?

 

[prplchknz]

I can't remember conversations or quotes I don't think that means my memory is faulty because remember when someone says they like or hate something I'm like oh yeah you hate coconut, how'd you know that? because you told me.

 

[Toru Okada]

@liza_200 Doubt it.

What would a good memory be, exactly? I thought only remembering certain parts of your childhood was normal? My guess would be that you remember events that impacted you in some important way (subtle or not). Cause I tend to forget things that don't really matter much to me.

 

[liza_200]

@liza_200 Doubt it.

What would a good memory be, exactly? I thought only remembering certain parts of your childhood was normal? My guess would be that you remember events that impacted you in some important way (subtle or not). Cause I tend to forget things that don't really matter much to me.

I mean, forgetting little things like wondering of where I kept the keys or something like that, when it is right on my hand and stuffs like that.

 

[Empress Appleia Cattius XII]

Every single person to post on this thread is a Perceiver so far...

 

[ENTJam]

I tend to not remember things that happened before (stories and whatnot) if you ask me out of nowhere.

In the flow of a conversation, though, I tend to remember things that are related to the topic at hand.

Perhaps you just need conversations that hold on to a topic longer, thus allowing you to remember things better?

 

[Adrift]

To better understand how memory works, it might be worthwhile to read about the austic savants. These are people with extraordinary memories. Daniel Tammet can recite pi to 22,514 digits. He learned Icelandic in a week and claims to speak 11 languages. Tammet says he experiences numbers and each integer up to 10,000 has its own color, shape, texture, and feel.

"In my mind, numbers and words are far more than squiggles of ink on a page. They have form, color, texture and so on. They come alive to me, which is why as a young child I thought of them as my “friends.” I think this is why my memory is very deep, because the information is not static. I say in my book that I do not crunch numbers (like a computer). Rather, I dance with them."

LINK

Reading that, it's clear that this guy's brain is wired differently than most of ours. Many people have a hard time memorizing numbers because numbers are abstract and our brains are much better at grasping at concrete things. There are memory experts who are also able to memorize lots of numbers, but they do so by first converting numbers into objects (peg words). To the OP and others, here's a good introduction to using the phonetic alphabet and peg words to memorize long numbers:

LINK

 

[Pillow]

From what I've read, a lot of enneagram 9s have problems with memory in the same sort of way the OP talked about, because we tend to dissociate from everything quite a lot. Not sure if this applies in your case, but maybe you could look into your enneagram type? I imagine that the healthier I become (enneagram-wise) the more I will pay proper attention and therefore the more I will remember.

 

[reletative]

Too much teh drugz

drugz is bad

 

[HandiAce]

To the OP:

I find that simply making an effort to write things down into some notepad will help me to remember all of the things I need to do immensely! It's easier to remember the effort you made to do something than the actual thinking.

One counselor I know at my college admits she has a terrible memory, but does it stop her from doing her job? No! She's a great counselor too! She just writes things down that are relevant or important to her so she can remember them.

Before you object and say "ARGGGH!" "I hate writing!" "I hate making to-do lists!", your notes do not equal slave drivers. You can just write one-word, phone numbers, etc. You're not writing a lab report with citations! No one needs to tell you how to write your notes and things to remember.

 

[ersa]

I can't remember things said in social conversations, don't know why, people's words just heard and slip out of ears.

If I have things I must do, I will write them down, however, I can't use writing during social conversations:frustrating:

 

[N30]

I know the feeling all too well. I call it brain fog or auto-pilot mode. This basically is what would happen, at least to me, I would leave my apartment and by the time I got to the bottom of the stairs I couldn't remember if I had locked the door or not. Or forgetting if I had picked up a shift at work, and what time my shift was. The auto-pilot mode term comes from the feeling of just complete detachment I occasionally would experience (this stems from Complex Partial Epilepsy), I would often be walking to and from a course and not really even realize it. One moment I'm leaving a lecture hall and the next thing I realize is that I'm in my next classes hall, with out recalling ever really walking there. It had gotten pretty bad and would occur while I would drive, I luckily and thankfully never had an accident and always managed to get to where ever I was going, but I pretty much gave up on driving after it started to occur more frequently while I was driving.

Anyways, something I found that was beneficial for the brain fog and seems to help a bit with the "Auto-Pilot mode" (APM tired of typing it LMFAO) is Piracetam. Basically it acts on your acetylcholine receptors which are used in memory and thought processes and stimulates them. There is a lot of information on Piracetam at these two links the first link is pretty much just general information regarding Piracetam, and the second is a long list (including a downloadable PDF) of research done on Piracetam:

Piracetam, what is Piracetam? | Smart Drugs for Thought
Piracetam Research | Smart Drugs for Thought

A few other things I'm doing to try to help prevent the continuing of brain fog and APM is sudokos, word finds/searches, crossword puzzles, and picture puzzles (the kind where theres two identical pictures of each thing that shows, and then they are hidden and you have to remember them). I know these sound childish but they can really help improve your memory, especially your short term memory. Also eating healthy (oh wow! whofigured right?), and getting a good restful sleep.

I really hope that this sort of helps you. I honestly sympathize with you I miss driving a lot...used to be one of my favorite hobbies but I'm too scared I'll end up hurting someone or myself still.

 

[Kat91]

Interesting...

Thing is I really don't remember a lot from my childhood, all the way until now...is that bad? What I do remember is very scattered, just shreds of small memories here and there...it's terrible. Even last year, or last month or last week...I don't remember much. It worries me.

 

[infinitia]

Well if you want to get into Freudian theory, human beings naturally try to repress memories of the past that harm their health - mental, emotional, etc. - in one way or another. If you've had traumatic experiences as a child, you would naturally fight to forget about them in order to protect your own being.

I've had some emotional issues in the past and I realized I'd been repressing almost all that had happened beforehand. But something helped me out immensely a couple of months ago that resulted in a rush of crystal clear memories of the past that'd come out just from a single word someone says or random objects that I look at. Anything that would trigger the memories, sporadically during the day. It's been exhilarating.

The whole "forgetting to protect yourself" has nothing to do with things like forgetting to wash the dishes, but I think we make conscious/unconscious decisions to remember only what serves purpose, whether temporary or long-term. If you forget random conversations or tasks you had to do, it's probably because they didn't mean very much to you. It's why elementary teachers try to associate vocabulary words with something funny in order to make them easier to remember.

 

[Solrac026]

Wait, what is this thread about again?

 

[Kat91]

Well if you want to get into Freudian theory, human beings naturally try to repress memories of the past that harm their health - mental, emotional, etc. - in one way or another. If you've had traumatic experiences as a child, you would naturally fight to forget about them in order to protect your own being.

I've had some emotional issues in the past and I realized I'd been repressing almost all that had happened beforehand. But something helped me out immensely a couple of months ago that resulted in a rush of crystal clear memories of the past that'd come out just from a single word someone says or random objects that I look at. Anything that would trigger the memories, sporadically during the day. It's been exhilarating.

The whole "forgetting to protect yourself" has nothing to do with things like forgetting to wash the dishes, but I think we make conscious/unconscious decisions to remember only what serves purpose, whether temporary or long-term. If you forget random conversations or tasks you had to do, it's probably because they didn't mean very much to you. It's why elementary teachers try to associate vocabulary words with something funny in order to make them easier to remember.

I don't think it's repressing bad memories, because I have plenty of those lol

I really can't explain the pattern in my missing 'bits' at all...it's like there isn't one. Just sometimes I remember things, other times not. What I do know is my memory is very all over the place. Sometimes I have a good memory, I'll read something once and recall it whenever, other times not. Sucks in arguments when the other person asks me to give an example of something and I'm going

Me: "well I don't remember exactly, but I know you did it"
other person: "did what?!"
Me: "I don't know, I just know it hurt me." lol...maybe I'm crazy.

I also seem to retain very embarrassing memories rather easily...those never go away lol *sigh*