![]() ![]() However, I find this is getting tougher as I get older. My now wife was amazed that right before we first started dating 30 years ago that I already knew her telephone number from hearing her casually mention it a week before to someone else. However, I am really bad about remembering colors. ![]() Numbers and dates are my speciality, although I can remember lots of other things too. I had not heard of the term "eidetic memory" until about 10 years ago when my secretary mentioned she had read about something that described my memory.įor some things, I do use visual cues and other memory devices, but for the vast majority of things (95% or so) I am just exposed to something and I remember it without even focusing on remembering or even really trying. "Yes, I have a thing for numbers, dates and things like that." Generally, I say something somewhat dismissive like. I have never mentioned this to anyone to gloat or anything, It's only minimally discussed when other people notice my memory after dealing with me for several months and then comment about it. My work colleagues would marvel at the level of detail that I remembered about dates, phone numbers, prior cases, research and the like. For much of my life I have what people would call a photographic memory. I don't know how much of this you can relate to or if I'm just projecting my own struggles onto your situation but it does make me feel better (maybe just less crazy?) To know that I'm not exactly alone in this.Įdit: how often do you hear "How can you remember all of this stuff?" Or "I wish I had your memory!" The problem is that sometimes I'd rather just have a good pocketknife. Ritalin made me a dull knife, Nuvigil makes me a katana. While it would let me focus and not get so overwhelmed with runaway thoughts it also made it harder to have that rapid recall that I was already used to. As a kid I was diagnosed with ADD (though it was when that diagnosis was first becoming popular, so there's no telling if its truly accurate) but I never liked taking the medicine. I was always like this though, even when I was young. Its so easy to get lost in all of it sometimes and it happens so fast and so often that its just mentally exhausting some days. Recall is instant for anything I really need to remember but it comes with all of the extraneous information from the time of that memory and then a wave of connected and somewhat relevant memories and then all the minutia involved with them. When I'm on my Nuvigil (anti-narcoleptic) its like I can't ignore anything. I don't think i have hyperthymesia, just good memory and as such I can't pretend to know exactly how you feel. So no one knows what's going on in there. Their memory does not distract them from ongoing tasks, nor does it hinder their ability to plan future onesĪs far as I know, scientists haven't actually looked at the brain activity of people with HSAM yet. However, HSAM participants typically do not view their memories as excessively intrusive, persistent and/or unwanted or as disruptive of their daily life (rating an average of 3.5 out of 10, 1 indicating their memories are not intrusive, and 10 indicating they are highly intrusive). Although HSAM participants have yet to undergo clinical diagnosis of OCD, the LOI-SF has pointed to non-mnemonic OCD symptoms of intrusive behavior. Repetitive behaviors or mental acts (compulsions) are performed in order to decrease distress associated with these obsessions (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). The diagnostic criterion for obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) includes recurrent ideas, thoughts, impulses or images (obsessions) that are experienced as intrusive, cause marked anxiety and interfere with a person’s daily function. This is what experts say about HSAM and OCD: No one really knows what's going on in the brains of people with hyperthymesia (now called Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory, or HSAM). ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |