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Episodic memory

NAS74584

I'm just wondering if my memory problems are relatively common among those with ASC or if this is a totally separate thing. I have little difficulty remembering facts or procedures - my problem is purely related to episodic memory. If i think back to an event I attended in either the recent or distant past I could relate a few facts about the event, but its as if they are facts told to me by someone else. I have no personal connection to the event. For example if I think back to funerals or weddings I've been to there is no recollection of my emotions at the time. In no way am I reliving those events in my mind. I am totally unable to remember / imagine what I was like at a younger stage of my life. Its as though my entire life simply consists of now. 

Parents

  • Ditto. I remember snapshots of details from some childhood events, but not much. I wonder how 40 years of life can be squeezed into just a smattering of memories.

    I think it's linked to my aphantasia. I can't picture my wife's or children's faces. In fact I cannot bring up a mental image of anything. Or a mental recollection of any other sense for that matter.

    So I store life events like data to be examined, but without the ability to re-experience them emotionally. And obviously there is a limit to how much info I can recall.

    That said I do have the ability to have memories triggered (in their data form) by things I see. So I often remember obscure facts randomly when I am out and about. It makes me appear distracted, which has caused me some problems as I come across as rude/daydreaming.

  • in reply to NAS74829

    Think you may well be onto something as I have aphantasia too. If if try to conjure up any image at all, including family its a total blank. I can't even picture the room I'm in right now if I close my eyes. All the info must be stored somehow though because I could describe where everything is in the room very accurately.

  • in reply to NAS74584

    I wonder if these ‘inabilities’ are subconscious defences against the effects of over sensitivity?   I can visualise and I can engage with capacities but the associated reality of sensory ‘overload’ seems unbearable.  It’s almost as if my subconscious self is jumping to protect me by techniques I don’t need to understand.  The problem is that I’m left with consequent deprivation of certain natural talents, capacities and abilities which would otherwise be natural and available to me. 
    Thus I have disorder in being on the autism spectrum. 

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  • in reply to NAS74584

    I wonder if these ‘inabilities’ are subconscious defences against the effects of over sensitivity?   I can visualise and I can engage with capacities but the associated reality of sensory ‘overload’ seems unbearable.  It’s almost as if my subconscious self is jumping to protect me by techniques I don’t need to understand.  The problem is that I’m left with consequent deprivation of certain natural talents, capacities and abilities which would otherwise be natural and available to me. 
    Thus I have disorder in being on the autism spectrum. 

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