Time passing and memories

Hello, I was wondering how others perceived the passing of time and whether you have a good memory of it all.

Probably applies more to older people but anyone can contribute.

I'm in my 50's and have quite a hazy memory of most of it.  While I am somehow aware time has passed, more seems to have passed than I really realised.

I was often very tired, i pushed myself too hard, I didn't sleep well and used alcohol to relax, not hugely but more than current guidelines (they did used to be higher).

I often had no energy or enthusiasm at the end of the work day and even at weekends I did not do much. I now wonder if I was close to burnout a lot of the time.

But NTs also say time goes faster as you get older, so I didn't know if this is all normal and I should have just have worked to live rather than lived to work. Which is the same  issue for everyone.

  • Sounds like you were riding the burnout waves a bit. When I was in high school I was always tired and pushing myself too hard, never had the energy at the end of the day or on the weekends to do anything. Looking back I think I was close to burnout too.

    Rest is important you can't keep running all the time.

    In answer to your question. I don't really notice time passing. I'm surprised when someone tells me something happened several years ago because it's still fresh in my memory like it only happened yesterday. I have a strong vivid memory and most things feel recent to me and I struggle to take in that it was years ago.

    One thing I do struggle with which I'm interested if anyone else has struggled/struggles with is your appearance changing as you get older. My appearance when I was between 10-17 never really changed, and I became so familiar with it that now it has changed quite a lot (I'm 21 now btw) that I struggle to recognise my appearance as me.

    This is really complex and probably a bit strange sounding. I've said to my parents but they give me a seriously look, I think they think I'm just making a big thing out of it but it's actually a serious problem I'm experiencing and I don't know why. My appearance now just makes me feel unsettled and like I don't really know who the woman in the reflection is.

    Is this an Autism thing?

  • That's interesting. My Mum died many years before my Dad and my Dad only remembered limited things and not a lot included my childhood. I have quite a lot of photos though of family, including grandparents so every so often I get them out. I enjoyed watching the more recent episodes of Call the Midwife as it gave a picture of life when I was a child.

  • It's hard being an only child when there's no one to say 'remember when' with, my Mum's still alive but she's not got the best memory in the world, she's not got dementia or anything, she just dosen't have a good memory. I think it's why I've conciously held on to so many memories, to the point were I've felt like a snail, carrying my home on my back.

    Roll on pension day, I've got 4 years to go.

  • I remember a lot of useless things from the past and often find myself recalling past experiences. However being an only child I now have no one left who remembers these things. Having said that I have a terrible memory for present things or facts or processes unless I am doing them regularly. 

    I did get tired in the past and was encouraged to do a lot of things, so I have had quite a few life experiences. It is only in recent years that I have realized the impact of trying to be like others and why it took a while to get energy back in the holidays, but I guess I thought it was the norm. I now need to do very little before I am exhausted and find it very obvious that I can do a lot less than my peers in their early sixties. I had a period of burnout last year and since then, getting back to my full hours at work was a challenge. I am having to book time off or finish earlier at the end of the week. Often my first day after working I have little energy and when I recently had to go to the office for training was unable to work the next day. It feels like a balancing act trying not to get back to burnout.

    The years do pass by quickly, but the years to my entitlement to state pension when I could afford to retire seem to drag. I often think about how when I started work I thought I would be retired now, until the age changed. I used to enjoy most of my work, but as things have changed and become more stressful I now work to live.

  • I wonder if work becomes a special interest and then it becomes obsessive. That would explain some of it and how I could do it without burning out, although it has taken a toll.

    But it didn't really feel like a special interest at the time. I thought I was just being conscientious and professional, except that it was always more than other people 

    It's strange. I think I posted elsewhere that I have only just figured out what a healthy relationship with work looks like, maybe because I am less enthusiastic about the current job.

    I think it was also a distraction from other issues that I have now made progress with, which is why things have changed.

  • I can relate to most of your experience, I can recall a lot of things if I think about it though. I’m in my 50s as well and definitely share the energy thing, tiredness, too much wine etc

    time is zooming by pretty relentlessly, agree I’ve wasted too much on work. If I known then what I know now…..

  • The days can drag but the years fly by.

    I have a pretty good memory for the past, often too good, as I can remember a of stuff I wish I could forget. I've done an awful lot in my life, some of which I look back on fondly some not so much. I've never been money orrientated, I've always been a live first sort of person, I've never been a live to work person, maybe I've just never had a ob that enthralls me that much, maybe it's different for women, we tend to have more things outside of work, like children and homes to run?