How far back does you memory go?

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I have very few memories before high school to the point that its odd. But the ones I do have go back to when I was 2 or 3 - I remember discussing what to name my sister, who was born before I was 2 - although that discussion could have been after she was born. I have a fair amount of memories from before I moved at age 4 or 5. I remember moving to my new house, and I have some memories from each grade of elementary school and scattered events, but not too much. Middle school I have a lot of class memories, but not a lot of memories of my home life. I remember high school vividly.

Age 2, I remember standing on this big box jumping on it. It was a Barbie dream house and I wanted my uncle to build it for me, this was on Christmas eve.

I think my consistent memories date back significantly later than the time when I was nine - possibly 13-15. I do remember some fragments from my earlier childhood, and some of these are quite vivid, visually, but they're just that - fragments. These moments seem to be taken out of context as I can't recall what preceded or followed them, which in turn makes them less meaningful. My later memories are fairly vague too; often all I will remember about a particular period is the "general feeling" of the time, but no specific events, except perhaps a few "snapshots" of things that had seemed especially significant at the moment. Conversations, in particular, are something I'm especially bad with. I may be able to remember what I did at a specific point - at least the most general outline of it - but not what I was saying, or what was being told to me.

It's like watching a vivid impressionistic movie which consists of separate scenes that do not seem to be connected in any more or less coherent manner; before one realizes what is going on, the scene will shift to something seemingly unrelated, and so on ad infinitum. There is no apparent plot or dialogue, only disjointed flashes of feeling and imagery.

This is strange, in a way, because my academic memory is quite good. I easily remember the material I happen to be learning at the time (the more motivation I have, the better, naturally); sometimes I will remember the page numbers or the text precisely as it is on the printed page, so that I can see it again if I close my eyes. I also remember poetry very quickly (it's enough to repeat the poem several times, even when it is quite long, and it just starts flowing on its own).

Sometimes I think that I simply have a well-developed repression mechanism - by preventing me from accessing painful or unpleasant memories, my mind seems to be protecting me from the additional distress they would cause. Besides, I've had a problem with chronic depression for quite a while, so perhaps this has also contributed to my poor memory for events (I've heard quite a number of other people with the same problem complaining of their memories having become worse, and, in particular, of their recollections being "obscure" and not specific enough - one friend described it as having the substance of her memories stolen, even though the memories themselves still seem to be there).

i can remember stimming when i was still in my crib.

It depends what you mean by 'how far back'.

If you're talking about earliest memories, I have a few vague impressions from pre-k, a solid image or two from kindergarten and a few more through around 3rd grade before they become a jumble of un-datable 'childhood memories'

If I work backwards from the present I can say that I have an accurate memory of events only in the past 6-12 months, and I first start finding extended periods of which I no vivid memory around 10 years ago.

I have several very vivid memories from ages 3 and 4. I know that they are accurate memories, because they are things that my mother remembers happening, too, and they are not events that were captured on a home movie.
-OddDuckNash99-

...I guess , technically , 3 , but I have few memories before 5 or so .
I'll say more , on this , still , yes , later...

I remember being two.

It's weird, but my earliest memory is shortly before birth. It's kinda fuzzy, but I saw some light in one direction.


The next memory was when I was 2 and my parents told me that my mom was pregnant with my brother. I went out to the front yard, sat down on the short brick fence separating the two yards and just thought about it for a while.


edit:
And the funny thing is that in general, I don't have very good memory. There are big chunks of my life that I can't remember much at all.

I have a few very vivid memories from before 5 years old, reaching back to 1.5-2 years old. But the strangest part for me, is that I seem to recall these memories all in third person view Anyone else have this skewed perspective from their early childhood memories?

As in my case, I remember being between 1-2 years old, in my Mom's arms, walking down the hallway past our hall heater into the living room full of family members, but see myself in this memory, not in first person, but actually able to see myself in her arms. Weird, idk most if not all of my memories before 5ish are like this, just me? idk

-Dan

I can only remember as far back as 5 yo,
even then it's only random run-of the-mill
memories.
Strange thing is in comparison my memory of adult years is incredibly detailed and competent,especially for names.

I don't remember hearing about JFK's assassination , and I recall hearing younger than I remember hearing of that .
I just said that in response to someone at a board (not AS) where I'm younger , it seems , than the " norm " , so...( I haven't " de-closeted " AS on myself there . )

My earliest memory's from when I was about 3, but they're still pretty random and patchy for several years after that.

_________________
25.8069758 is the root of all evil!

I have some scrappy memories from my childhood, and Mom says that I was 3 when it happened. The memories from the age of 4 are more clear and not so scattered.

When I turned 3.