Trauma and Overgeneral Memories

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criss: just wanted to say that I am very interested in reading your book. Being undiagnosed all my life, I feel like I also found ways to "blend" into the world, and now that I finally know about AS, I am beginning to accept and acknowledge all the parts of me that I tried to push down all those years. So I would be really interested in reading about your experience too...just let us know when it´s ready for ordering...

this blog really spoke to me, thank you for providing the link

i definitely have almost exclusively overgeneral memories from my childhood. i have actually retained very little memories at all from birth until about the age of 13 or so--most of it is blank, and what is left is very much generalised and non-specific....i also find that the memories that i have retained are more impersonal, in that remembering a trip i may remember notable features (as in the views on a site-seeing trip) but not remember actually being there myself. i don't know if i'm explaining this very well--it's like anything i do remember is a picture on a postcard, rather than the memory of being in that place and looking around, interacting, etc. i never remember things like how i felt at this or that place or event, or what it felt like to be a kid at all.

i had a very unpleasant childhood (and teenage-hood, if there is such a word) and so figured that the loss of specific memories was due to this. it's interesting to have more scientific information explaining more exactly how this occurs, but at the same time it makes me sad to think that my brain (and therefore memory capacity) may have actually been physically damaged by stress hormones (which i think i could safely say were constantly floating through my bloodstream on any given day. my family doctor was always amazed at how many health problems i had that were associated with high, constant levels of stress (joint damage from inactivity due to depression, gastritis, breathing problems like asthma, etc)....and yet he never seemed to put two and two together and actually ask me or my parents what i was so stressed out about. i think he just wrote it off as a fluke. needless to say he's not my doctor anymore. useless t**t.

If anyone wants to talk about ways to recover memories, feel free to PM me.

Just a thought, but what if some of the repressed memories are really upsetting or especially nasty?

How does one deal with them?

I'm just concerned that some of the techniques might open up old wounds...

This could be...well be potentially dangerous if not done properly or with adequate support.

I can't tell you AmberEyes, I'm not an expert so giving my opinion on this would be irresponsible of me.

You make some good points.

Right now I am in the process of trying to recover memories of my childhood. My strategy is to try to use general memories to locate specific memories. For example, if I have the general memory "I used to get picked on by other boys on the playground" I have to try to remember specific incidences of being picked on at the playgound, and ask myself questions such as "Where on the playground was I?", "Who was picking on me?", "What grade was I in?", "What happened before that?", and so on.

And, to add to that, it could also create false memories. Once you implant a false memory it's very, very difficult to tell if it's real, or not. Just something to keep in mind. I know this from experience, and it can be very tragic. Just please, be careful.

From my own experience, I've found that memories like this don't even matter if I'm happy, supported and accepted by those around me. I forget all about any bad memories because in the situation they just seem, well, irrelevant. It's wonderful, if I have a really good time, it's like none of those bad things even happened at all.

Several times on holiday when I've been walking on the beach in the bright sunshine, or watching the sunset, none of that junk even matters. I just live in the moment and feel free during these times.

Also if I've achieved something or I've helped other people, all of those memories seem to melt away.

I'm not saying that some memories shouldn't be dug up, I'm just saying that some memories are probably being repressed by the mind for a very good reason.

My bad memories only seem to come back if something bad happens in my life or people aren't there for me, then the memories become problematical.

I'm trying to learn that the past is the past, the problem is that human beings are cursed and blessed with remarkable memories.

That's kind of interesting.. but I don't think my too-general memories are because of trauma. I think I just didn't think it was worth paying attention to most things, LOL. I was always thinking about other stuff. So yeah. It's pretty general. Actually, even my favorite couple years at school are sort of a blur even though sometimes my friends bring up great stories and I'm like "oh yeah!" but I'd forgotten all about them even though we did some pretty awesome stuff back then. I dunno, it all just sort of fades.. D:

But a couple times I've been reminded of bad memories that I really HAD forgotten ALL ABOUT, which was really weird. (I kind of thought that only happened in fiction, or if the memory was REALLY horrible..) But they weren't actually over-general, they might even have been more defined than usual, but not super-defined or anything.