How far back can you remember?

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How far back can you remember?

I'm new to the world of Asperger's, and currently running under the assumption that I have it until I can get the official diagnosis; and I've heard that one of the symptoms is a particularly "long" memory in a lot of cases.

I honestly have said from the time I was able to convey such matters, that I can remember before I was born. Not that there was that much going on at that time, but I remember the sounds around me, occasionally being able to see my hands and such (when the light was bright around me on the outside I would imagine), thinking about stuff in general, and being born.

My mother didn't believe me, until one day I asked her if I had been "stuck", because I remembered being wedged, and being very frightened that I was dying. She grew rather pale and informed me that yes, in fact there had been issues with my delivery, and that I had been stuck in the birth canal because the delivering doctor was supposedly intoxicated and frustrated at my taking too long, and forcefully pulled me out. It was actually this action by the doctor that caused her to have to have a hysterectomy not too long after, because he had pulled everything out with me, as well. (And yet for some reason she didn't sue..... although apparently he did get fired and his license revoked for other things some time later.)

I can remember, of course, lots of scenes after that. I can remember looking up at people's faces with my eyes crossing, and being frustrated that they were crossing. I can remember being rocked in a rocking chair; remember being changed on my grandmother's bed... I even remember being able to walk before anyone knew and the moment I was "caught" taking my first steps (even though they technically weren't)...

Apparently I am somewhat of an oddball because of this. (And a lot of people don't believe me, but, whatever.)

I can't remember anything from before I was born. I don't think your an oddball for it but if you truly do remember things from that time, I think it's really interesting.

One of my first memories is from when I was 1 years old. I was watching TV and then I turned around - my mum ran through the kitchen and ducked because my dad was behind her, throwing a beer bottle at her. They had regular arguments and this was just the first one I remember. However I'm not sure if this is my earliest memory because I *think* that I may remember something from straight after my birth.

There were two doctors standing over me wearing surgical masks and one of them said..."She's squeezing my finger, good reflexes" (or something like that) and I also remember shortly after that they were putting something up my nose. It wasn't until I asked my mum about it that she said that it was a feeding tube.

I remember back to 1987.

I remember back when they were building the addition onto the second floor on the back of the house. My mother was an antique dealer and we often went to old farms to buy family heirlooms in the 1950's before the country farms were electrified. I couldn't have been a year old, my brother was a toddler in rompers and my father was holding me on his hip in a big barn with karosene lamp light golden off the straw in bales. I remember watching the dust motes float up into the last rays of the sunset up in the loft hearing the squirt, squirt, squirt of milk being hand milked into a bucket. I remember looking down and watching a kitty cat getting a squirt or two from the old farmer that was doing the milking. The comforting smell of a well kept barn and the animals in there, the warmth of my daddy carrying me I remember falling off to sleep, in peace.

For YEARS after that, I wanted to go back to the Melchior's Farm, and begged my parents to take me back, but was always told "The Melchior's moved to Oregon" and from that time to this, I obsessed on going to and living in Oregon and when I was old enough I wound my adventurous way there and established myself, wanting the peace of that moment in my life. I have lived in many places but Oregon is my home. I have often wondered what I would have done if The Melchior's had moved to Japan or Belize, or just died.

Cause Oregon is beautiful, and green, and the folks here are pretty wonderful, but it is not paradise, like I had imagined it to be.

Merle

This is a topic that has always made me personally upset because it reminds me how much I don't remember. I have a of one time when my brother was born. I was 5. Nothing earlier. From 5 to 5th grade I have only a handful of memories. 6th grade on is when I have more of a stream of visions and memories.

My memory extends back to early 1991 in Santa Cruz, when i was 2, when I choked on a game piece from the Perfection game, my dad was blasting Pink Floyd vinyls at top volume, I played at a company barbeque at the local park, and the house was shaking during a short earthquake.

I remember everything starting around the time I was 3; well 3 1/2, actually. That'd be late 1985.

Yeah, I'm glad I don't remember as far back as my birth. One of the reasons being: I learned a few years ago the whole dilemma at first when my mom tried breastfeeding me as a baby.

Believe me...knowing that woman, I don't even want to IMAGINE such a freakin' thing. I'm glad I don't remember it!

This is amazing! I never heard of anybody whose memories go back that far. It is said that a childs brain is "reformatted" at an age of about one to four years. My earliest memories (the ones I'm sure to be real ones and not stuff my parents told me later...) start when I was about two and a half e.g. at an average age. Obviously you kind of skipped the "formatting"...
Can you remember how your perception of other people, especially your mother, has been? I ask this question because there is a theory, that the stoneage venus statuettes are actually depictions of the memories of new-borns (their strange proportions would have an explanation by the distortion resulting from the point of view of the baby lying on it's mothers belly). Than the ancient humans would have tried to solve the mystery of the beginning of live referring to their own experiences, what would be a very interesting viewpoint about the beginnings of religous belief...
As this is strongly connected to my studies I would be very glad about coming to know more about your in-utero- + baby-memories!

I had to look at this thread because I have very early memories and I was curious to see what others were saying. I'm not diagnosed...I have two kids on the spectrum and as I read I can see that I had a lot of AS traits in childhood and still have some now.

One of my earliest memories is being in a hotel room and deciding to hide from my parents. I ducked between the sink and the toilet and waited very quietly while my parents were unpacking. The strangest part is that I clearly remember thinking it was funny that they were searching for me and knowing I had to be quiet and still so they couldn't find me. When I asked them about it they both remembered the event--I was just a little over a year old. Isn't it strange that such a little person can have such an awareness?

I also remember them trying to make me ride the family dog and screaming because I didn't want to. I was about 10 months old.

My dad made a "stroller" with runners that could go on the snow. I have a clear memory of the first time they tried to put me in it because I did not want to do it. I remember them saying things like, "It will be fun! Just try it! Let's go for a ride. Weeee!" I was a little over a year old.

I remember my mom threatening to make the bed over my dad if he wouldn't get out of it. He didn't budge and she ended up doing it. I started crying because I could see the impression of his face with the sheet over it and I thought, "He won't be able to breathe! He'll die!" Once again, I think it's odd I even knew about things like that. The oldest I could have been is 2--my parents separated that year.

1996.

I remember back to when I was almost 4. My first memory is of waking up and realising that I couldn't recall any of the events of the previous day.

I can remember back to October 1986. It was moving day

I remember getting up one day and saying "I'm five today!". Before that, I can remember drawing on my legs and standing still for a photo my parents still have of me at four. Before that, I was about three, running around and standing in front of the airconditioner.

The first memories I have which I am sure are not reconstructed from pictures and stories date back to 1985. I was three years old. We had just moved to Florida. I simply remember how the inside of the house looked, and having my collection of Glo-Worm toys, which I took with me everywhere.

In a broader comment on the topic of memory, I've always thought that I experienced a variety of dysfunctions resulting from AS. For instance, since I was young, I've had detailed, almost encyclopedic memories of very restricted topics (Beatles' songs, world capitals, dialogue from "The Simpsons", plant taxonomy). I mean, I have near-perfect recall for this information. Yet my memories of my own life are hazy and inconsistent. I really don't remember a whole lot of my childhood and adolescent years. It seems like my capacity for memory is limited to specific kinds of things.

The other point I want to mention regards the content of the memories themselves. My memories are rarely of people or social interaction. My clearest memories are of places and environments. For instance, I only saw my grandfather on my mother's side a couple of times. We went to visit him in Arizona when I was about eight years old. I don't remember much of anything about the man himself; I remember the cacti in front of his apartment, and the color of the buildings, and the hummingbirds that flitted around the feeder by his front door.

It makes sense that my present distance from the human world would implicate a lifetime of memories which do not draw upon it.

I have heard of it once before - Kenneth Hall, author of "Asperger's Syndrome, the Universe and Everything" mentions having a few seconds of pre-birth memory. Here's a link to the book:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Asperger-Syndro ... 1853029300

I can remember at least as far back as age 2, if not 1. I remember the nappies, the high chair and the feeding bottle