Molecular memory

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Hello friends. I am writing this because I have a skill which I was wondering if anyone shared. Since from about the age of 12, I have had the ability to remember complex organic molecules after only seeing them once for a short period of time. I now have a sort of database of molecules in my head. It comes very naturally to me, I don't even need to try and remember them after seeing them, it's like the image just stays in my head. If anyone else experiences this or something similar, it would be interesting to know.

I have the feeling you could remember other things eidetically, as well.

you have a gift. the only time something like that has ever happened to me, was when in the 7th grade, in the middle of the night before a book report was due, I skimmed through "the light in the forest" in about 2 hours of concentration, I am a slow reader so normally those 200 pages would have required a week of 8-hours-per-day reading. but for a few weeks afterwards, I remembered every major word and where those major words were at.

My memory for things that I am not interested in is actually really bad, like names and dates and things like that, but my memory for my interests/obsessions is really good.

mee too. I can't count the number of times that somebody in the grocery store greeted me by name and chatted me up, and I had absolutely NO idea who in blazes they were or where i'd met them before.

What is the most complex molecule you've been able to memorize?

That's pretty good! LOL

Mine ends up mainly with handicrafts. It had been that way before I was 6, and it gets increasingly complex overtime.

Same with several forms of arts -- writing, painting, music, mosaic, drawing, etc... Except, I don't have enough skills of means of performing or physically replicating it. It's like I could sense blueprints or recipes, yet I couldn't decipher them all, or that I don't have the skills, tools, and enough motivation for it.

The whole thing happened to be a transferable skill if you figured how to make formal abstract thoughts into something more fluid. It helped with executive functioning and problem solving overall.
It could also apply with other domains if you figure it out well. It could be STEM, it could be outside of it too.


The main problem I have is that I don't know what each 'moves', 'stitches', 'concepts of', other techniques -- any terms are called. From as trivial as dates and numbers, to technical and specific terms. I only try and use it if I could help it. I would rather remember people's faces and their actions than their names. If they said something, I'd remember sentences with lines of synonyms than exact words itself.
As for others, I don't particularly know it's maker's name, when it was first done, what the whole thing is called, or how to describe the whole process. Words aren't my thing, so I rarely ever talk about my special interests.
I just prefer doing, thinking, or know how to it than remembering what it is in a rote like sense...
Memory isn't my emphasis, but something else... I don't know what it is called, but it had something to do with processing and perception somehow. Something abstract and vague...

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In a partial sense, you’re describing “muscle memory,” I believe.

If you remember molecules, you'll probably be good at memorizing planetary systems out in space, too.

Are you also good at memorizing other things?
Because sometimes, people with autism may be good at memorizing a certain type of thing due to their passion.

Like, it took me 2 hours to memorize 151 Pokemon names in Japanese, and to recite them in order.
Because I was really obsessed.
I'm also good at memorizing Latin names of animals.
But I'm terrible at memorizing how to write Chinese characters.