How do I remember something traumatic that happened to me as a child, that I forgot?
When I was about 4, maybe younger, one or multiple traumatic events happened in my life. The problem is, I don't remember what. I know something happened because I haven't been the same since. I'm 16 now, and ever since I was about 4, I've been extremely depressed and messed up. I have these terrible dreams, that seem as though they're trying to tell me something. Every once in a while I remember a glimpse of what happened, abuse...but the memory stops before the really traumatic event occurs. I know I must have blacked it out of my memory, as many kids do when something scary happens to them. Even my family noticed it. When I was a child I never talked, I acted strange, and even as a young girl [about 7] I had thoughts of suicide. I can't get myself to even hug someone, physical contact gives me a strange feeling, one that I knew I once felt and I relate with something traumatic. HOW DO I REMEMBER WHAT HAPPENED? ITS THE ONLY WAY, my last hope to be normal again.
How come we remember things that never happened?
We don't have total recall, at least not at the conscious level, and that's mostly a good thing. Might want to read articles about people who have, who can't forget, and discover how wonderful remembering everything is. So forgetting keeps us somewhat human. But forgetting leaves gaps which we then have to fill with something. And memories spark from many different stimuli, both positive and negative. Maybe you remember being traumatized by seeing a dinosaur movie, except you didn't see it at all, but its easier for your mind to remember seeing a movie (you've seen lots of movies, remembered most of them) so it takes the stimuli of dinosaurs and turns it into a movie. Happens so fast, you suddenly have memories of a movie you can't find anywhere, without knowing what made it into a movie or why it had dinosaurs in it in the first place. And that's not even dipping our toes into the complex world of remembering things that happened/never happened (they happened but whatever it was made us forget so the mind puts something in its place to prevent us from looking too closely.) and don't get me started on all the myriad of physical conditions that can affect memory and recall, even our own mood. When you see a black cat flickering and repeating its pattern, it's not doing it for its health.
Can you ever 'remember' something that never happened?
It was reported by FOX that during the last elections Gloria Allred was offering as much as $750,000 per witness who would “remember” Donald Trump assaulted them.Think of the things most Americans have to do to save up $750,000! Not earn that much, to have that much in a bank.I am not a fan of either TRump ot the Catholic Church but there were hundreds of adults who received more than $750,000 for “remembering” some priest assaulted them 30 years ago.People who lost everything in a California fire or TExas flood have to provide documentation to their insurance company for each item to get back 50% of what they really lost. And then the insurance adjuster does not believe them.If you can get on live national TV, certainly CNN, and or make close to $1 million by conveniently remembering something the news anchor wants you to say, lots of people remember.
Why can some people remember something that happened 50 years ago, but can't remember what they had for lunch?
Usually, there’s nothing unusual about lunch to tie a memory to. We eat it every day. And so the memory of today’s lunch is merged with thousands of others.That thing someone remembers from 50 years ago will be either a general memory of a recurring event, something memorable in itself (which lunch normally isn’t), or tied to something memorable.And once you start pulling at a memory, related ones can come along with it. On seeing this question, I did remember what I had for lunch, but only by first remembering other parts of the day that led me to that choice; my first thoughts were both literally and figuratively in the wrong direction. Or, more strongly, the flashbulb type: tied forever in my mind to the Challenger explosion are things like assembling a set of shelves while watching Divorce Court, the layout Kroger used to have, the mechanism inside a Coleco Adam daisy wheel printer, that the chiming mantel clock used to sit under the TV, and a number of other things. And many of those things lead to other memories, two of which I just realized while writing this are wrong.Because that’s how memory works. Very little is stored directly. Most of it’s reconstructed one way or another, and sometimes, even when it’s a clear picture, it’s not what really was.
Why do I remember things that didn't happen in my life?
It could be because your brain made them up without you noticing and that it is a false memory. False memory - WikipediaIt could also be that you picked them up from somewhere else and have forgotten from where and that you have source amnesia. Source amnesia - WikipediaOr it might be something more or a combination of factors.What you have to keep in mind when it comes to memory is that remembering is not a neutral process. It doesn’t just “access” something that you have stored inside you. Instead it is a constructive process, like putting together a jigsaw puzzle.But sometimes pieces from one puzzle get mixed with the pieces of others and elements of one memory get conflated with another memory.Sometimes they go missing and your brain fills in the gaps with reasonable assumptions based on prior knowledge.Sometimes the pieces don’t quite fit together so your brain trims or pads the pieces to make them fit, adding or subtracting details to enforce a clean narrative.And all that is compounded by the fact that we didn’t have anywhere near all the pieces to begin with.So every time we recall a memory these things are happening behind the scenes. And little by little our memories get distorted and adjusted until we can’t reasonably tell apart what really happened and what we remember happening. This is normal, happens all the time, and for the most part, isn’t a problem.
Neurologically, what happens when we try to remember something?
Reproducing from an earlier answer-(picture courtesy: Khan Academy)As the above picture shows, Synapse is just the junction. Though a typical neuron has just one axon, the axon can have thousands of branches connecting simultaneously to 1000s of receiving neurons (most commonly on their dendrites, sometimes on the body (soma) or an axon too).Axons have sacs of chemicals (neurotransmitters) on their terminals. When communication happens between two neurons, these chemicals get released and pass across the gap (junction, synapse) and bind themselves to the receptors on the receiving neuron, which receptors are specific to neurotransmitters. That is, the sender may send across any or many but the receiver accepts only such chemical for which it has receptors. Secondly, when communication happens once and gets reinforced (through repeat transmissions), the sender and receiver get to know each other.Due to the first characteristic, a one-to-one relationship is not binary but a qualified relationship. Given the second fact, a network of neurons can form which can be simultaneously active as a single mesh/network.The current understanding is, one such network can uniquely represent a particular memory segment. We can assume, a network of such networks can represent a memory containing all its constituent parts. Also, axons connect not just locally but across regions of the brain. Thus, a logical memory unit/piece can have constituent parts sitting in physically separated locations. For instance, a memory can have visual and audio parts which may reside in their own areas.Recalling a memory involves invoking this network through some mechanism, working on some cue. This invoking brings the memory into consciousness.Now, how activating a network (representing a memory) can make us mentally see or hear that? I don’t think anyone knows it, yet. This kind of organization has the excellent quality that activating one constituent can bring up the linked neurons all over. Thus, one visual cue can bring forth one or many of various memories of which the cue is part.The above is a horribly simplified description. The actual working of memory must be extremely complex and complicated too.
Can hypnosis be used to help someone remember what happened during an alcohol induced blackout?
No because being drunk is an altered state in itself. Hypnosis and memory is not altogether reliable. Probably a way to remember would be to get back into that state (being drunk) to access the memories, and obviously this is not an answer in a real sense or recommended!The longer time goes past a memory event the more the real facts tend to change and become colored.
How can I remember something I have forgotten a long time ago?
The key to remembering old memories is to create memory associations and context structures. For instance if you are trying to remember your third grade teachers name think about all the things associated with third grade that you can remember like the name of the school you went to, your favorite game at recess, what your lunch box looked like. The more associated details you can recall will create a structural context that will build upon itself and lead to additional pieces of information that will help recover what you want to remember. Some memories can be repressed by physical or emotional trauma and are extremely difficult to remember but they do still exist. Visual, sound and olfactory (smell) cues can also bring back memories of the past but they tend to be random and unpredictable.