All my life I've experienced losing blocks of time and as I didn't know it wasn't "normal". Everyone forgets thing at times. Right? I just thought I was "better" at forgetting then most people and didn't understand why people would get annoyed with me or even angry. I would often be accused of lying although I now know I was probably confabulating. Even though I have been married for 40 years this can be a cause of friction between myself and my wife.

Recently however, I have been partially remembering some events and I realise that I am not totally with it at the time. Some examples:

I was in a supermarket with my wife when I experienced a very sudden onset of one of the auras I often get before a migraine. Normally these come on so gradually that I don't notice they are happening until it's too late to take my migraine meds. This time it came on within 30 seconds - the world kind of becomes distant and visually everything becomes vague. That didn't worry me particularly - auras happen although I was surprised by its suddenness. Then I realised that I didn't know where I was in the supermarket. I told my wife that I was lost, and so she led me around the store until she had everything and then she told me to head to the checkouts while she got a final item. She obviously didn't really understand that I was completely disorientated, so I had to ask her where the checkouts were. She gave me an obviously annoyed look as she pointed in a certain direction.

I headed off in that direction and now I come to the odd part. I remember seeing the row of checkouts, but i didn't know that they were checkouts. I hope that make sense. It was if I didn't know their purpose or function. I would probably have walked right past them if my wife hadn't caught up with me and guided me into a checkout isle. I remember being fascinated by the beep as each item passed over the scanner, but had no clue as to the reason. I remember wondering why the operator moved only one item at a time from one end of the counter to the other. I thought it was very inefficient. I remember being distracted by some idle chatter from the packer, but I have no clue what was said, although I do remember thinking that she had a pretty face.

Eventually my wife guided me out of the supermarket and lead me to our car. I started coming right soon afterwards although I felt very washed out. I think I remember the event as it was very short lived, but from what my wife has told me, it wasn't much different from other times when I "act strangely" except it was shorter.

Last week I had a day when I answered the telephone four to six times during the day, but almost as soon as I put the phone down I was unable to recall who called or what the conversation was about, although I can clearly remember talking to someone on the phone. Perhaps a bit like watching someone on on the phone in a television show, but with the sound turned off.

Are these events some sort of dissociation?