Memory

Would you say your memory is good? Better of worse than most people, as far as you can tell?

Do you think ASD plays any role? Do you think anxiety makes your memory retrieval (or storage) worse?

How many unrelated things can you keep in working memory (say for an hour or two)? How is your episodic memory (memories of childhood and memories of events and details during the past week or month)?

My memory is not that good, actually quite bad, especially not when it comes to arbitrary (formal) information. This is quite typical for those with schizomania (schizoaffective disorder, bipolar type), which I have.

I have dissociative amnesia, so probably not the best to be answering this, but from speaking to others on the higher end of the spectrum:
Seem to have a better long-term memory, particularly with regards to remembering facts surrounding a special interest, but with pretty poor short-term memory.

I myself can't remember to feed myself, or what I've heard, but remember exactly what I read if it's in 'mirror writing', and around 92% when written normally - improves when moving around while reading as I am a kinaesthetic learner. I remember images perfectly but without colour, and I remember the individual digits in long numbers but cannot recall the order they go in. My memory works backwards, hence the mirror writing, but am also capable of speed reading (over 2000wpm) with text reversed in this way and often start from the bottom of the page which helps me to recall it in the intended order.

My episodic memory is abysmal, but I can remember unrelated things fine. I'm great at memory storage with regards to factual information.

Still, you are an amazing individual! Think mostly about what you CAN do!

Thank you PrairieCat, you too!

Interesting! Thank you for answering so thoroughly.

Hello. I just finished an assessment that checks my memory but i don't have the results yet. I am waiting. But when i did the test, i figured out that my memory sucks. Like, i had to remember this simple structure made of shapes and i could only remember 2 of the 10 parts of the structure. I was really bad at the memory parts. I have terrible short term, but long term is really good i think. It depends if i like the topic or i need the topic. My episodic memory though is bad also. I can't remember much of what happened in my life 5 years ago. I don't remember a lot of my life, which is kinda sad, especially since I'm really young. Anyways, I'm a visual learner if that means anything. They found that out when i was tested for giftedness a few years ago (I'm interested in this btw). Not sure what my memory was back then. Now... ew.

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I have good memory when it comes to episodes, facts and details.

I have bad memory when it comes to emotion and when in time something happened.

For me definitely an aspie thing. My memory bank is very extensive, yet it is not life like.

Since I received the Anthrax vaccination while serving in the military, my health has declined rapidly and quite badly. Because of chronic pain and fatigue, I suffer problems with clarity and short-term memory. Also, because of sleep apnea, oxygen deprivation causes memory issues along with a mental fogginess, similar to what those with Fibro-myalgia suffer from. I'm almost 45, so common things like wondering where I put my reading glasses doesn't worry me, but finding myself in a store and wondering where I am and how I got there freaks me out sometimes. I usually walk around and it comes back to me in a few minutes, but those few minutes are kind of scary.
I've noticed that when I'm playing the piano, I'm forgetting songs that I've had memorized and played for decades.

If I could get a good nights sleep, I think it would improve my memory quite a bit.

Eeks forgot about fibro-fog... Half the time I go around sticking things in the wrong cupboards or just being generally confused... Other half I'm wondering why I went where I went and what to do now I'm there :/
Any kind of mental fogginess is not fun

I just played an entire half-hour recital from memory with no obvious slip-ups. This is apparently unheard of here for non-pianists and non-vocalists. I've been playing pieces from memory since I was little. I also have perfect pitch which is a huge help to the learning process.

Not sure if this is the kind of memory you're talking about, but I figured I'd pop my head in anyway

Hello,

There was a long time ago, I thought my memory is bad. So, I decided to learn something like a training, but I didn't know what I could to learn. When I saw that Daniel Tammet was learning the decimals of PI I thought I was able to do that.
At last... I was learning about 60 decimals a day. When I learnt 240 I have stopped. I had my answer : my memory is good ( better than I thought ), so, I have a problem with attention.

I believe - like that have already said - our memory is in relation with our interests, our emotions too, and, more generally, our way to see the world which surround us.

I remember a lot of details from my childhood. I remember what images my Pokemon cards had, phone numbers from a few friends or if a person told me something I might find interesting like being left handed, his birthday or zodiac sign, I remember stuff like that.

Then again, can't brag about my short term memory. I forget conversations, what I did with who when I was out. I dunno know, maybe I'm just concentrating on different things at that time and later on just remember things of my interests or on my focus.

Oh ya. Got my results a few weeks ago. I have a mild learning disability for three things, and two are memory related so I officially know I have difficulties with memory.

Social anxiety disorder, ASD, GAD, OCD, and panic disorder

Lexapro, 10 mg; Ativan 0.5 mg PRN

I will pop in, too! I am 75 years old and I just wrote a 25-page paper about how I unknowingly had high functioning Asperger's all of my life. I included important things and I wrote all of my autism symptoms, also descriptions of my family members. We ALL have/had autism to different degrees. Yes, a whole autistic family! I did not realize this until this year! I remembered all of the details of my life that were important and that were also damned negative. I don't think I forgot anything that affected my life. It was fun and also was not fun to do. I am still processing it. BFD. I forget things sometimes also. I forgot to do my budgeting this month and so I wrote a bad check, although the bank covered it but they charged me $35. Just today. That hurt. But my SS check comes tomorrow. I don't know what my point is here, just wanted to tell you all about this, my life right now.

I listened to Temple Grandin's TED talk yesterday and she said that we need ALL kinds of brains for this world today and tomorrow, for now and for the future! So, please remember that! I send my love to all of you!