I have an excellent long-term memory. Advantages; I am an outstanding speller and fast reader. Majored in English. I can see an unusual name and commit it to memory. I do paralegal work and can spot errors and mistakes easily.

Disadvantages include having to have extensive therapy to deal with a traumatic, chaotic childhood. I'd replay conversations, events and feelings from decades prior on a regular basis. I found EMDR therapy (you identify specific, significant events and discuss with therapist) to be highly effective and nearly curative. My EMDR therapist told me that my vivid memory helped me progress through and make great strides.

Maybe a blessing and a curse. For fun, my childhood friends ask me to tell THEM stories about themselves and I can always fill in details.

Oddly, math and formulas and numbers evaporate in my head, for lack of a better description. I struggle with graphs, maps, charts, figures. Show me a sales chart or a map and...I'll play along and pretend to understand.

Anonymous wrote:I have highly superior autobiographical memory or HSAM. It's been featured on 60 Minutes multiple times and I've been involved with a research team in California since 2011. I even flew out there for an MRI scan. The pros are that school was extremely easy in a lot of ways, as I was quickly able to memorize dates, formulas, parts of the brain, etc. I never forget friends' and family members' birthdays either! I am a teacher and my students find it fascinating and I can learn their names very quickly. The cons are that you have a stream of memories constantly running through your head that cannot be shut off. Therefore, every embarrassing and painful moment from my life stays with me like it was yesterday. Therefore, I relive my grandmother's death and the day my mom got her cancer diagnosis on an almost daily basis. It can be exhausting!

Wow, I have the exact opposite condition and I hate it because I never learn from past mistakes.

I was extremely messy as a kid and young adult. I could always remember where everything was, so I didn't prioritize neatness and organization.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have highly superior autobiographical memory or HSAM. It's been featured on 60 Minutes multiple times and I've been involved with a research team in California since 2011. I even flew out there for an MRI scan. The pros are that school was extremely easy in a lot of ways, as I was quickly able to memorize dates, formulas, parts of the brain, etc. I never forget friends' and family members' birthdays either! I am a teacher and my students find it fascinating and I can learn their names very quickly. The cons are that you have a stream of memories constantly running through your head that cannot be shut off. Therefore, every embarrassing and painful moment from my life stays with me like it was yesterday. Therefore, I relive my grandmother's death and the day my mom got her cancer diagnosis on an almost daily basis. It can be exhausting!

While I have not been featured on 60mins the rest is pretty spot on.
My mom is the same way so when my father go sick and suddenly passed away it was very hard on her. It is always tough to loose someone but when you remember all the good and bad things it in can feel worse.
We were both in the room when he passed away and while it was fortunate we were able to be there with him it is also a horror we will never forget.

A fuzzy memory can be a great blessing. Forgetfulness is a luxury some people don’t have.

PP and OP do you have trouble sleeping? I find I can’t quite my mind at night b/c I am always thinking and remembering.

HSAM poster here. I generally do not have trouble sleeping, but sometimes the stream of memories becomes more pronounced right before I go to sleep, particularly around the anniversary of major events.

I always know when someone is lying if they are contradicting themselves because I remember what they said the first time we talked about the issue.

I knew the pros and cons once, but I forgot.

What was the question?

Anonymous wrote:I have highly superior autobiographical memory or HSAM. It's been featured on 60 Minutes multiple times and I've been involved with a research team in California since 2011. I even flew out there for an MRI scan. The pros are that school was extremely easy in a lot of ways, as I was quickly able to memorize dates, formulas, parts of the brain, etc. I never forget friends' and family members' birthdays either! I am a teacher and my students find it fascinating and I can learn their names very quickly. The cons are that you have a stream of memories constantly running through your head that cannot be shut off. Therefore, every embarrassing and painful moment from my life stays with me like it was yesterday. Therefore, I relive my grandmother's death and the day my mom got her cancer diagnosis on an almost daily basis. It can be exhausting!

While I have not been featured on 60mins the rest is pretty spot on.
My mom is the same way so when my father go sick and suddenly passed away it was very hard on her. It is always tough to loose someone but when you remember all the good and bad things it in can feel worse.
We were both in the room when he passed away and while it was fortunate we were able to be there with him it is also a horror we will never forget.

A fuzzy memory can be a great blessing. Forgetfulness is a luxury some people don’t have.

PP and OP do you have trouble sleeping? I find I can’t quite my mind at night b/c I am always thinking and remembering.

Anonymous wrote:I no longer have an excellent memory. Before age 30, I often would remember people who had no recollection of me.

Same (although I'm face blind.). I used to have an excellent near-photographic memory and I don't anymore.

I can attribute that to several reasons: two surgeries involving GA, a small stroke a year ago. Now I can only remember having an excellent memory. Enjoy it while you have it. It may not last.

I have a very poor memory for faces (I actually have face-blindness) but used to have an excellent memory of where I saw anything and details of anything I read. My memory has gone downhill a lot with perimenopause.

Upside, I always did well on tests without a lot of trying -- especially tests where there is a pool of multiple choice questions the test is picked from. For example if I read through all 700 possible questions I would remember most of them when it came time to take the 20 or so in the actual test. When we took standardized tests every year that had overlapping windows of questions year-to-year, I would remember the questions from the previous year even though I'd seen them only that one time.

For me to remember things, the thing has to be meaningful in some way -- not just lists of names, but details tied to a story or something that gives a more complete picture. So memorizing the presidents wasn't any easier for me than for anyone else with slightly above average intelligence, but I remember the book on Taft I randomly picked up in HS.

Unfortunately, I'm given to rumination and can feel upset over poor decisions or events even decades later.

I have a near-perfect auditory memory with excellent recall. It's tough in my marriage, but has given me a huge advantage at work. I can recall intricate details of meetings and action even from years ago, which is insanely useful for issue spotting, or when we encounter similar situations or need to learn and grow.

DW has an excellent memory. It gets me in trouble.

I have highly superior autobiographical memory or HSAM. It's been featured on 60 Minutes multiple times and I've been involved with a research team in California since 2011. I even flew out there for an MRI scan. The pros are that school was extremely easy in a lot of ways, as I was quickly able to memorize dates, formulas, parts of the brain, etc. I never forget friends' and family members' birthdays either! I am a teacher and my students find it fascinating and I can learn their names very quickly. The cons are that you have a stream of memories constantly running through your head that cannot be shut off. Therefore, every embarrassing and painful moment from my life stays with me like it was yesterday. Therefore, I relive my grandmother's death and the day my mom got her cancer diagnosis on an almost daily basis. It can be exhausting!

Anonymous wrote:For me, it made taking tests way easier, especially situations where you had to retain large chunks of information. On the flip side, I can never forget anything bad that's ever happened. Losing jobs, breakups from decades ago? The days they occurred never seem to leave my mind.

Same

I no longer have an excellent memory. Before age 30, I often would remember people who had no recollection of me.

For me, it made taking tests way easier, especially situations where you had to retain large chunks of information. On the flip side, I can never forget anything bad that's ever happened. Losing jobs, breakups from decades ago? The days they occurred never seem to leave my mind.