What It's Like to Have a Near-Perfect Memory

Having a perfect memory sounds like the most amazing thing ever, but there's also a downside of having hyperthymesia.

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[mattomanx]

I already remember bad moments in excruciating detail, don't we all?
Would be nice to remember good things too

[vnceigz]

Super-memory isn't all it's cracked up to be. "Cannot be unseen" isn't just a meme.

[rea]

I was gonna say something but I forgot what.

[UnstoppableGrin]

I've been diagnosed with OCD (since I was 15 years old) and I have a pretty good memory myself but obviously not to the degree of hyperthymesia. When I was younger, I would get annoyed whenever I would have the same conversation with friends and family and I couldn't empathize with most people's inability to recount the same story. I also held a lot of resentment whenever my friends or family couldn't remember something and felt it was futile to do anything because there was no point if they weren't going to remember it anyway.

After going through IV chemo (at 19) and experiencing what is commonly referred to as "chemo brain, " I've since been able to empathize with most people's memories and how things just slip by.

[tahroo]

It's awful.. reliving parts of your life that should have been long forgotten. Waking up in a panic because you forgot to do your homework, only to realize you're in your thirties and that was a memory from the seventh grade. Past relationships stuck on repeat no matter how much it hurt. What you should have said to avoid putting yourself into that situation you hated at your first job, or just having the phone number of your first crush implanted in your brain even though that was twenty years ago.

So you spend all day drowning it out with video games waiting for tomorrow to come. Avoiding new memories as much as possible, while happiness forever escapes you.


Err.... I mean... not that I would know! I don't remember what I had for dinner! ~nervous chuckle~

[testapt]

I was 24 years old, and my then girlfriend lost her keys. She'd been looking everywhere, tearing through our house. I asked her why she didn't just replay her day and watch where she put them last. She just looked at me funny and said, "yeah, right." I told her I know it's boring but just watch it from the beginning you'll know where exactly where they're at....
A little more back and forth, and that's the day I learned I was different. May 11th, 2005.
Strong emotions seem to make things clearer and more vivid. I can accurately describe detail down to the shoes worn by anyone I have ever truly cared about on the first day I met them.
I can also feel the blow of every teenage breakup, every betrayal, every loss I've ever experienced as if it just happened.
At this point in my life, I'm exhausted. I'm not suicidal, but I definitely am looking forward to the end.

[Eva-lulu]

It is two years already.. DAMN it feels like last week this channel started

[KatGlos]

I don't have this obviously, but I've been keeping a diary every day for the past 15 years (a bit neurotic, I know) and it greatly improves my memory.

[tawon]

I have sporadic but quite a bit of memories from the age 2 and up. I also remember faces instantly. I'm 34 and I remembered someone from kindergarten just from seeing them in the grocery store. Majority of the time I don't say anything because I'm sure it freaks that person out lol.

[threestooges]

At least I can remember to check youtube for new videos.

[ThatOneGuy-AskYourMom]

My memory is nowhere near perfect but I definitely remember way more than the average person. I often get labeled as a creepy stalker because I remember the smallest details that people forgot they told me. Memory can be a curse.

[sylvieriviere]

i remember my whole life, thoughts, actions from 18 months old and up with the same amount of details i remember things that happened 3 years ago. i dont remember dates that much but i do remember my age at the time of every specific memory i have. my mom however wakes up everyday and know which people have their birthday/death/marriage etc on this day (yes even for people not related to her at all, like some random cousin of a friend of a friend). i use to joke around and tell her she has a disorder.

[drizzlingrose]

Imagine having perfect memory, replaying the moments you got bullied as a kid over and over forever, that sounds like hell :(

[albertolaurella]

I have an amazing brain too! I forget everything! No bad memories for me!

Also keeping a secret is easy peasy lemon something!

[Faarthemage]

I would say I'm borderline hyperthymesia in that I remember quite a bit in amazing detail. Not as good as exact events by the day (unless it's a holiday because family LOVES making those memorable...), but I remember all the bad things I did, when my face ate concrete, all as though I was there recently. Usually for me I tend to stick two points together and it'll last a long time. Like what I had for lunch with how much it cost.

Also, makes watching shows over again a bit of a drag, I can name every single cartoon episode with some detail. Because of this, my brain is so full that recall is hard for me and it takes a couple of whacks for me to bring it up.

[CooletteD]

I remember from 6 months plus, my memory was incredible until I was 14 in which I encountered trauma that changed all of that. My memory faded and I can’t remember things as easily or as in detail as I could before. I was able to at least for that day able to remember everything that happened in the day and order too. Not anymore though sadly

[amandaarmstrong]

I do remember in excruciating detail every thing I've ever done/said that I've regretted doing back to the third grade... but cant remember what I had for breakfast yesterday. Thanks brain!!!

[thisaccountisdead]

From what I understand, we reprocess our memories through our ventro medial prefrontal cortex (during dreams for example) - so memories stored in the hippocampus become more intergrated into the rest of the cerebral cortex: which I imagine makes our brains more efficient with the information contained within it (I think we actually intially store information in multiple parts of our brains before they become integrated into an accessible memory in the future?). It is I think a reason why - in famous case studies - that when people have their hippocampus removed, they may forget more recent memories but still retain older memories (as they appear no longer stored in their hippocampus). It think the same process is involved with 'extinction' - you don't forget a traumatic memory but it becomes more just information from your past rather than an emotional memory lodged in your hippocampus (the hippocampus being very close to the amygdala, involved in emotional responses, in the brain). Maybe it isn't suprising that hyperthymesia seems similar to neurotic conditions such as OCD. Perhaps if people could talk through their memories they could process them more normally? - I wouldn't be surprised if there was a connection to vasopressin and oxytocin - these two hormones seem keep to cropping up in connection with aspergers type symptoms from what I've seen.

btw - is it normal to be able to pick up on conversations from ten years ago as if you were there having the conversation for real?... if not then I guess I have some kind of hyperthymesia. I don't remember dates. But the re-watch value of films is pretty lost on me - I'll have to leave it maybe ten years before I forget a film (if ever)... that's any film I have ever seen whether I liked it or not. I don't have to listen to any of my albums either as I can just play them in my head.

I can google search and find something even if I have no idea what the title is I am looking for: I can remember enough about the thing I am looking for so that I can find it through similar searches - like the coat someone was wearing... and eventually I'll end up with an image from a film I was looking for that I couldn't remember the title of. Or I'll remember a line from a film - even though I haven't seen it in years - and be able to find it that way. Like a scene from house sitter with goldie hawn and steve martin where he is on a bus getting ready to leave (or maybe it was goldie hawn) and he says a funny line about her sweater driving him crazy with lust to try and convince her to stay with him - I've only seen that film once when it came out (in 1992) and I haven't seen it since... I can pretty much recount the entire film...

...House sitter being a film about a woman who fakes her marriage to steve martin so that he acts as if he can't remember ever marrying her to the people around him who she has convinced them she is his wife xP

[jackcheat]

When she talked about remembering bad memories, the first thought that came to mind was Batman.

"The World's Greatest Detective" is sometimes depicted to have incredibly memory(often as an explanation on how he learned all he did in such a short time).

If Bruce Wayne did suffer from hyperthymesia, it sort of makes the tragedy of his parents' murder even worse, though kind of does explain why he can't move past it despite his growing support structure(All the Robin's, Superman, Wonder Woman, etc...).

[RangerRuby]

Memory videos on SciShow Psych are always so interesting and the awesome host makes it so much better!