Do you remember your childhood? | ADHD Information
OMGI thought I was the only one. I can remember almost nothing of my childhood...and little of my early adulthood. What I do remember is mostly visual..auditory does not stick in my head (except music) I have a horrible memory for events, yet I am a trivia queen. I can remember the most unbeleivable facts and stuff I've read. I couldn't tell you who wrote it or where I read it but I will remember the basic gist of things.
I rarely remember names unless it's someone I interact with on a frequest basis or they had a really strong impact on me. I never forget faces though.
It's always bothered me that I can't remember my childhood. I listen to people reminisce and just get sad because my world is always "right now" not yesterday...and not tomorrow. It's like I can't concieve of time I'm not actually experiencing...or something like that.
The whole concept of time just baffles me..but that's another subject, isn't it? ooops.
Ravenstar
Similar to other's responses, I've a very selective (or spotty) memory of my childhood. Curious for me are my school memories.... good times/memories through 5 grade, then slow and steady decline, going from an "A" student to nearly to a solid "C-" college student (nearly dropped out).
I'm diagnosed "predominantly inattentive" type, and I wonder if my declining grades and interest in school were precipitated by more and more of the learning needing to be done by homework, or whether it was just late onset of the ADD, or both....
I remember vividly in 8th grade the teacher admonishing us for being so competitive and hung-up about keeping up with the latest clothes and other fads... Then, I suppose to offer us an alternative role model, he said: "look at John (me), he doesn't care how his clothes look!"
I can remember a lot. My wife thinks I remember what people tell me i did when i was a kid, but i remember things no one was around to tell me. Though the holes in my memory are easily filled in if I am prompted. "Do you remember when?" "Oh yeah!"I can remember dreams from elementary school (1980) in minute detail.
The thing with me is that I remember scenes, but not conversations. Auditory input does not stick with me. I can remember the gist of conversations, but not the specific words. This is pretty much across the board, conversations from last week or 30 years ago.
But I have a fantastic spatial and visual memory. Not only do I remember things in great detail, I remember where I was. I can find my way back to any place I have ever been and I can navigate through places I have only been once as if I live there.
When I drive from my house to town I fire through memories that span 33 years.
If I get into a stream of consciousness recall session I can remember an infinite number of events, I just keep going. I did this once in 1992. I started writing down my memories one night at work (security guard) and when I finished it was 10 hours later and i had 20 pages of random memories that were fairly detailed.
Wish I still had that. I don't have the time or energy to do that sort of thing anymore.
I hardly remember anything, and what I do was negative too like you. It sucks because sometimes I want to remember things when I am trying to figure out some stuff. I could probably go thru school all over again because I don't remember history or anything. I *assume* this is an ADHD thing.
I need reptition to remember things yet repitition bores me! double edge thing.
Well, another piece of the puzzle, thanks to all of you....... I love this site. I have always and I mean ALWAYS had a bad memory. No childhood memories to speak of, little bits and pieces. I did grow up with two alcoholic parents, I do know that my mother smoked and drank while pregnant with both my brother and I. Back then, in the 60's I believe that was more common, or at least that's what they've always told me. Now that I'm in my early 40's I've wondered if I have started succombing to early onset alzheimers..... not kidding. I can't call any of my three kids (ages 21 months, 6, and 8) by their right names, I've resorted to "hey you" or a combination of all three of their names hoping someone will respond..... I can mention a movie that I would like to rent to my husband and he just gives me that look, you know, "Honey, we just saw that one a couple of weeks ago" of course, I don't remember that 
.... I feel like a space cadet...... run into people that I know I should know, can't come up with a name or figure out where I know them from. Totally embarrassing. Maybe it's a combination of ADHD, and premenopausal hormone hell. Whatever it is, I can't say that it has changed much since starting meds (focalin xr to begin with now concerta). Just glad to know that I'm not alone.
Thanks everyone! 
Confused, but still enjoying life, it's a wild ride!!!!!!
Does anyone wonder if theyre childhood memories are even real? My memory of my childhood is so poor, that I dont know if what i do remember was happened to someone else on tv or sumthing, was a dream or whether is was made up in an attempt to remember my childhood. [QUOTE=Dark_Angel]Does anyone wonder if theyre childhood memories are even real? My memory of my childhood is so poor, that I dont know if what i do remember was happened to someone else on tv or sumthing, was a dream or whether is was made up in an attempt to remember my childhood. [/QUOTE]What makes you think what you remember wasn't real? I remember even some of my dreams and I know they were dreams I had back then.
Is your memory of your childhood poor is what you DO remember, very unhappy?
I do vividly remember some of my dreams from my childhood, probably better then my waking life which i know are dreams, but i remember them because they were so horrible and i kept remembering them all my life so i remember them now. Same with waking stuff, i remember the remembering in a way, rather then having the actual memory. But the other memories are so vague, the tip of the tongue, kinda memories, which I cant quite grab, and I wonder if those things actually happened or not.
Most of my memories probably arnt nice, its easy to allow those events to haunt you, they dont fade like the good memories.
I can't remember much, family photo are the only way of me remembering anything...I can't remember what I had for breakfast this morning (or if I had breakfast?!) so theres not much chance of me remembering very much of my childhood!
p.s - Hello everyone! I posted here a while back and since then have been a bit of a lurker...
I have wondered if this was part of ADD.
I had a pretty non-descript childhood with great parents, good home, good brothers, no trauma. I can only remember about a dozen partial memories. It's frustrating. It's all kind of foggy. If a family member talks about it then sometimes I can remember a little but usually not.
In high school i couldn't remember playing against teams before when all my teamates could recall previous games. Even today, at 38, I have a hard time remembering specifics about the last 15 years and especially to put them in some sort of chronological order.
Thank you so much for this thread.I've never been able to remember much of my childhood, and what I can remember is foggy, patchy, and I definitely can't put any date (or even how old I was) to it. My younger brother is like this too, and we used to think we were just messed up somehow. We both had great childhoods, too, so it's not like we're trying to block anything. I'm also not sure whether what I do remember is because of pictures I've seen and stories I've heard, or whether they're real memories - it's been proven to me on one occasion that something I was SURE was my memory was actually a story I'd heard from a friend about an event that I wasn't even part of.
It's nice to know there are other people with this problem.
[QUOTE=blues]
but on the topic of memory i cant remember if i ate today, i cant
remeber most of the people i went to school with or events unless they
coused alot of stress. but i can work on a circut card for a month or 2 at
work, and not work on another of that modal agian for a year, and the
memorys of how it works are fresh as if there printed on paper in my
head
[/QUOTE]
that is crazy...i am the exact same way i will go all day until around 9 or
10 at night and realize that i forgot to eat or something. i am an audio
engineer by trade and i can work on a piece of equipment once and come
back to it years later and be able to work it perfectly. i remember details
about how a microphone sounds and the technical aspects behind it, but i
can't remember if i put on deoderant in the morning or if i brushed my
teeth....that's crazy...thanks for sharingMy earliest memory is probably right around when I turned three or just before.
Lots and lots of memories of my childhood. Sometimes, it takes a bit of prodding from someone, because it's ringing a bell, but then it triggers and I've got rather god recall of the event, down to what people said.
Unfortunately, I also remember conversations pretty much verbatim from years ago and I've held on to some of it because it hurt my feelings at the time.
Used to have deja vu a lot in grade school. Hasn't happened in years.
I am glad I am not the only one with this problem I have very few memories from my childhood and most of what I do remember is the bad stuff I had a very rough childhood also.
I am glad I found this thread so I can show my wife she can not understand how somebody can not remember thier childhood. she can remember just about everything from her childhood.
It is very normal for adults to forget or repress childhood memories. unclebri4, your wife must be the exception to the rule. Read on...
Remember to forget
Not everything experienced is retained in memory. If it were, the brain would become a mental junk yard. An extreme example of this is the journalist described by Russian psychiatrist A.R. Luria in his book The Mind of a Mnemonist. This man found it difficult to understand a paragraph because his concentration was continuously disrupted by the flood of memories triggered by reading. He resorted to writing lists of things to forget! But to no avail.
Much of the information reaching the brain is transient and is forgotten to avoid a clutter of trivial, useless, and outdated information. For example, when you look for your car in the crowded parking lot of your favourite mall, it is a blessing that you don't remember where you parked all the other times you were there before.
Sometimes memory can be a source of fear, anxiety, and pain. There are experiences we want to forget. For all the advantages of memory, some forgetting is normal and even necessary in order for us to get on with life.
Where do memories go ... or do they?
What happens to a memory that is forgotten? Does it disappear from the brain completely? Or is it stored somewhere, just waiting for the right trigger to recall it? In the 1950s, Montreal neurologist Wilder Penfield reported some famous studies in which he electrically stimulated the exposed brains of hundreds of patients who were undergoing brain surgery. In many cases, as their brains were being stimulated, they reported recalling events from decades before that had been forgotten.
These results suggest that the memories had not been lost but were still stored and could be brought to consciousness by the proper stimulus. However recently, some neuroscientists have questioned whether these patients were in fact recalling actual events that happened.
Forgetting almost seems inevitable when one considers how the brain stores long-term memories. Most neurobiologists now believe that an experience that gives birth to a memory causes the formation of new connections between nerve cells in the brain. Many neurons are involved, and together they make up a complex neural circuit that can be reactivated even years later to recreate the experience in memory.
But it is also known that connections between neurons in the brain can be lost or changed. The chemical activities that take place at the synapses can alter and modify how information is transmitted within the circuit. These processes may be responsible for the decline in vividness of a memory and eventually resulting in failure to recall the experience. It is not clear if the brain must continuously rebuild memory circuits in order for them to persist.
Interference
How long a memory will persist before its details are forgotten can be influenced by the nature of the experience remembered and events following the experience.
Imagine that you dine every evening for two weeks at the city's most exclusive restaurant. By the end of the second week, it is likely that you won't remember details of your dining experience of the first night.
But suppose that you had dined only one night at this restaurant and then for the next two weeks ate at home as usual. By the end of the 2 weeks, chances are you would still remember in detail your meal at the restaurant and would probably have forgotten what you ate at home the day after the restaurant meal.
When an event is followed by similar events, the details of each tend to blur and interfere with the memory of the earlier events. Forgetting is often due to this type of interference.
Just forget
Everyone has had the experience of forgetting where he put his keys or eyeglasses or coffee cup just minutes before. This absentmindedness in a healthy person is a lapse in short-term memory. It is almost always due to distraction or lack of attention.
Another memory problem that strikes all of us is the "tip-of-the-tongue" phenomenon - forgetting a word, the name of a song or movie, or most often and at the worst of times, the name of a person. Studies have found that in 97% of such cases, the word or name will suddenly come to mind later.While these experiences are normal at all ages, they are more common as we grow older.
Time and age
It is common that with the passage of time, memories naturally fade. Events and perceptions are often remembered with declining accuracy and detail. If not forgotten altogether, all that may finally remain of an experience is the notion that something happened.
There are a number of factors that appear to play a role in forgetting. Ageing is one, and indeed, forgetting is more common with ageing.
But age does not affect all aspects of memory in the same way. Increased forgetting of one's general knowledge of the world and vocabulary does not usually show up until one's 70s. But difficulty in recalling infrequently used names can begin after age 35. By age 25, a gradual decline in spatial visualization skills begins.We become less adept at recognizing infrequently-seen faces and finding one's way to a familiar location from an unfamiliar direction.
Many studies comparing memory in healthy individuals of different ages show that older adults do not learn lists of words in a memory test as well as those who are younger.
However some psychologists suggest that the tests used to evaluate memory in the elderly are biased towards the young, and that under the right circumstances, the elderly can summon more memory reserves than tests indicate.
In one study, residents of a nursing home scored higher on short-term memory tests if given some simple reward as compared with residents who were not rewarded.
In another study, tests for recalling word lists and stories were given to individuals in their 30s, 40s, and 50s in 1978 and then again in 1994. In 1978, the 30s group performed better on both tests than the 50s group.When tested again in 1994, people who were in their 50s in 1978 did less well in both tests than they did in 1978, while those who were in their 30s in 1978 did less well only on the story recall test. Even though there was more memory decline in the 60s and 70s groups, about 20% of 70 year olds were still able to memorize word lists as well as college students.
Choose to forget?
Some recent controversial studies suggest that whenever a long-term memory is recalled, it becomes fragile and subject to be changed or erased.
Why should this be? Some scientists believe that for a retrieved memory to be preserved, it must undergo a re-storage process called reconsolidation, which is similar to the process that created the memory in the first place.
Reconsolidation takes place over a few hours, during which various factors may interfere with the process and lead to loss of that particular memory. If upheld, this finding has significance for psychotherapy (e.g. in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or anxiety conditions). For these individuals, certain triggers induce recall of a traumatic, unwanted memory that they have difficulty forgetting. If a way can be found to interfere with the reconsolidation process, it may be possible to sufficiently disrupt a particular memory to lessen its effects or even eliminate it.
Wouldn't it be interesting if one day we could actually choose what memories to keep or erase?
i do remember my childhood but it seems like i remember less and less...It's hard to recall past memories, except major moments of happiness or trauma. I sometimes get FEELINGS that I don't understand, but then connect them to my childhood...interesting.
When I think of my ADHD as a child, I think about all the time I drove my parents nuts and they spanked me. I also must have drove my teachers nuts too, they also spanked me. Thank God they don't do that anymore.
In the 60's when I grew up, they didn't have a name for ADHD, but I wish I could have gotten help. Maybe I would have done better academically and went to college?
This is spooky, my spelling is an issue with me still and this new pc dont have office on it yet...i'm one of those buy the parts and peice it together types
but on the topic of memory i cant remember if i ate today, i cant remeber most of the people i went to school with or events unless they coused alot of stress. but i can work on a circut card for a month or 2 at work, and not work on another of that modal agian for a year, and the memorys of how it works are fresh as if there printed on paper in my head
am i adhd....as far as my job is concerned no if i was i would have employment issues, but they know enough to make sure that everything that is potentaly in arms reach of me is stuff that needs work done on it. with the data cards already filled out
I seem to have snapshots of my childhood and the rest is very fuzzy. Is it just ADD/ADHD sufferers that get this or does'nt everyone.
To be honest I see most of my life as fuzzy snapshots even recently. I went through a really bad stage not long back where I really could not remeber what I had done the prevous day.
Not been diagnosed yet but I know just by reading the forums i'm going to get the inevitable news from my doc's when I ask for a diagnosis. Either that or i'm lazy, crazy and have an awful memory to not mention the mood swings!
I had to laugh for a second because there is a book named -I am not Lazy, Crazy or Stupid! It is written by 2 doctors that have ADD/ADHD and both are on meds. The first part about childhood really made me cry.
The more I read these posts the better I feel! I use to feel I was the only one going thru things but seems like all ADD/ADHD people go thru it! It is somewhat comforting knowing others are struggling with the same issues.
O.K. I often said I felt like I "woke up" around age 8 because I couldn't remember but very few things before then. I went to a country school from k to 3rd grade I think. I have about 6 memories of that. #1. We road our horses to school and they had a horse shelter for the horses (ranch country) LOL, #2. My brother told me not to lick the frost on the school door paddle-lock and I did..of course my tongue stuck. #3. I was sent to a corner of the school to make a cabin out of corn stalks and stick pins while the teacher taught the older kids. #4. I didn't like my teacher 5. The boys in the school on recess would kill gophers (run water down their homes so they came out and then they'd club them with a bat)
and I hated them for it & that is probably why I didn't like my teacher because she would "cheer" the boys on to kill the gophers #6. Some of the games at recess
I still do not have a detailed memory. I can't tell you what year it was I went somewhere...I just know I went. Most of the time I can't even remember who I was with when I went "where -ever". If someone brings something up it may take a while before some little details come back to mind.
And I consider myself just a bit ADD.
I can remember back to 6-8 months old. (in age)Believe it or not. As in Ripley's.
I proved this to my mother and grandparents. (they thought I was fibbin )
I however do not remember my sister as a baby or toddler.
Alot, and I mean alot of memories came back when I had children.
worldisround38994.461724537
I've posted on this before. Before being on meds all my memories of childhood were fragmented and all memories in general were very very negative. I'd be asked by family members about their favorite family events and all I could muster (if anything) was what made me hate the event. Very sad and after a while it drove away some members of the family.
Once I got on meds it was fast where I could have total recall - of everything back to around age 3 !! That's good and bad - no skewing. At first it was so overwhelming that I could hardly take the input but now I find it sentimental and enjoyable and drift back to the good times often. Also I look at the bad times and use them as warnings of what I do or say.
Perhaps finding the right med will help others - or maybe I'm a fluke. All I can attest is that it happened to me.
A LOT OF IT EXCEPT 8TH GRADE I HAD A SERIOUS SEIZURE THAT NEARLY TOOK MY LIFE. DUE TO THIS I CAN'T RECALL STUFF I USED TO COULD.My earliest memories are nearly all happy but as I got older I can't remember many good times at all.
I vividly remember certain things as flash backs. I don't remember anything that happened around them but I remember the specific negative instances. Most of my past is a fog. I only found that out when I realized that others had many memories I can't recall. Until then, I had thought everyone only remembered parts of the past.
[quote=Barb]I only found that out when I realized that others had many memories I can't recall.[/quote]I had the same insight regarding remembering the "when." At some point in my life I realized that most peole can remember the year and their age at a specific events.
I can associate my age and the year to one event in my childhood. In 1970 I had my tenth birthday while on the family vacation to Germany. That was so unique for me that I remember it clearly. However, if you were to ask me about the trip to Disney World I cannot place the year or my age.
MaxDad
Well, I do not know my degree of ADHD, but I can only remember bits and pieces of my adult life, and when it comes to my childhood I can almost only remeber my father beating me! I wonder were I got my ADHD from?
But I do not beat anyone, even though I know that it's in me 
Anteros38994.3727777778''The past is so far behind.
The future is, where ?
The present is here from what I've been told.''
Great question.I have maybe 20 or so childhood memories. Only two that I can think of were positive, the rest negative. I often get very frustrated over how little I am able to remember. ... I lived in a constant fog.
Sometimes I find it hard not to get down now that I have greater clarity to understand and process my past.
MaxDad
In vivid detail all the ones that resulted in PDSD ~
[QUOTE=John . . .] In vivid detail all the ones that resulted in PDSD ~ [/QUOTE]
PDSD? Could you explain? But I understood that you have the same problem as me....(?)
PostTramaticStressDisorder ~ PTSD
Sorry, see i got all bent out of shape just thinking about it - LOL !
I wouldn't have understood that one eather LOL Thanks
I can just recall episodes, and mostly they are negative! How about you all? Please answer....Im not on meds but I seriously cant remember most of my childhood all the way to graduation from HS. I had a pretty hard childhood and think I blocked a lot of it out, but I dont remember teachers or people or anything. I often remember things only if people remind me but whole years are completely wiped out. I used to laugh I have Post traumatic stress disorder from my parents divorce when I was 14 but I have no idea what happened in the time before that.OMG, I'm not alone!This is the bane of my existence. My family is always asking, "remember this? remember that?" My answer, sadly, is always no. I have almost no memory of my life before 3rd or 4th grade (4 memories total, maybe?).
Wow. This resonates with me.
Glen...what meds are you on? I still trying to find what works for me.
Geez, I can't remember some of the stuff I have done in the last couple of YEARS, let alone much from childhood. I remember images from when I was around 3-4. I have the general "gist" of what being a kid was like, but many of the details are gone. It isn't like I do not remember anything, but it amazing what I DON'T remember, or how different my perspective was from what actually happened in certain situations....
A lot of college is missing because I fell apart. I was depressed and sort of moving through an even worse fog than is typical for me for a couple of years.... And it seems like I can remember virtually NOTHING from my first marriage. I think I blocked it out to cope. I can barely remember what it was like being with that man.
[QUOTE=OMG I'M ADHD?]OMG, I'm not alone!This is the bane of my existence. My family is always asking, "remember this? remember that?" My answer, sadly, is always no. I have almost no memory of my life before 3rd or 4th grade (4 memories total, maybe?).
Wow. This resonates with me.
Glen...what meds are you on? I still trying to find what works for me.
[/QUOTE]
I use dexedrine. Now been 3 years. Works very well! It takes a few months for it to really settle in but well worth it.
[QUOTE=Anteros]I can just recall episodes, and mostly they are negative! How about you all? Please answer....[/QUOTE]
I remember almost *everything*. And if prompted I *will* remember the event. Accurately.
I spent most of grade 3 in the hallway for fidgeting, talking and spacing out. no education there. Some teachers were better than others at getting my attention.
I hated school. It was bloody horrid. Couldn't sit still. Couldn't pay attention to the blackboard.
The weird part for me is--even zoned out I *remember* everything and can repeat back conversations like a tape recorder. This does not make for happy personal relationships
I think this is because I actually learn aurally--what I HEAR sticks as long as I hear it clearly without noisy distractions--what I see jumbles up into piles that make no sense and school is primarily a visual experience. I couldn't tell you anything on the blackboard but I can tell you everything they SAID even zoned out.
Blurted out anything in my head [they didn't care if I was RIGHT--just so long as I shut up] and so, spent my childhood in the proverbial school doghouse.
Blech.