How much of the day do you remember?

[Leisel]

Also - do you know how much it makes sense to remember? Like when you get to the end of the average day, can you recall a lot of specific moments or is it a general idea of what you did with maybe a few specific moments, like "I went to work. My coworker told me a funny joke about cats" ? Do you think healthy people remember more than that, or that's reasonable?

 

[Deleted member 12723]

I usually remember the entire day. I have no idea what healthy people remember.

 

[Crow]

Back twenty years ago I remembered very little. I actually kept a journal hour by hour at work so I could review or refer.. I knew I had gone to work but could not remember getting there or getting home or what I had done. These days it's rare I don't remember pretty much everything.

 

[ShodokanJenn]

I've been dissociating a lot lately. I'll "come back" and have zero recollection of what has transpired over the preceding hours. Zero. But I also can't recall day to day life after a day or so, even times I know I wasn't dissociating. When I wasn't displaying active PTSD in my early and mid twenties, I formed a lot of daily memories. I still have those memories. During those days, I'd have a good general grasp of what happened through the day, and would have lots of specifics on top of that. I worked at a daycare during that time and I can still recall the names and faces of over 60 children I cared for. But I can't for the life of me recall the name of even one classmate from the semester of college I finished last week (it's not a standard schedule - semesters are 10 weeks; there are 5 each year).

IN short, I don't know what it's like for a 'healthy' person, but I'm reasonably confident that this is not it.

 

[EveHarrington]

Hmmm. It appears I have yet another problem.

 

[Sideways]

It's pretty normal to not have spontaneous recall of uneventful stuff. Even if it just happened yesterday. At the other end of the spectrum, there's not being able to remember anything, including the important stuff.

Ways to combat bad memory? A good start is practicing mindfulness, and training our brain to be fully in the moment more and more throughout the day. A good way to deal with the practicalities? Is to keep notes. If there's something that you particularly want to remember tomorrow? Just the process of writing it down will improve your chances of remembering multiple times over, even if you never read what you wrote (cool, huh!?).

Ptsd definitely impairs memory. But then, so do many mental illnesses. And so do many biological issues. And so does age. And so does.... The great thing to know is that memory is one of those things that can improve with the right skills and tools.