Looking For Information On False Memory Syndrome, Need Help

[Zef]

Thanks for that Jen93. I think that is why I'm interested in this subject. My opinion is that the phenomena surrounding False Memory Syndrome creates a huge stigma for us in public, but also preys upon our normal symptoms to deny and minimize our traumas.

It hits us from both sides AND it has been used to free abusers back into society.

If you do not believe in the power of marketing/propaganda to influence a culture's thoughts and behaviors, here is a prime example that could make you change you mind on the subject.

My part that wants to take out those who abuse power, really wants to take out the Foundation that created this crap.

Guess I'm still on the soapbox. . .

 

[Deleted member 12723]

Thank you so much for all of the feedback and support. I still do not know if these memories are real or not. I do not have any evidence to say that they are true.
When I believed they were real I told people looking for some help and support and validation, but it created stigma for me, and gossip and slander was used against me.

I was spiritually abused by the pastor and the elders in the church. I have left the church and to this day I won't try another one. My childhood was abusive enough, to have these memories of satanic ritual abuse and not to know if they are real or not has sure messed with my mind.

At first I was too scared to talk about it. It is something I have carried around inside of me for a few years. I was tired of having to explain myself to people. I learned to keep it to myself with the questions and the unknowing and made my oeace with the fact that they were most likely false memories.

It sure messed me up the not knowing for sure. I have to find out somehow but am at a loss. I will consult with my psychiatrist and the people who will be doing the EMDR with me. I will try to find a therapist I can trust afterwards. That is going to be so hard. I am burned and branded by this.

I sure appreciate the feed back, it is making me feel sane concerning these things something I have not felt in a very long time. I am feeling more centered today. I sure appreciate the support on this so very much. It has been hell carrying this around inside of me all of these years.

If they are true i will deal with them. But I would like to find out if they are true or not. I have been so badly burned by being so naive and gullible and vulnerable and so very desperately needy for vindication and validation. I sure would like to settle it one way or the other. Thanks so very much again.

 

[Meadowsweet]

I think if we can look beyond individual feelings, and I do understand that its an emotive subject. But both amnesia of abuse and false memories do exist.

To be objective, and offer objective advise, its important to recognise both as a reality. Its a difficult reality, but it exists.

If its useful to accept a memory and work to overcome the feelings associated to it, then there shouldn't be any question of finding proof or not.

But false memories are not crap. And to me personally it would be very harmful for somebody to try to convince me that my experiences of false memories are real.

Just like for others it is harmful to convince them that their memories are not real.

Its one of those things that from an emotional point of view is hard to carry. But I don't think there are black and white answers that fix it.

 

[Meadowsweet]

Gizmo, I hadn't read your last reply when I posted that reply.

I certainly don't want to sound overly sceptical and your feelings about whether the memory feels as real other memories or not are the most trustworthy.

I think I would find it hard now to prove me experiences to others. But in my own mind I recognise the feeling of definate memory and memories that I'm not sure about.

But saying that, the things you're remembering are things that might be very useful to work through in therapy, because the feelings are real.

 

[Deleted member 12723]

Hey Meadow sweet. The fact that I got triggered over it is very complicated.
I was in therapy at the time I had the memories.
I was at home when I had the memories.
My therapist believed everything I told her.

I do not think she was a very good therapist.
When I heard about false memory syndrome I got terrified and quit therapy.
I decided it was time for me to learn to think for myself or I was going to be in therapy the rest of my life.

I felt better when I quit talking about the memories. I do not know if that was denial or pretending. But it gave me a peace of mind.

Obviously it is still bugging me. It came out in my trauma journal and it knocked me for a loop. I lost my peace of mind.

So I am stuck not knowing for sure. It sure messed me up. It made me see psycology as a new religon. and I hate religon, even though I see myself as a spiritual person.

More came out in my journal today so mabe there is something there that needs to be rooted out and addressed. It sure feels good to have an adult conversation about the whole thing since I have had it on the shelf for years. Time and hopefully some real decent help will help me at long last. I just want it dealt with one way or the other. Once more I so appreciate the feedback and help and support on this.

 

[kaylar]

Any information anyone has would be really appreciated a lot. I just do not know what to do with this anymore. I have a hard time talking about it. It is regarding satanic ritual abuse. I really do not think this happened to me at all and I need some closure. Thanks.

This is an absolutely true story. At the age of 31 P. attended a therapist who decided she had been abused as a child, and that she had tried to commit suicide when she was 15. Up until this point, she had very good relations with her sister, the putative abuser. After that the relationship with her sister ended, she accused her parents of being enablers and or in denial.

She tells the story of being abused 'all her life' and describes her suicide attempt as opening the window, opening the screen, stepping out on the ledge and jumping.

In real life; the lady on the first floor heard the screen hit the ground, then looked out and saw P. called the Police, and ran outside with a blanket. The first words P. said to the woman is "what are you doing in my bedroom.'"

The police and ambulance were on the scene, the words P. said were told to the police by the lady and P. was taken to the hospital. The medical doctors determined that P. was either asleep or unconscious when she hit the ground which is why she didn't tense and her injuries wre not as severe as they should be.

The psychiatrists who examined her found nothing in her answers or behaviour or that of her family to suggest she was abused in anyway.

She was allowed home during her rehab and eventually released back to her family. There were no issues.

Her sister married when she was 19 and she visited her sister every single Sunday for the next two years. Traveling three miles to do so.

Her relationship with her sister continued until she was thirty one, that is when the 'abuse' was uncovered by a psychiatrist, and she now retold the story of the jumping; btw; there was no ledge on the window.

She never explored the events surrounding this suicide attempt, not even to verify that there was no ledge on the window, much less, the actual police reports. She has continued for the past quarter of a century in this story which has destroyed her life to a great extent.

In a virtual forced confrontation with her sister she admitted that being 'abused all my life' were three slaps, one when she was five years old, one when she was about ten, and one when she was about twelve.

She then cut off all communication.

Simply put, she had created this false memory which defined her. She could not live without this set of fallacies which destroyed her life.

Be very careful when some kind of strange memory is provoked which has no 'trigger' and which is not substantiated. People who are abused show signs of it If P.had been abused, why did she travel 3 miles every Sunday to visit her sister?

 

[Deleted member 12723]

Thanks for posting this, I really appreciate it. It did destroy my life for a time when I believed they were real. But now I am not so sure, and I am fine with them being false memories. The mind is so fragile. I do not think it is wise to dig chasing after ghosts that do not exist. /thanks again.