Neurological Disorders - Help! What has affected my memory?

Author

Help! What has affected my memory?

Dave

2006-06-04, 9:34 am

I don't know if anyone has ever heard of anything like this before,
but I am desperate for clues....

I had a huge trauma 7 years ago, but I have coped since then, not had
bouts of depression or anything, and was at least surviving.

Ten weeks ago, when taking an afternoon stroll to the corner shop,
somthing changed in my brain INSTANTANEOUSLY. All of a sudden my mind
changed, and the memories of my trauma 7 years ago came back, just as
vivid as 7 years ago. It came out of nowhere, and I can't shake the
painful images and memories. PLUS, since that day, I have had
flashbacks to things in the past 40 years, happy, sad and alarming -
things I had long since forgetten. They just come out of nowhere, with
no reason.

Consequently, I AM no on anti-depressants (not helping though),
because I can't work out what happened or why - what triggered this,
without warning?

Yes, it could be a spiritual thing, making me remember and re-evaluate
my whole life, because "something" is about to happen, but first I
have to find out if there is a medical explanation. Is there anything
that could have happened to my MEMORY specifically, to awaken all this
pain in an instant?

Thanks for reading
Dave

Amy Sargent

2006-06-24, 4:27 pm

Where were you when you had the huge trauma? Was it on the way to the
corner shop? It could be a proximity/reminder thing. I have had a few
flashback-trigger sites in my life.

There is an Oliver Sacks book called _The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a
Hat_, with a number of neurological vignettes. One of the stories concerns
a fellow who was in prison for life after having killed his girlfriend while
under the influence of PCP. He did not remember the murder.

He did rehabilitate fairly well, and was allowed some privileges. He was
riding a motorcycle (on the grounds of the facility? on a day pass?), got
into an accident and suffered traumatic brain injury. The memory of the
murder was dislodged somehow and flooded back repeatedly in excruciating
detail (some of these details had been discussed in chambers, and had not
been revealed in court or to the killer).

So it is possible for traumatic brain injury to stir memories around. I'm
not sure what would have caused the memory flood on the way to the corner
store (i.e., I'm not sure what the proximate trigger would have been to
bring the memory flood back, but the remote trigger would have been the
traumatic brain injury and something about the way it was healing or
adapting to new circumstances).

"Dave" wrote

> I don't know if anyone has ever heard of anything like this before,
> but I am desperate for clues....
>
> I had a huge trauma 7 years ago, but I have coped since then, not had
> bouts of depression or anything, and was at least surviving.
>
> Ten weeks ago, when taking an afternoon stroll to the corner shop,
> somthing changed in my brain INSTANTANEOUSLY. All of a sudden my mind
> changed, and the memories of my trauma 7 years ago came back, just as
> vivid as 7 years ago. It came out of nowhere, and I can't shake the
> painful images and memories. PLUS, since that day, I have had
> flashbacks to things in the past 40 years, happy, sad and alarming -
> things I had long since forgetten. They just come out of nowhere, with
> no reason.
>
> Consequently, I AM no on anti-depressants (not helping though),
> because I can't work out what happened or why - what triggered this,
> without warning?
>
> Yes, it could be a spiritual thing, making me remember and re-evaluate
> my whole life, because "something" is about to happen, but first I
> have to find out if there is a medical explanation. Is there anything
> that could have happened to my MEMORY specifically, to awaken all this
> pain in an instant?
>
> Thanks for reading
> Dave

(note to self: alt.support.disorders.neurological)