Does this happen to everyone?

There are big periods of my life I do not remeber unless I have a recap through a story or a foto or film. I beleive we are great people that like to live the moment and give thanks to what we really thonk that matters. Sad times are remebered only through the lessons they have thaught us and I beleive that this is enough.

Oh yes! Blocking out or memory gaps are very common specially when you are a student and you study so much only before a test I never learn from such mistakes though and it is a way of testing my memory Similar situations to you, yes. I have had that happen to me before though it is does not happen regularly. I do not know the reason why but maybe poor eating lifestyle or plain lifestyle is the cause. I also have to take time to remember hard before being able to remember. I was advised to take vitamins and get a better eating lifestyle to improve my memory. Maybe you should try that, otherwise I will not be able to help.

I wish I could block things out when there are bad times. But No, I remember everything and in detail. I guess you can consider yourself kind of lucky to be able to block things out.

i seldom forget things that i've done or said.. but i think i can do forget things if i wanted to. but if someone or something can trigger it the memory will come back again...

I have bad memories but I can remember something sad or bad, I always recall bad things. Perhaps, it's not a bad thing to forget tough things.

iAM OK HERE WITH MY THOUGTS.i AM A NORMAL PERSON WHOM I CAN RECALL FOR EVERYTHING HAPPENS.WHY ARE U LIKE THAT? mAYBE UR HAVING A SICK CALLED AMNESIA..u CANT RECALL OF EVERYTHING.For me ,thanks God am ok and no problem with my thinking.

I do. And now it's become a habit and I do it without realizing. I block out a lot of unpleasant things from the past. I do not want to remember it and let if affect my present. So, I do tend to block things. Earlier, I had to do it consciously. But now it has become a habit for me.

Yes, it happens to me, although ever since I was a very young man, I've kept notes of what I've gotten up to. And recently, I made use of some of these notes, as well as what I actually remembered, in order to create artistically...memoirs, and otehr writings, some versified. I also used to make tapes, but I destroyed, or wiped, many of these. Had it not been for this compulsive note taking, I may never have remembered as much as I have done. http://www.feedaread.com/books/Where-the-Halling-Valley-River-Lies-9781908895264.aspx http://smashwords.com./profile/view/carlhalling http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/CarlHalling

I have been cursed with a great memory! I may not remember the day or the date but what was said and how it made me or others feel!

I can say for one, this definitely happens to me all the time! I have some serious memory gaps, between childhood (long-term) memories as well as short-term memories. I think our brains might be short-circuited. . On a serious note, though, I'm not sure of any medical reason or treatment for this kind of thing. With me, it's less of 'blocking out the bad' but a general loss of memory.... I can see why psychologically, a person might (unconsciously) try to block out bad experiences in their life, though.

Memory works in a remarkable way which is rahter strange and vague. But if we be just a wee bit introspective and self conscious, we will discover some logic in the way it works. We don't remember anything untill we consciously 'choose' to remember it. Few things strike us in a very odd way and we remember them well. Few things seem interesting and curious and we are not able to forget it no matter how we try. Others fail to draw our attention and therefore fail to register themselves in our memory. Sometimes we deliberately suppress memories and they soon fade away into subconsciousness. Sometimes we just don't focus much and we forget. There are so many things that affects the way our memory works. But most importantly, it depends on our own inclinations and interests, meaning, what we really like to remember and what we'd rather forget.

sometimes yes. they said its because of the anesthesia i had when i gave birth through CS. when i was still studying, my teachers are really amaze how can a memorized such a long poem. and now, i feel that my ability to memorize has gone lower. but not to the extent that i forgot just what i have said. if you are experiencing such memory loss, you should always have a small notebook and pen with you. take note of what important words/time you had because that will help you recall what had happened.

I have done that before. And I have been blocking things out more often these days. I think it is my depression. I try and distance myself from any conversations that I cannot handle. I know I have been forgetting. and there are also things I don't want to talk about.

HI LovingMyBabies, It is the same with me. It is very strange but it is true. Isuppose that this is one of our brains best characteristics. To forget bad things, things that we feel bad of. That is why I had an operation before 5 years and I do not remember anything. And I am happy that I do not remember, it would be very hard for me to think about it, if I can remember every detail.

Hello friend... You are so lucky... You can block the negative things... Amazing! I wish I could do that too... There are so many unpleasent things that sometimes, I am just living in the past itself, without doing anything concrete... :( I wonder, when will I get over it... You are doing amazing my friend... Do you have any tips for me? I need to block certain things from my memory...

Back in 1999 we had an awful tornado here that killed 50 people. My best friend at the time was in her house when it was destroyed. When I finally got in touch with her days later (her house of course had no phone because it was gone, and so many power lines were down anyway) she described the entire event to me. From her mother lying over her in the bathtub, to saying the tornado sounded like a train. About four years later we talked about it again and she remembered nothing. I related the events to her as she told them to me and she didn't recall a thing. It's like she blocked the entire thing out.

This very much happens to me every time...i am just completely blank when people share their memories concerning me.....they are like, how could you not remember this, it was such a moment....but as u said, only if they tell me a long story about or show me a photo or something, i would remember...i really envy people, especially my grandma who is so old but could remember and tell me the exact thing that happened in her childhood days...gifted!

I take pride in remembering a lot of details when I do something. When I'm dealing with people, or even with my job, I'm usually pretty detailed. But I think that because I focus on specific instances in my experiences, I tend to forget others as well. Specially things that I don't consider important. As an example, my boss tends to yap. And most of the things he says, are really incosequential details about our job/work. So sometimes, he would tell me things that he said that we discussed about. Yet, I have no clue about it.

lol... I am a total frustration for my daughter when she is trying to talk to me about a movie that I did not like. I tend to forget them very quickly except perhaps for the fact that I did not like them. She'll say, "remember the guy from that such and such movie?" and I'll say, "no, I don't remember that movie." She'll say, "It was that one that you didn't like..." and I'll say, "Okay, that's why I don't remember it." Then she will usually go through enormous antics trying to make me remember it but I choose not to. I have blocked it and am perfectly happy not remembering it.

Sometimes is better to forgot and never remember again. If there are really bad situation in your life and you do not remember them, it is an afvantage :-). I have also problem to remember something all the time. Expecially things which happens to me recently. Sometimes it cause me troubles, when it was something very important.