Remembering things that never happened

[valeriedl]

My memory's not that great and I usually either remember something or don't remember it. I'm not sure if I've remembered things that never happened however.

My husband and I were talking today about one of the cats we had to have put down about 5 years ago. I told him that I remember taking him to he humane society and having him put down. I took him in with me and gave them to the vet there. We brought him home and my dad buried him. I remember my dad saying that it was a good thing that the ground was still soft enough to dig through or we would have had to do something else with him. He said it to try to make me feel better and we both did laugh about it. We had also gotten another cat in the same trip that we went on to have him put down.

My husband said that's not how it happened. We had the cat put down at the humane society but I wouldn't get out of the car I was so upset and they don't let you bring the animal home so we had to leave him there. So everything about my dad burring the cat never happened.

What I remember about getting the other cat and bringing her home was exactly right.

This is so weird because I can see exactly what happened in my head that didn't actually happen?

 

[masterjen]

You posted about this not too long ago, valerie. Sorry it is continuing to be a problem. Any helpful input from your neurologist? Did you end up going to see the neuropsychologist - if so what did s/he say?

 

[valeriedl]

I may have should have called this post 'Remembering things not the way they happened'

The things that I had posted about recently in other posts I remember happening had happened that day or the day before. This one happened 5 years ago and I don't know if I had just got confused about how it happened. My husband did tell me a few different stories that dealt with my parents cats and our cat and when put together they all sort of made up what I'd thought happened with our cat. I just don't remember each thing happening separately, just all at the same time.

I've had this happen through the years too. I'll remember something that happened but I'll forget parts of it (which is always normal for me) or maybe add some things to it that never happened or happened at another time. I just didn't know if this happens with anyone else too?

 

[masterjen]

I would say that lots of people have had these things happen! It is common for similar memories to blend, and make several events seem like an event that just happened one or two times. It is natural for the brain to want to make things make sense and to make a partial memory more complete, so without us realizing it our minds will add details from other similar memories (or even invent things that did not happen) to create cohesiveness to the specific event we are recalling.

 

[AlohaBird]

^^^What Jen said is particularly true in times of emotional stress. You had a scenario in your head of the way that you would have liked it to be where, while it was still a time of sorrow, everything was peaceful and it was a family bonding experience.

The reality you got wasn't as nice so it would be easy to borrow bits of the ideal reality to fill in the gaps especially if you were having a lot of seizures (since stress can bring those on too).

When I was having a lot of seizures back to back, I would sometimes have this happen. Things would blend like that.

 

[resaebiunne]

I agree with masterjen. Memory is very fallable even without the interaction of your brain and loads of e medications. I don't think you have anything abnormal going on and there is nothing to be afraid of or aware of that might be causing your experiences.

 

[seagull]

I think everyone has false memories at times sometimes it emotional body reaction to something unable cope with or suggestion.i don't think it anything drastic unless happening everyday