I have the ability to, say, watch TV and listen to someone talking to me. The weird thing is I put the spoken words into a queue, and my mind gets to it in a few seconds or so, similar to the way computer memory holds data before sending it to the CPU. I’ll stall my response by saying “Aaaaahhhhhhhhh” and then respond with a coherent thought. Is this a common way of processing incoming information?
Spoken words are the hardest for me to process. Doesn’t matter what language it’s in, all seem to be equal…I think it goes into my head as words, but then translates into pictures which I process and file into memory.
Once I file the picture into my memory, it’s permanent. I knew my drivers license from memory when the cop asked if I knew it because I couldn’t find it fast enough. Heck, I even memorized my VIN# on my vehicle, but he wasn’t impressed.
I can recall a license plate when I was 10 years old that my aunt told me to remember (she didn’t say how long to remember it) because she was going to turn the vehicle in for littering.
It’s almost as if stuff I process gets recorded onto some sort of magnetic track in my head and keeps looping round and round my entire life.
@csummers…I too have a vast collection of useless assorted numbers and junk in my head. When I came to the USA at age 7, I remember the license plate number of my parents’ car - Virginia plates, MDV-303. I also have my current bank routing and account number memorized. I can also remember all 16 digits of my first credit card. I guess I have a thing for numbers. 
No I don’t experience that. I used to have better retention of information. Now I have to repeat things to myself over and over again. But since being on meds, I don’t have to think “walk” or think “breath” every second. My breathing was getting shallow because I couldn’t even do that unconsciously. I have to repeat things people say to remember them. It’s going away, so hopefully it wasn’t permanent damage done by Abilfy. Abilfy was preventing me from driving too. It wasn’t just being over cautious, but that I couldn’t remember where I was going even after the 100th time being there. IDK what’s wrong with me. My memory shouldn’t be so impaired. It started to scare me how stuck I felt. Since being off Abilfy completely I can read more, think faster and my impulses are fine. I’m still struggling with the confusion about what I’m supposed to be doing.
Me too, I also Know my(ex)husbands drivers license, SS#, credit cards to this day. I love #'s.
When I’m under too much stress or feel threatened in some way, or just panic, I retain NOT A THING.
When I have to do something I’ve never done before, something happens to me as if my head is dipped in milk, and my mind is total blank. I can be told something a few times, but this blank stare shows nothing processes.
When I’m just an observer, I can’t forget even the tiniest details.
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I think this falls into the area psychologists call “executive functioning.” Most people with schizophrenia have poor executive functioning. It’s basically the groundwork of our thought processes, problem solving skills, and ability to learn and adapt. I took a fancy-schmancy test when I was 14 by a neuropsychopharmacologist, and the results showed extremely poor executive functioning. But when it came time for the verbal part of the IQ test, I answered all available questions (if you miss a certain number, the test ends prematurely). So I have a high IQ, but can’t figure out how to get across the street.
It’s normal when you are experiencing psychosis…I don’t have good hearing for lower pitch voices like men whispering so sometimes the voices repeat back something said to me by male that I could not understand through my own hearing. Happens to Tv when voices are incessant and I’m watching tv distracted…