Anyone here ever experience very real memories of things that never actually happened?
Mine began when I was 24 not long after my experience with psychosis began. They were like vivid flashbacks…hundreds of them. I could remember nearly every detail such as long conversations I never really had or sensations of horror…smells…tastes…pain…every detail. What had me convinced that these memories were real was that I would remember a location I supposedly had visited and I would look up that location on Google Earth and it would be just as I’d recalled it in the false memory.
At first it was as if these memories ran parallel to my real life memories, as if they had happened separately. But eventually the false began to corrupt the real. The false memories and the real ones began to merge and even now I can think back on a real memory of my life and there are these aspects of the false in it. It actually forms a story line…a very detailed, linear story line the horror of which is unparalleled in anything of fiction I’ve ever seen or read or heard.
A few snapshots of these literally hundreds if not thousands of false memories are:
stowing away aboard a freighter carrying salt from Libya at age 13.
being kidnapped and held in a warehouse outside NYC where I and other kids were tortured and trained to be expert criminals
going on tour with a now well known indie rock musician and becoming the inspiration for the film Borat
having multiple lobotomies (1 ice pick and numerous others done with some sort of chemical)
being given a Delorian by JayZ and having it riddled with bullets a week later
being thrown out of a plane over northern Pakistan by the CIA
I don’t know there are thousands of them…literally and I remember every detail.
(I now see that there are other threads about false memories on here but I can’t seem to access them from this page so I apologize for creating a thread about something already covered but,…oh well let’s rehash it anyway)
you have an exciting life…even if it is imaginary…mine is filled with spaceships , planets and aliens…but of course mine are actually real !?!..lol
take care
Had a false memory of talking to god out in the forest and learning everything. I had a false memory I got microchipped. I have had more but i cannot remember. What I found out about these memories is that if you think hard about them, there is something that is illogical in the memory, something that does not fit there, or is not real. That is what helped me determine they were lies.
This can happen…But I met a woman who was bragging about getting friends hurt and causing them a nervous breakdown by scaring them with the family sex abuse story then letting her sex abuser stalk the woman (and worse) to get out of the girls whatever they would give. Some of the women were savagely assaulted on trips with this woman into different police jurisdictions with dirty cops who didn’t care and had no family around the trip location to get them out of there. Woman said the ladies who lived alone developed PTSD on the stories she told because the stories was not retold to anyone else and then when the memories come back at once when triggered by feeling threatened by her family, it resulted in a nervous breakdown for me. The mental care was so busy trying to call this something else when I presented for insomnia and anxiety, they refused me any assistance for the PTSD and even escalated things…until a major depressive episode and psychosis started. The witch I met did admit another girl she did this to got mental care and ended up killing herself after 7 years of nonstop threatening voices and no relief from the meds. I’ve heard it for 10 years now non-stop but function pretty okay. Her abuser has stalked me, computer hack (he is IT), trespassed (seen him leaving) and stuff was ruined, vandalism, met crazy strangers who this group had previous worked over who were sent to stalk /harassment/trespass…local cops will not help with this unless you can get pictures of whoever is trespassing. Neighbors even saw several folks leaving while I wasn’t home several times and trash picking while the cart was up in my yard by the garage. But these folks have a little drug side business going on so they refused to talk to the cops…I gave up and moved as I was next door to a friend of my witch so distance was desirable for me after YEARS of their crap and realizing the other folks had been bothered by this bunch for 30 years sometimes, what else could I do?
Another lady on this board had same situation as myself and doctor told her these PTSD memories were false memories and was told she could return to the people who were the ‘topic’ of her selective amnesia/PTSD. The woman was sexually assaulted at a party probably due to date rape drugging, and pdoc told the cops the woman had no credibility because of her mental care there and nothing had happened. I guess the lady didn’t go to the hospital to have evidence collected after the attack (called a rape kit) but her obgyn confirmed she had been assaulted due to bruising/damage. Local cops refused to do anything & group of abusers was taunting her bad now. When one psych doctor I tried used the word ‘false memories’ in my presence, I gringed after reading this story on this board about this poor lady. Other folks on this board hinted they went back to the cause of their PTSD after pdoctor called it ‘false memories’ and their abuser was playing with their head more…Just remember the story about the witch I met…
Also understand a lot of people hear the voices some of the time and follow orders from the voices to bother specific strangers about something private - called thought broadcasting, gang stalking or cause stalking. Understanding the ‘other opinion’ on this subject will keep you okay so Google this stuff and read up. Some folks present good account of their sufferings while other people are still confused but that is to be expected. The mental care will refuse to discuss this calling it delusional and refuse to help which escalates the situation for a lot of the confused mental patients to the point of self-harm when they become really crazy. You cannot show any anger toward your mental care team or you will be forced into the hospital on a forced mental care warrant for an ‘attitude adjustment weekend’ at your own expense.
If you have a story like mine, you should not talk to the ‘topic’ of your selective amnesia. Do not return phone calls, emails, or answer the door to them except to tell they you want no more contact. My bunch will stalk someone and wants to be told to leave you alone…The stalking laws are mostly useless as are the restraining orders so you can only hope your nut abusers get bored and quit or move when you are ready. If you move the gang stalking/social problems with strangers begin just as a reminder…I would never follow orders from the voices or talk to myself aloud…Some with my kind of story had the voices stop after 2-3 years if you avoid your abuser & do not discuss this much.
I can’t say that I’ve definitely had a false memory. I know that I’ve experienced something similar though more than a few times. Kind of how you described with the experience running parallel.
I’m not diagnosed however I do have my own theories. I don’t believe that the brain can tell the difference between a real or false memory. I believe that whatever you see, hear, taste and feel becomes memory.
Sorry you have so many false ones. That has to be hard.
But on a serious note, I have some very vivid memories of stuff that never happened and I feel stupid when I reference them now that I’m getting a handle on this illness.
I keep thinking they sort of spring out of a delusion/ hallucination and then they sort of solidify and become memory.
The one that made me sad was I have a memory of a really good day with my younger brother… that never happened.
I have false memories of other worlds. Supposedly I’m a war lord animal-like creature, which is why my screen name is bear. And my icon is a buffalo. I’m something inbetween those and human, and have four eyes. But I keep having flashes of war after-the-fact, where there’s just smoke and dead bodies. Most of the time I’m wondering in the woods though, right outside of a field.
Actually that could be a real memory but an ancestral memory. that is something that hasn’t been explored yet here. Carl Jung and JRR Tolkien both believed and taught about ancestral memories (also called racial or genetic memory)
It is the belief that events from the distant past in your own ancestry are handed down through your DNA and genetic code as memory…it is also one reason people believe in past lives very vividly, but they may not actually be past lives as in reincarnation, but memories of actual ancestors in your families lineage.
Your particular memory seems to hail from the time of the titans, Greek Gods, pre flood world, Atlantis where the mythology of creatures like the Minotaur, Centaur and other hybrid beings came from. There is a real history of this time period, and the mythology was based on real events and real beings, however mythology is often exaggerated but still has a core truth.
Have you ever traced your ancestry way back? Even family names and where they came from geographically? When I did I found many answers to the memories and revelations i was having. I had already been told much of my own families history before I ever read it in print…
@e_lunaseer
There is an odd link… or memory… or common thought between my youngest brother and kid sister that this post some how seems to explain very well.
With the two of them trying to patch up the huge amount of damage from this past year, this link / idea between them has been coming back in to existence. They used to say the story stared in Egypt and ended in Pompeii.
Uncanny post.
they are correct…You posted awhile back your clan name and it’s the same clan as my Grandfather… We did indeed originate in Egypt, mainly through Princess Scota, migrated to Ireland and Scotland long ago…Idk about the Pompeii thing…side trip? Or actually its along the route you would take from Egypt if you sailed the Mediterranean rather than cut west on land and enter across the strait of Gibralter into Iberia, modern Spain.
I have so many false memories. They are all between the time that I was admitted to the hospital and during 4 years of recovery. I saw an old friend recently and he told me about things that I would do and say that I do not remember and then I would talk about something that I thought had happened and he told me that it wasn’t true. I have a lot of false memories.
I do not trust that any of my memories are genuine. I have had many issues with being told what I vividly recall did not happen… either everyone around me lacks the ability to remember things accurately, or I have an altered version of the truth.
my maternal ggfather was a farmer and severe alcoholic and my paternal blew his brains out in a motel room after losing ten million in the great depression…his wife had apparently driven off a pier with the kids in the back of the car and my now deceased grandmother was the only survivor.
SOmetimes I feel like reality is very shaky. I can’t say a memory is false until I really know what’s real. I’ve lost that bearing, so I’m on this forum to try to vent because I’m a disabled vet but I’ve never undergone therapy specifically for schizophrenia.
i had false memories a lot. like I would remember a conversation that took place at the specific location, the conversation that I remember was very detail and very false… I am diagnosed as SZA, but I don’t have hallucinations, or negative symptoms, the only symptom that I have is delusion and racing thought. I don’t believe in my diagnosis, I either have delusional disorder or psychotic disorder NOS.
Its very interesting that people in this forum also experience false memories, maybe its a another psychiatric illness that has noting to do with Schizophrenia.
is it possible to differentiate between false memories and hallucinations/delusions or are they considered the same? i wonder because i have distinct memories but am told they’re hallucinations/delusion and but i think that’s an outright dismissal of my trauma and lie and they’re probably in on it. but then this false memory thing has me thinking. i don’t want to detail what the memories are because it can be harder for me to set them aside for consensus reality then. maybe another day, but not today. today it’s too humid out.
apologies if i should’ve started my own thread. i will if someone tells me that’s the proper course. cheers
