Ever find out a memory you had was false?

[ezikel315]

My whole life I grew up with this insane memory of my family getting carjacked in a rough neighborhood and my mom getting stabbed and having to go to the hospital. I vividly remembered paramedics on the scene and my mother getting carried away in a stretcher and loaded onto an ambulance. I was about 4 or 5. I carried this traumatic memory my entire life. One day in my 30s I asked my mom about this incident and she was shocked because no such thing had happened.

According to her, there was one incident where we got stopped by cops because my dad was driving under the influence. And my mom did get taken to the hospital in an ambulance when she was pregnant with my sister and had complications. She thinks both incidents were probably rough on me and maybe my mind combined those two memories into one traumatic event that never happened.

I was living with a false memory my whole life and was traumatized for no reason. It makes me wonder what else I remember wrong. How much of our lives are made up of stories that are not entirely true?

 

[Takes Two To Tango]

Yeah that would be fucked up. How did that pseudo traumatic affect shape you as a person through those early years till you found out?

 

[Mr.Maelstrom]

That's why eye witness testimony isn't the be all end all in court cases that most people think it is.

I started to realize it more with age, and especially perspective. Things you remember only happened that one time, after that it only exists in the stories you tell other people about what happened that one time.

Your version of how it went down is the version you've been repeating, so it feels more accurate than it is due to that repetition, while the actual real version is long gone by this point

 

[Bobby00]

I remember a dream as a kid that felt real and i believed it for a while. I was young around 7 or so. I dreamed that i stole my dads car and took it for a joy ride. I forgot where it was parked so i just parked it in that area. I woke up in my bed sweaty. Later my dad had a struggle finding his car which was not usual for him. That reinforced it to me that it was real plus i was a heavy sleep walker as a child.

 

[zapataxiv]

in high school I had a big chip on my shoulder from being bullied in elementary school
when I met up with a bunch of people who knew from back then. they re collected that I was often one of the worse bullies, just got what as coming around too

we all hint we are the heros of our own story, until we ain't

 

[Sobek]

Interesting thread.
I kind of have one but I don't want to discuss it, plus it's very hazy being so long ago.
I remember Rogan mentioned years ago, he talked about misremembering things and that people are often not recounting the memory itself after a while but instead the memory of what they think happened that may have overlaid it. They are simply recalling that.

It seemed to have some validity.

 

[The_Renaissance]

Nothing major but I always thought I'd been to Barcelona as a kid and would casually join in conversations about it with people who had been or were going, only found out when I was about 35 that my parents never took me there as a kid. Still have never been.

 

[Wrath of Foamy]

Not exactly to do with the thread but...

I once chased two girls around with a garden fork and was promptly barearsed spanked over the knee by my Dad. I was about four, it was the only time I remember him disciplining me, and I deserved it, yet he insists that it never happened.

 

[TheChance]

That's why eye witness testimony isn't the be all end all in court cases that most people think it is.

I started to realize it more with age, and especially perspective. Things you remember only happened that one time, after that it only exists in the stories you tell other people about what happened that one time.

Your version of how it went down is the version you've been repeating, so it feels more accurate than it is due to that repetition, while the actual real version is long gone by this point

The way your brains work is, when you remember an incident you don't remember it you are remembering the memory of it you had the last time. So you don't really recall it you recall recalling it. If that makes sense.

 

[Kassitus]

In grade 7 me and my friend were in class and I was trying to make him laugh and I finally did by making a joke about this picture in one of our textbooks. We laughed a lot for like 5 mins and always remembered that time. About 5 years later I went back to the old classroom to look at the picture again, but the picture was totally different.

 

[Belaya Smert]

No

 

[I Am Legion]

I had a similar experience. We were going on vacation, and we got lost in a bad neighborhood. We pulled over and asked some locals directions. One guy says "Fuck your momma". Another group stole our hubcaps and spray painted "honky lips" on the wagon. Turns out it never happened. Like it was a movie.

 

[PBAC]

I have a very vivid memory of my ankle being tied to a bed post when I was being baby sat by my aunt. Dunno if it's fake, it's the kind of thing they'd do.

 

[Kung Fu Kowboy]

I remember winning the Mega Millions... and will remember until I actually win it.

 

[Jack Reacheround]

Lol, so you watched some gangster movies in the 90s and conflated that with an incident in which your dad got a DUI and your mom was pregnant?

How does that even happen?
No, I have never had a memory of something happening that didn’t. WTF?

 

[Slapjit]

One time having tea and biscuit, chatting with my brother Dr. Shookvinder. I tell him about time when we living in Jane and Finch ji Remembering training slap dangal with 29-0 MMA legend Cletus "Big Mac" MacArthur

After speaking on subject for few minute, Shookvinder become very angry then giving me strong thappad He tell to me these events they never happen ji and I am never to speak in that awaaz again haanji

 

[Lord_Impaler]

My whole life I grew up with this insane memory of my family getting carjacked in a rough neighborhood and my mom getting stabbed and having to go to the hospital. I vividly remembered paramedics on the scene and my mother getting carried away in a stretcher and loaded onto an ambulance. I was about 4 or 5. I carried this traumatic memory my entire life. One day in my 30s I asked my mom about this incident and she was shocked because no such thing had happened.

According to her, there was one incident where we got stopped by cops because my dad was driving under the influence. And my mom did get taken to the hospital in an ambulance when she was pregnant with my sister and had complications. She thinks both incidents were probably rough on me and maybe my mind combined those two memories into one traumatic event that never happened.

I was living with a false memory my whole life and was traumatized for no reason. It makes me wonder what else I remember wrong. How much of our lives are made up of stories that are not entirely true?

You went 30+ years never mentioning that your mother was carjacked and stabbed? That’s the craziest part of your story.

 

[Fedorgasm]

That's why eye witness testimony isn't the be all end all in court cases that most people think it is.

I started to realize it more with age, and especially perspective. Things you remember only happened that one time, after that it only exists in the stories you tell other people about what happened that one time.

Your version of how it went down is the version you've been repeating, so it feels more accurate than it is due to that repetition, while the actual real version is long gone by this point

I have a cousin that lies all the time and I think after a while he honestly believes his version because his lie has taken place of the real memory.

One time he told this story about an experience him and his dad had, but he added a bunch of lies to it over the years, so now he's telling this story to us right in front of his dad, and his dad just calls him out on his bullshit. And he looked surprised. I think he wouldn't have told that story on front of his dad if he realized it was full of lies. But to him they weren't lies anymore. It was fascinating.

 

[Mr.Maelstrom]

I have a cousin that lies all the time and I think after a while he honestly believes his version because his lie has taken place of the real memory.

One time he told this story about an experience him and his dad had, but he added a bunch of lies to it over the years, so now he's telling this story to us right in front of his dad, and his dad just calls him out on his bullshit. And he looked surprised. I think he wouldn't have told that story on front of his dad if he realized it was full of lies. But to him they weren't lies anymore. It was fascinating.

Oh wow, yeah I can say I have a friend or 2 that are prone to doing it. It's a real thing

 

[ssBaldy]

I have a memory of seeing a gray skinned alien inside my apartment when I was 3 or 4 years old. I have no idea if it is real. Reason tells me it's not but its vivid.