Memory loss, complete or partial, is a diagnosis that is far from fully understood. At least in the part that concerns the causes and consequences. Each has its own reason - old age, stress, drugs, trauma, and much more. And doctors can confirm that each patient had a different background.
From the medical history
A 32-year-old woman woke up one morning with no recollection of the last 17 years of her life. The last memory was the evening when, as a teenager, she settled down to sleep with her sister on a bunk bed and discussed the upcoming exam with her.
Two months later, the memory returned, but the woman had to get used to the 21st century anew: to master a computer, a smartphone, and most importantly - to get used to the idea that she has a 10-year-old son.
What is this case?
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From a medical point of view, this case is indicative of dissociative amnesia. This means that there is no physiological explanation as to why she temporarily lost 17 years of memories. Perhaps the memory lapse was caused by stress or trauma, regardless of the statute of limitations.
In general, dissociative personality disorder is a controversial diagnosis. Some scientists even deny that it really exists.
Complementing the picture of the disease, people with this diagnosis are usually also diagnosed with personality disorder and emotional instability. They also have a chance of scoring high on suggestibility and a predisposition to rich imagination.
Cases of psychogenic or dissociative amnesia are relatively rare. More common is organic amnesia caused by brain damage or neurological disease such as stroke. When such patients are admitted to the clinic, their problem is not that they have forgotten episodes from their past or that they have lost their identity. Most often, in the foreground, they are unable to form new memories.
When to forget
Dissociated memory loss is considered separately in medicine. Such a state is considered as a blocking by memory of unpleasant, sometimes tragic, events that were associated with emotional stress (accidents, death of loved ones, a bad act that one wants to forget about). A blackout can be a subconscious rejection of negativity. In this case, amnesia can be accompanied by confusion, depression and other behavioral reactions. This form of disorder can be difficult to distinguish from conscious simulation.
Stuck in the present
So-called anterograde amnesia is usually caused by damage to the hippocampus, a structure located in the temporal lobes (near the ears) that plays an important role in memory. The first best-studied case of such amnesia dates back to 1953. The surgeon removed most of the hippocampus due to radical treatment for epilepsy. The operation was relatively successful: the seizures stopped, but the patient was forever stuck in the present. Although he could recall some episodes from the past, most of the memories never lasted more than a few seconds. He greeted close people every day as strangers. After eating, he could sit down at the table in half an hour. And he could not remember what he was doing and what he wanted a minute ago. The researchers also found that the patient had an unusually high pain tolerance. The painful sensations are partly related to our memory of the pain suffered, so it is quite possible that the patient's high pain threshold was related precisely to the lack of memories of previous painful episodes.
Retrograde amnesia
With such a disturbance, the events that preceded the injury or illness that caused amnesia are erased from memory. It is interesting that a person can forget about everything that happened several hours, days and even years before the event that provoked the loss of memory.
Bad habits are another reason
Some forms of organic amnesia can be caused by hard drugs and alcohol use. Sometimes it can be a short-term memory lapse caused by intoxication. But long-term alcoholism can cause a condition known as Korsakoff's syndrome, which destroys both memories from the past and the formation of new memories in the present. Patients often try to fill in the memory gaps with fictional episodes, and seem to believe in them.
Transient global amnesia
It is more rare when memory loss is caused by a temporary decrease in blood flow to parts of the brain that are responsible for the corresponding function. The reasons for this type of impaired blood flow can vary. A case from medical practice is described when a 54-year-old woman claimed that she had lost all memories in the 24-hour period before a certain moment - mind-blowing sex.
Infantile amnesia
In a sense, we are all prone to amnesia: rarely an adult can remember the first three or four years of his life. This does not mean that we are unable to form long-term memories at an early age (three-year-olds, for example, can easily recount their earliest memories). But for some reason, these memories are lost in later childhood and adolescence. A recent study found that infantile (or childhood) amnesia occurs at age seven. What contributes to the fact that the most vivid and vivid memories are lost? The fact is that memory in adults and children is organized differently. Children do not tie their actions and the actions of those around them either to time or to space.
Fun fact: There is evidence that infantile amnesia is somewhat culturally dependent. For example, the first memories of New Zealand Maori are earlier than that of New Zealand citizens of European descent and Asians. Perhaps because Maori culture places a lot of emphasis on stories of the past.
Save your memory
Loss of early childhood memories is nothing compared to the experience of people with more severe forms of amnesia. For many, this state is like a yawning abyss on the road of life. Memories form the basis of our being, around which we build our identity, our relationships, hopes and dreams. When we lose our memories, we really do lose ourselves.
Rose Narodnoe