r/casualiama • u/Accomplished-Camp741 • 2d ago
I have retrograde amnesia. AMA!
I've done one of these before, but I'm bored and feel like talking. So, three years ago I was walking on the sidewalk to a bus stop from work when I was struck by a vehicle. The driver sped off and to this day has never been caught. I was living in a major city at the time and had to be taken from the hospital back to my small hometown by my father, who I didn't recognize at the hospital (I recognize him now, of course). Doctors told me that moving back to my hometown would actually be beneficial in terms of restoring my memories. I have a lot of memories that I remember "recovering" in sort of an a-ha moment, when I taste certain foods, see people's faces, see certain things, etc.
I know amnesia is rare, so I'm willing to answer any questions anyone might have for me.
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u/AerisSpire 2d ago
How much of yourself, or your daily life, did you forget at first? How did you function before moving back home with the gaps in memory? Were you able to resume work/school, or did you forget those things? I'm endlessly fascinated by retrograde amnesia, so I appreciate the ability to ask these questions
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u/Accomplished-Camp741 2d ago
Pretty much everything except my name, birthday, and birthplace- Except I knew the name of my birthplace/hometown but nothing other than that. I knew my parent's names but couldn't tell you anything else about them or recognize them in a lineup. I did not function well at first, after moving to my hometown. I would walk into a store or restaurant and hear a familiar song and stand there for a while trying to place it and probably looking like a weirdo. I walked around town and everyone who stopped to talk to me, I asked for their last name (many were childhood friends and relatives) and recently I was told my a few friends who weren't aware of my predicament that they thought it was weird at the time. I would recognize someone's face but from WHERE? and stare at them. I was acting weird. There is so much embarrassment from that time. I applied for a job at the only bar in my hometown because I looked up resumes in my e-mail and that's how I found out that I had been a bartender for the past 10 years.
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u/Big-Yesterday586 2d ago
As someone with amnesia, this is so fucking funny
This is absolutely something I would have done before I started treatment
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u/Accomplished-Camp741 2d ago
What do you mean?
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u/Big-Yesterday586 2d ago
Oh hey! You made it back to answer questions.
I was just giggling because that's something I would have done years ago. I would have posted something like that, then forgotten it. Who knows when I would have remembered.
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u/Rudyjax 2d ago
I’m sorry that happened to you. It must be incredibly scary and frustrating.
You remember your dad from the past or the past 3 years?
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u/Accomplished-Camp741 2d ago
I remember him from my past now. When he came to pick me up from the hospital, he initially didn't see me and walked right past me. He has very distinctive tattoos. I recognized those, so I shouted "dad" and he turned around. I was allowed to leave with him because a) I called him dad and b) We have the same last name. So I was released to him. Looking at his face though, I didn't recognize him. I do a little now, though. And he has a lot of our family photo albums which helped me re!ember how much we loved going fishing together when I was little. I feel like I know him now, I even recognize his face now.
ETA: the nurses told me that my dad was picking me up. That's how I knew that I should probably call out and see if it was him when I saw the tattoos. Otherwise I probably would not have known.
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u/BarelySurvivor 2d ago
I have retrograde amnesia as well, I also moved back to my hometown. It's so weird to say "I don't remember" so often to people and they look at you in disbelief like... but it just happened 3 years ago or so how could you not...
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u/Accomplished-Camp741 2d ago
Yes. I also have had people in my hometown hug me on the street, tell me how much they missed me, or that I look like my parents, etc. And I just smile and nod because I have no idea who they are and don't want to offend them. I didn't recognize my high school boyfriend at first and THAT was embarrassing.
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u/BarelySurvivor 23h ago
So real, happened with my elementary best friend 😭
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u/Accomplished-Camp741 18h ago
Mine too! We were having a beer together one day and she said "remember when we used to play Polly Pockets together?" and I was like, " yeah, sure.... 😶"
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u/KittyFace11 2d ago
Just to state that I had retrograde amnesia for years and even did an AMA on it too, some time ago. So I commiserate with you for the weirdness it creates.
One thing that was very strange that happened to me was that I would remember people and situations as though they had just happened. Even if it was 30 years ago. This led to some interesting conversations with old friends I tracked down after all that time. I spoke to them as though we were still close friends who had just hung out with me yesterday, while they brought me up-to-date with all the many things that had happened over their life in the past 30 years: my personal context was so off that this was a serious mindfuck for me.
How are you finding that your memory is coming back?