The experience of living with the incredibly rare disease has been shared by a woman who is one of a very limited number of people who recall every single moment of their lives.
All of us have experienced awkward situations that we’d prefer to forget. Fortunately, that usually seems to happen after a few years, but not for Rebecca Sharrock and Emily Nash.
Rebecca was given a diagnosis of “Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory” (HSAM) about 12 years ago.
MedicalNewsToday describes the rare illness, often referred to as Hyperthymesia, as “an ability that allows people to remember nearly every event of their life with great precision.”
“My brain is almost organised like a calendar, and each date specifically resembles a movie where I can replay, rewind, and fast-forward,” Emily told 60 Minutes Australia when she and Rebecca discussed their illness.
“The more I go forward into a specific day, the more details I can pull up from that day.”
Emily says she can still clearly remember being pursued around the home by her parents while she was starting to walk as a baby.
“I remember my parents started chasing me around the house, because I was just so excited to learn how to walk and it became a run,” she stated to the program.
“I think I even learned those two things the same day.”
Rebecca has had the uncommon illness all of her life, but she didn’t understand why she could remember her history so clearly until she received her formal diagnosis more than 12 years ago.
Amazingly, Rebecca can recall every detail of her life from her early infancy to the present, when she is an adult.
When asked if she can recall every moment of her life in an interview with 60 News Australia, the Australian stated, “That’s pretty much the case, I’d said I remember about 95 percent of the time at least.”
She continued, “The negative side about having this memory condition is that I do get many distractions from random flashbacks that I don’t ask to come in my mind – all day and all night.”
Rebecca continued by saying that having the disease is a “curse.”
The Australian continued by outlining the drawbacks: recalling unpleasant or depressing memories triggers all of the emotions she experienced at the time.
She clarified, “If I’m remembering an incident that happened when I was three, my emotional response to the situation is like a three-year-old, even though my mind and conscience are like an adult.”
Rebecca expressed similar feelings to The Guardian in 2022, saying, “My feelings from a bad encounter will resurface if I’m recalling it.”
“Sometimes people will say that I’m just deliberately not letting go, and I’m just like dwelling on the negatives in my life.”
Rebecca concluded, “It’s awful to be a medical exception because very few people understand what you’re going through and there just aren’t many treatments designed for it.”
“Remembering this way just seems so normal to me.”
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