Which ages/years of your life do you have most vivid memories from?

[Beenponderingthis]

Reading another post about the op having no childhood memories and thinking through my life and my most vivid memories..including things I/friends were wearing, things we said etc are my teenage years. These were probably the best years of my life also

I have some vivid memories from my childhood. I remember being stood at the top of my attic stairs one minute, and then being at the bottom without any recollection of how I got there the next. It was almost as if I flew. I also had vivid dreams of levitation and actually leaving my body and going somewhere else. This hasn't left me as an adult, and I frequently suffer from sleep paralysis and often tend to leave this realm.

I kind of remember traumatic situations as an infant also. I don't remember the full details of them, or the aftermath but I remember the time I found a kitten on the street (I must've been about 6), and I took it home. I remember the moment I opened the living room door and the look of horror on my mum's face and her shouting NO. We had a Labrador.

The kitten jumped out of my hand and I remember my mum slamming the living room door shut as I was stood in the hall. I then remember her screeching and sobbing.

It's an awful memory that I wish I could erase.

Between 2-11 years are my most vivid memories. I had an interesting childhood.

My teen years were awful so I try not to remember them.

I have vivid memories from every decade as they roll by.
I'm shit hot in a music quiz too 😊

Childhood wise, I remember the last 2 years of junior school particularly vividly. It was a lot of fun! Secondary, I mainly remember the parties and the dumb but fun decisions.

But my adult life has been so much more memorable than my (really lovely) childhood. It makes me feel a bit sad when people say their childhood were the best years of their lives. Especially, as adults, you have to ability to change that on a daily basis.

@HereForTheAnimals

I had vivid dreams of levitation as a child too. I don’t think what I have now is classed as sleep paralysis, but a large proportion of my dreams end up with me being paralysed or unable to move normally. Usually it’s along the lines of something or someone attacking me, but when I try to run or fight back my limbs are like lead. I had one recently where I was hanging off the edge of a cliff but unable to move my limbs to get to safety.

I have a good memory for conversations I have with people and minor details, but not so much for things that have happened in my life over the years. I used to, but at some point it became too painful and I think a good portion of that part of my brain was switched off. My teenage years were awful, and when I was 20 something traumatic and life-changing happened to me. Around the same time my beloved parent became ill, and less than a year later they were gone. I spent my 20s trying to blot everything out with alcohol, an extremely volatile relationship and prescription drugs. There’s so many blanks which, to be honest, I’m thankful for.

My late teens and twenties when I was training to be a nurse in Edinburgh.

I would say 16,17,18,19 I remember most. Because I worked hard but my goodness did I play hard as well. I was lucky enough to love my last year at school and the college years. I was the ugly duckling that bloomed.
i just wish now I had know what a stunner I was, I knew I was good looking but I had it all. The figure, the boobs, the arse, the legs.

unfortunately I seemed to age quite quickly and along came many wobbly bits but I def smile looking back. Especially turning down pricks who had teased me at school.

I don't have very vivid memories at all, even of very significant events. I remember that they happened, more like a factual timeline, but I can never remember my feelings of being actually there. This is a blessing and a curse, I have no real triggers despite having experienced traumatic events. But I also have no real memories of my childhood or young adult years. If I were ever called to give legal evidence of something from 1 or 2 decades ago I would struggle.

I have a pretty good long term memory in general. I have two vivid memories from under the age of two (I only know I was that young because I relayed the memories and location to my mum and she told me what age I would have been). One was of me being in a cot by a specific window and the other was me putting Beatrix Potter stickers all over our window - I can still smells the clear rubbery sticker pages in my sticker book. I had a lot of trauma in my childhood and I have a loooot of vivid memories, both good and bad - some life altering, some mundane. I don’t think my memory has necessarily faded since going through my 20’s and now into my 30’s, but I definitely led a more “exciting” life up until my teens, so I have more distinct memories to look back on.

I definitely think my brain has evolved to edit out trauma. Often my friends remind me of series of traumatic events in certain years of my life I have barely any memory of. I'm sure it's all hormone connected to my hyperthyroidism which can affect memory, but it's a bit chicken and egg about whether the traumatic events triggered it. I've very low self esteem because once your memory starts to go you often don't see much point in trying to remember things and feeling useful isn't really a thing.