Fake memories - The Bat Incident

[Mapleunicorn]

I have ADHD and I accepted a long time ago that my memory is awful. There are huge parts of my childhood/life that I simply can’t remember. But does ADHD make you invent memories sometimes?

I have a really clear memory from my childhood of a bat coming into my brother’s bedroom and nesting (for want of a better word) in the corner of his ceiling. It was there for days. We called it Batman. I recently mentioned this at a family lunch, and not one single other member of my family knew what I was talking about

Has my brain invented that memory? Did I dream it and my brain stored it as a memory instead? I can remember it so clearly, I can picture the exact place the bat was. But for literally not one other person to even vaguely remember it makes me question if it really happened.

Is this a thing?

No-one else in my family is ND (to my knowledge anyway!) so I don’t think it’s just that we all collectively struggle with memory

Haven't heard of this being an ND or ADHD "thing", but our minds certainly can create false memories. Not saying that that's the case here, though, of course.

I didnt know the answer to your question OP but i have just googled it and yes, ADHD absolutely can make you create false memories!

I'd like to thank you for starting this thread actually. I'm an older person who got an unofficial diagnosis of Autism last year. I had suspected since then that I am in fact AuDHD. But I hadn't realised my memory problems were related to ADHD. Like you I can't really remember lots of my childhood and past life. And in truth struggled even to remember what happened the day before clearly - what the weather was like even. So to hear there is a reason for this is so helpful. And something I can explore.

Yes, this can happen memory isn’t perfect and sometimes the brain mixes real bits with imagination.
ADHD can make recall more patchy, so details feel super real even if they’re partly reconstructed.
It doesn’t mean you’re “making things up,” just that memory isn’t always a reliable recording.