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My faulty memory


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Hi everyone,

I'm ruminating extensively right now, and trying to dig out memories and events that will allay my discomfort/fears. Except my memories always seem to point me towards a problem, and to give me the wrong answer. Is it normal that my memory is so selective and can only remember certain events that make me feel worse, rather than remembering the events I'm actually looking for? There seems some kind of bias in the thinking.

Paul

 

Edited by paul.anthem@hotmail.com
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Hello, and welcome to the forum! :welcome:

You are ruminating, which is a very common compulsion.

Stop the ruminating, which is reinforcing your OCD. Many of us have dealt with "false-memory OCD," and we can all tell you, that the more you ruminate (think) about it, the more it is going to be twisted and deliver you more "memories" (which are really just thoughts) that reinforce this obsession, but aren't actually real and aren't anything to be concerned about.

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HiPaulAnt   Memory is incredibly important in mental well being. Are you ‘digging out’ memories to confirm that you are a moral person or feel no need to feel shame?   This is bound to failure as your mood when you do this will tend to be depressive or anxious. Your mood biases your digging out.
 

I experience memory recall which is biased in that the retrieved memories are negative when I am low. 

 I do not dig out memories,  but the memories are spontaneously generated. We spontaneously trigger memories every day. Somebody talks about fouls in football and spontaneously you remember the fouls that you are aware off. It is a natural thing. When somebody talks to you: your memory spontaneously tells you the meaning of words in an incredibly fast way. And so forth?

If you read some of the stuff by the therapist Paul Gilbert about memory it will help. He developed compassion based therapy which is incorporated in CBT for OCD at the centres of excellence for OCD and cognitive therapy at Oxford and London.

Most importantly do not dig out when in a low mood it will be biased in a negative way!

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On 04/09/2020 at 18:31, Angst said:

HiPaulAnt   Memory is incredibly important in mental well being. Are you ‘digging out’ memories to confirm that you are a moral person or feel no need to feel shame?   This is bound to failure as your mood when you do this will tend to be depressive or anxious. Your mood biases your digging out.
 

I experience memory recall which is biased in that the retrieved memories are negative when I am low. 

 I do not dig out memories,  but the memories are spontaneously generated. We spontaneously trigger memories every day. Somebody talks about fouls in football and spontaneously you remember the fouls that you are aware off. It is a natural thing. When somebody talks to you: your memory spontaneously tells you the meaning of words in an incredibly fast way. And so forth?

If you read some of the stuff by the therapist Paul Gilbert about memory it will help. He developed compassion based therapy which is incorporated in CBT for OCD at the centres of excellence for OCD and cognitive therapy at Oxford and London.

Most importantly do not dig out when in a low mood it will be biased in a negative way!

 

Thanks for this. I am searching out memories that will reassure me, that will make me feel less anxious and sick, specifically ones that create an even number of times I did something. But I can never remember the right amount of incidents, only the number that makes me feel ill. But I am sure the memory must be biased in finding only the number of incidents that will make me feel unwell.

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