So one time, I was on a bus and this guy next to me was very bored and said “When the bell rings, the time will be 10:30 am…DING!”, “When the bell rings, the time will be 10:31 am…DING!”, in a robotic voice.
At first I was confused. I didn’t know what he was talking about. Then I stared at him and I could just feel a wave of nostalgia. A very distant memory almost forgotten came back. I’m 7 years old, bored at home with nothing to do pre-internet. I call a landline number that has a service that tells you the time and just listen in… that’s exactly what the telephone lady would say. OMG he’s imitating the landline time service lol
It felt very satisfying too. It’s like a eureka moment but for memory rather than thought.
Anything similar happen to you?
“Repressed” memories aren’t a thing. I would suggest that you read up on the body of work by Dr. Elizabeth Loftus. On the other hand, people forget thing, and certain things–smells, sounds–can trigger those memories. But these aren’t deeply traumatic memories that your unconscious mind is repressing to protect you, you’re just forgetting things.
Dr. Loftus has also authored a number of papers about the formation of false memories, and how people can be led to believe that they remember things that are absolutely, 100% false. Almost all of the cases of “repressed” memories from the 70s-90s, particularly during the Satanic Panic, are actually false memories created by the person asking questions. Unfortunately, much like the nonsense idea of multiple personalities, it’s one of those alluring concepts that simply won’t die, even among clinicians, despite the dearth of supporting evidence.
Interestingly, every time you recall a memory, it’s wiped out, and then has to be re-encoded. So recalling and rehearsing a memory makes it more likely that details will change and be lost. Even things that should be hugely significant–like where you were on 11 September 2001 (…for the people in their 30s and older…)–often get misremembered, and sometimes very strikingly.
I didn’t mean it in the trauma sense if that’s what you meant, just that people can have memories that are unusable some days and vivid the next, with a few causes possibly at play.