[Veggiepatch]

Living With A Rare Condition​

I know I polarise fellow SDC members with my bluntness and desire for facts. But there may be a reason. In 2010, two psychologists suspected that I was showing signs of very mild autism while I was attending a court ordered anger management course. I thought "they may be right", comparing my traits to those who I cared for with clinically diagnosed autism over a 20 year career in the field.

Fast forward to early 2023 and I got to thinking "There is something not quite right". Me being my typical researching self, decided to embark on a investigation with startling findings. A very rare condition termed "hyperthymesia" stood out. With less than 200 "sufferers" worldwide, I thought "nah".

Persons with hyperthymesia experience a very detailed memory of their entire life, that which I have. My first memory was flying on a TAA flight back from Hobart to Sydney when I was 2 years of age. Why? I was apparently airsick and vomited on Mum who was nursing me at the time. A blonde hostess with a yellow face washer helped Mum clean me up. And looking out the plane's window, seeing all those green trees!

Earlier this year, I was referred to a psychiatrist who deemed me to be in the "too hard basket" as there is no formal diagnostic test for hyperthymesia. Same with psychiatrist number 2, so I gave up.

My mind is working non stop, 30 hours a day, 10 days a week, 500 days a year. That may explain why I've felt like I've lived 164 years, not my true 64 years. Sleep is a half waking nightmare, interspersed with vivid dreams which are more like short movies, rather than fleeting images, with people I have known and others who are complete strangers. And remembered in intricate detail. Sometimes these "events" are so feasible that I think they actually occurred on waking!

Back to hyperthymesia. I am able to very accurately remember and reenact just everything I have seen, heard. smelt, felt and tasted. I have a database of tens of thousands of complete songs and some movies, the huge majority of personal experience, both pleasant and ugly, substance abuse affected or not, of which I documented in my piece "Facing Your Demons". All at immediate recall.

Thinking of my unquenchable thirst for knowledge, for example, I might think of "Who was the character in that movie?", only to end up, through a never ending chain of obscure links, wind up researching the summertime vegetation of the Greenland tundra, some 2 hours later. How bizarre you may think and how right you are! I am way past having a complex personality. I'm totally borderline messed up!

Some may think of a photographic or even eidectic memory. Remotely related to hyperthymesia, but no cigar. As far as these are concerned, they are temporary in nature, whereas hyperthymesia is permanent. Does it make you an academic genius? Thankfully no as detailed in the very few academic articles on the subject.

I shall leave it at that. Just a bit of insight into the way the Veggiepatch mind works and honestly, it's somewhat frightening.

Questions are more than welcome, especially those experiencing similar traits. Thank you.