Short term memory lapse

[clm138]

Anybody experience this as an adult - conversations I have had with my spouse I have absolutely no memory of wherein I have threatened to leave her or some other stressful subject only to return hours later and act as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.  Or coerced her to have sex with me only to wake up the next day with no memory of my behaviour when confronted.  Almost as if I wasn't there for these events and seems to only have occurred with her and not other people I interact with.http://outofthefog.net/C-PTSD/forum/Smileys/classic/huh.gif

[Three Roses]

Hello and welcome, clm138!

Wow, that would certainly be an odd feeling. I'm sorry to hear you are experiencing this. Could it be a dissociative episode?

I copied this from a website -

"What is dissociative amnesia?

Amnesia refers to the inability to recall important personal information that is so extensive that it is not due to ordinary forgetfulness. Most of the amnesias typical of dissociative disorders are not of the classic fugue variety, where people travel long distances, and suddenly become alert, disoriented as to where they are and how they got there. Rather, the amnesias are often an important event that is forgotten, such as abuse, a troubling incident, or a block of time, from minutes to years. More typically, there are micro-amnesias where the discussion engaged in is not remembered, or the content of a conversation is forgotten from one moment to the next. Some people report that these kinds of experiences often leave them scrambling to figure out what was being discussed. Meanwhile, they try not to let the person with whom they are talking realize they haven't a clue as to what was just said (Maldonado et al., 2002; Steinberg et al., 1993; Steinberg, 1995)

http://www.isst-d.org/default.asp?contentID=76#dissam

[clm138]

Thanks for the reference to the article.  I had always thought dissociative amnesia referred to periods of time in your childhood but apparently not.  Ya know, after 35 years in alcohol recovery and ACOA support and doing a ton of work on my childhood emotional, physical and sexual abuse, I thought at age 69 I had a pretty good handle on this - but the stuff just keeps on coming.  My wife says I have been doing this on and off for the length of our 31 year marriage, although in recent years it has been decreasing to once or twice a year.

[Three Roses]

You're in the same boat as many of us here ... we'll use the word "mature", heh heh... and still unraveling the tangled knot of lies and damage.

I'm almost 60 and my husband is almost 63; he also used to forget conversations, and when we were younger I thought it was purposely, but now I'm convinced otherwise. He also is getting better.

It's so wonderful that we know about CPTSD now! I spent most of my life feeling like a freak. This is why I am always so happy to see younger people confronting their pasts earlier. Hopefully they can avoid the pain we've been through.

Good for you for the can-do attitude!