Red78

Just wanting to know if anyone started getting old memories back once they gave up drinking?
I have vague memories from when I was young, I read my old diaries and don't remember half the stuff in there. Am I destined to never remember due to the alcohol and drugs? and I don't mean blackout moments but things from sober times.. I'm feeling like ive forgotten half my life...

Dee74

I don't remember a lot from my childhood but according to things I've read and counsellors I've known, thats not uncommon especially as we get older, even for people with no history of addiction.

Not making light of it, but for me my childhood was often not a great place to be, so it might even be for the best?

D

sweetichick

I think you are better off from forgetting old memories and moving forward. There is nothing to be gained from being stuck in the past.

totfit

I think many of us including myself may become more reflective. Since not in crisis all the time, we have the time to reflect. I think my memories were always there, just did not have time for them.

tomsteve

i didnt gain anything from sitting in the past either, other than i kept getting drunk. tried as i liked, i couldnt forget my past. it popped up whenever it felt. i would try to stuff it down further with alcohol with no success.
then i got sober and into recovery. thats when i used my past to help learn how i am who i am.i gained a crapton from looking at it. i am no longer haunted by my past. im ok with it coming up. i dont stare at it or live there.
if i regret my past ill get drunk.

a few years since getting into recovery i still have things from my past pop up and it doesnt bother me today.

Red78

I had an old boyfriend msg me, very sincerely, about our time together and how things were for him etc.. and I was young, the 1st time I got drunk was when I was going out with him, but I don't remember the things he talked about.. then I read some old diaries and dont remember the things I wrote in them, good memories...
I would like to remember the good things, not to dwell on but just to remember.. I think I just have a fear I'm losing my memory at a young age...

Outonthetiles

I've posted this before, but I have little memory of 2013, and I wasn't even aware that the Seahawks won the Superbowl until last year, even though I followed the team.

least

My memory was kind of spotty at the end of my drinking. With almost 8 yrs sober now, it's mostly working well. I still have a bit of age-related memory loss, but in general, it's pretty sharp.

Give yourself time to heal. It takes time for the brain to reprogram back to normal functioning. Take good care of yourself, in the meantime. Good food, rest, and exercise.

Outonthetiles

Memory definitely comes back after a couple months. I feel sharper than I was at 18.

Red78

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Red78

Your posts give me hope..lol I have been worried that I drug stuffed my brain as opposed to alcohol and the memories fall through the holes, like the old library filing system where the file flings out but a glitch in the filing system pulls out the wrong Dewey system card or the card is missing...

MindfulMan

Red, my experience is that memory improves with sobriety.

I'm in my mid-50s. Towards the end of my not-so-illustrious drinking career, I feared I was getting dementia. Short term memory half-shot and forgot a lot of things buried in long-term memory.

The s/t memory improved within days of cessation, and rapidly improved from there. It's still getting better at almost 7 months, almost to the point where I was in my mid-30s.

I've been remembering a lot more stuff from l/t memory as time goes on. At first it was a lot of drinking/drugging stuff, which was good as I was at first in denial that I was a "real alcoholic." Memory served me well there. Most of what I'm remembering now are good things and times.

Several have mentioned unhappy memories, particularly from childhood. It can be invaluable to sit with and process these unhappy and sometimes traumatic memories, otherwise you keep living the same failed life scripts without any insight as to why. This is what good therapy is supposed to do, and processing loss and trauma is best done in a safe place, preferably with a professional. This is how we were, this is what happened, this is how we are now. The narrative therapy I'm doing now is working extremely well and doing just that.

SportsFan15

I'm at 5 months and have noticed a good bit of long-term memory coming back. The short-term memory has improved too in terms of task orientation. (My ability to remember what I'm working on and what to do next, etc.)

I was very worried about this at one oint and read up on it. I've heard a lot of people say it gets better the longer we are away from ethanol!

Red78

Yes I'm frightened I'm getting early onset of dementia, not quite 40 yet but I'm ure I'm not, I'm.sure it's the alcohol and I had wondered if it would come back or improve if I stopped drinking..
I think embracing old memories good and ones is valuable also to move forward in life.. thanks for your post..

teatreeoil007

We cannot go back and undo or redo the past. But I believe we can make peace with the past. Accept/acknowledge something happened rather than deny it. If it's something traumatic or upsetting, that's best done with a therapist...working through it; processing it until YOU are ready to be done with it. I really don't like it when people give pat answers to problems from the past that were never addressed or processed. Just forget about it and move on seems to be almost a knee-jerk reaction many of us employ...I've tried that many times myself! The problem is...I have too good of a memory sometimes and....I *just*can't*forget*. It's a curse at times. But what I have found is that even if I can't forget something, when it crosses my mind if I've made peace with it, it doesn't upset me or take up too much of my energy.

And yes, many drink to try and forget the past.

teatreeoil007

Perhaps it's too soon in sobriety to tell how your brain is going to be minus alcohol long term. Maybe it would be better to assess the dementia possibility until after you've been sober for awhile.

If you go to the basement, but can't remember what for, don't worry. If you can't remember how to get out of the basement, that's another story.