Is having vivid memories from infancy a trait of Asperger's Syndrome?

[Madame Catfish]

Here recently, I have learned that some of my most vivid memories took place before I was one year of age. Just curious as to whether or not this had anything to do with Asperger's. Does anyone else have memories that took place very early in life? How did your parents respond when you recollected these things? My parents were kind of freaked out, though I'm not sure why.

 

[Peter]

My first memory is being brought home as a newborn, no idea if it's anything to do with Aspergers though. I do find I shock people by remembering tiny little details about them yet major things about them, including their name, sometimes, I easily forget. The same with most of my life. I can remember my families home phone number from when I was 6 years old but cant even remember my current number.

 

[Ereth]

I do have some memories of my earliest days, but I cannot say whether it has anything to do with autism.

 

[Jimbo]

My youngest memories probably only go back to age 4. I remember watching our black and white tv on the couch while drinking nestle quick out of my bottle.

 

[Explosition_Rooster]

I have memories like that as I can remember back to when I was 2,3 years old.

 

[Ylva]

I remember scenes from when I was about two or maybe even before that. I hypothesise that it has to do with AS in that I've had to be very lucid to keep tabs on all the unfiltered and unfilterable sensory impressions, and that's why I remember things.

 

[AutisticallyInclined]

@question: smh

 

[Axeman52]

I have a memory about sitting in front of a TV when there was ballroom dancing on - I remember a woman in a red and white dress spinning around and the dress fanning outwards as she spun. The memory is only a thing I saw that I couldn't comprehend at the time. There's nothing else to that memory, usually memories have a specific location and situation attached to them, but not this one, so it must've been a very early memory.

 

[supernova]

I remember lying in my pram and a strange women leaning over making cooing noises. I remember being scared and screaming and my mother rushing out of the shop to see what was the matter. I was lying flat in the pram so I must have been very young.

 

[grapesicles]

These are interesting to read! I remember being at the beach lying down in my pram and how bright and blue the sky was. I remember the feel of these cute toys that were strung across the front of the pram and my mum is always astounded that I remember.

One of my cousins says she remembers being born but I'm not sure I believe her!

 

[Judge]

One of my cousins says she remembers being born but I'm not sure I believe her!

I thought only David Copperfield could do that.

Not the magician.

 

[Ste11aeres]

One of my professors said he has a memory from when he was in the womb.
They say the ability to remember starts before birth...anyway, if he wasn't a professor people would make fun of him, but I believe in not discounting people's memory.
He's ADHD, not ASD.

 

[TheBlankCanvas]

I remember 9/11, but that's the only early memory I can really put an exact date on, I was 2 at the time. But I also remember some construction being done at my house, I don't remember moving at all in the memories so I must have been pretty young, maybe 1 or 2. I also have an early memory from being in my back yard that is entirely black and white for some reason.

 

[Val2]

My earliest memory was probably 3ish. Which is probably pretty typical for people.


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[Vanilla]

I'm not sure it's linked with AS, though I do have some rather vivid memories of myself as a child. I think generally speaking, we remember the earlier years of our lives, better than the later. I've read articles which suggest this is common, so I assume NTs do experience too; maybe we simply retain memories a little better, because of our attention to details.

One of the jobs I used to work in meant dealing with a lot of dementia and Alziemer's patients. I was only an office girl, but the nurses would tell me that when a person suffers from such extreme memory loss as that, their most vivid memories tend to be the time frame in which they perceive themselves. For most of them, this seems to be their childhood.

This means that they could be 80 years old, and believe themselves to only be 6-7 years old, because those years had their most vivd memories. That's why they are often confused, or upset, as their reality doesn't match up with their memories. Suddenly they're old, their parents have long gone, they can't run, and play, it's a real shock to the system.

There was one lady I felt the most sorry for. She was Russian, but had previously lived in Poland. She was once one of the victims of the concentration camps during Hitlers reign. She was only a small child at the time, and she was in one of the camps with her young mother. Most of the time she would cooperate fine with us, but occasionally she'd slip back to that time frame, when she was young, and living in the camps. When this happened, she would call for her mother in Russian; we could tell when she was having one of these episodes, as she would no longer answer in English. During these episodes, she tries to escape her wheelchair, she refuses food, she throws things to the ground, yells at the top of her lungs for hours on end, and has been known to spit at people.

All I knew was that I couldn't work in that kind of environment for too long, as I would empathise way too much with them all, and it was so depressing to me; the other staff members never understood why it effected me so much, and I didn't understand why they seemed unfazed.

 

[CJinherPJs]

I remember as far back as about 18 months, and have some vivid memories of when I was a toddler. I can remember my maternal grandfather, who died of a heart attack when I was two and a half, and still recall the book of nursery rhymes he used to read to me, and the games he used to play with me.

There was one lady I felt the most sorry for. She was Russian, but had previously lived in Poland. She was once one of the victims of the concentration camps during Hitlers reign. She was only a small child at the time, and she was in one of the camps with her young mother. Most of the time she would cooperate fine with us, but occasionally she'd slip back to that time frame, when she was young, and living in the camps. When this happened, she would call for her mother in Russian; we could tell when she was having one of these episodes, as she would no longer answer in English. During these episodes, she tries to escape her wheelchair, she refuses food, she throws things to the ground, yells at the top of her lungs for hours on end, and has been known to spit at people.

All I knew was that I couldn't work in that kind of environment for too long, as I would empathise way too much with them all, and it was so depressing to me; the other staff members never understood why it effected me so much, and I didn't understand why they seemed unfazed.

I couldn't work in that environment either. I helped my mother to care for my elderly grandmother, who needed 24-hour care, in the family home, and because of my experience seeing Nanna, who was always a very strong, independent lady, as ill as she was, I'd find it difficult not to empathise with other elderly people in similar situations. Carers and nurses are often able to emotionally detach themselves, as easily as flipping a switch, but I don't think I could.