How are memories regained after amnesia?

Alsikepike

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I'm writing a story that involves an accident and some retrograde amnesia, but I'm having trouble finding reliable information about how memories return to a person in the aftermath of such a situation. Does certain stimuli trigger memories? Does everything come back immediately, or is it a more gradual process? And how would somebody describe the sensation? Many sources I've looked at have conflicting answers to these questions. I have a grandma who was in a car accident and couldn't remember who she was for the next 24 hours. Eventually her memories came back, and later she compared the sensation to a light switch being flipped back on. One minute she went from not being able to remember her name to being able to name every president of the United States off the top of her head, with no triggers or stimuli involved getting from one point to the next. This is the only reliable firsthand account I have, and it's unclear how the experience varies from person to person. Can you guys help me out? Did anybody experience something similar? Different maybe? Any help on this subject would be very much appreciated.
 
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WeaselFire

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Every case is unique. Most are more similar to your grandmother and can be caused by a stimulus that triggers a memory. There are types of amnesia that are caused by physical trauma which generally doesn't clear until the trauma heals. There is psychological trauma, which can be temporary to permanent. Often, parts are permanent, such as never being able to recall the moments leading up to the event, but rarely does someone lose all memory forever.

The key depends more on what you need for your story.

Jeff
 

Cyia

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Think of memories like files in a computer. Delete one, and it's not really gone; it's fragmented and/stored in the wrong place, but if you've got the right program, you can reassemble it and put it back where it belongs. - short-term amnesia. (in this case, the "program" putting the memories back together is familiarity.

However, if you damage or corrupt the files, then they're lost. - permanent brain damage, like frontal lobe damage making creation of memories difficult to impossible.
 

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It really depends on the type of amnesia and its cause. Is it complete amnesia, as in everything before accident is lost, even the character's name etc? This can happen from emotional trauma and is called a fugue state (psychogenic amnesia), and sometimes the memories can return abruptly and completely, though it doesn't always happen that way. This is a tough diagnosis, as it can be hard to separate organic and psychogenic causes, and the two can be entangled sometimes. For this reason, it can be difficult to look at individual cases and their outcome as typical examples. Sometimes the reason for the memory loss is unknown, and this diagnosis is somewhat controversial in psychological circles (as I understand it). It's a popular plot device for obvious reasons.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychogenic_amnesia

http://www.human-memory.net/disorders_psychogenic.html

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18619985

http://traumadissociation.com/dissociativeamnesia

When this kind of total amnesia occurs from an actual injury requires some more serious brain damage, as I understand it, and the person is unlikely to recover completely. Generally with retrograde Amnesia, people retain procedural memory--how to do things they've learned how to do over the years (like speak, dress themselves, ride a bike, read, do math etc.), and semantic memory is often retained (like the fact that they live in the US and so on)--but they lose autobiographical (or episodic) memories, even identity in some cases. However, with a brain injury that's severe enough to cause a larger patch of amnesia--losing years instead of minutes or hours--there tend to be other losses of function as well (or other symptoms associated with brain damage, such as irritability, sleep disorders, difficulty focusing and so on).

http://tbivoices.com/quinn1.php

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-traumatic_amnesia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-traumatic_amnesia

Here are a couple of articles on recovery from amnesia that might be helpful.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-resilient-brain/201406/9-methods-treating-amnesia

http://www.livescience.com/53706-how-people-recover-from-amnesia.html

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC492571/

I think memories are most often recovered a bit at a time, when they return at all, rather than in a big rush. But if the trauma is psychogenic and not organic, complete and rapid recovery is more possible (though certainly not a given).

Or did your character just forget the events immediately surrounding the accident (this is more common with traumatic head injuries)? I've heard of cases where someone loses everything before a certain year as well, so they think it's 1982 or something. The person may never regain what they've lost in these cases.
 
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Orianna2000

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Not sure if this is relevant or not, but sometimes I wake up with amnesia. No idea why, but I'll wake up--sometimes from a nap, sometimes in the middle of the night--and I'll have no idea who I am, or where I am, or who the man lying next to me in bed is. . . . He's my husband, but I don't know that. It's weird because I always know that I trust him and love him, but I have no idea who he is. It doesn't last long, just a minute or two, and then the memories will just sort of pop back into place. As far as I know, nothing triggers their return, it just happens spontaneously.
 

Alsikepike

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That's perfectly on topic, don't worry about it. In fact, personal accounts could really help me with how I want to write certain aspects of the story. So if I were to sum up your experience with amnesia: the facts aren't there but the emotions associated with them are still present. Am I reading your experience right? Is there anything you can elaborate on? (If you don't mind me asking)
 

Orianna2000

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Yes, that sounds right--no facts, just emotional responses and instinct.

The only thing I can think of to elaborate on would be the fact that I have PTSD and a dissociative disorder, but I have no idea if the amnesia is connected with either of those. It might be, or it might just be a coincidence. I also have a sleeping disorder, but again, not sure if it's connected or not. I mentioned the sleep amnesia to my doctor and he just chalked it up as yet another weird medical thing that doesn't make any sense. (I have a lot of those, LOL!)

Also, my memory has never been good. I can open my mouth to say something and as the words leave my tongue, I've forgotten what I was going to say. My long-term memory is Swiss cheese, too. I know the memories are still there, because occasionally I'll suddenly remember something that I haven't thought of in 20 or 25 years. But I have to keep a diary of any interesting or important things that happen to me, because otherwise I'll forget them. (Sometimes that's a blessing, other times not so much.)
 

WeaselFire

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Not sure if this is relevant or not, but sometimes I wake up with amnesia. No idea why, but I'll wake up--sometimes from a nap, sometimes in the middle of the night--and I'll have no idea who I am, or where I am, or who the man lying next to me in bed is. . . . He's my husband, but I don't know that. It's weird because I always know that I trust him and love him, but I have no idea who he is. It doesn't last long, just a minute or two, and then the memories will just sort of pop back into place. As far as I know, nothing triggers their return, it just happens spontaneously.

This isn't unusual and many psychologists describe it as a sleep induced fugue, kind of like what happens in deep sleep where even REM cycles stop. Your mind can't remember what happened, or only partial glimpses. There are people who have medical conditions or side effects of treatments that experience this, and opiates can cause similar effects.

By the way, severe intoxication is very similar to amnesia. Not saying you should test this to see what it's like... :)

Jeff
 

jennontheisland

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A high school friend of mine fell off an overpass while drunk and experienced significant brain damage, including massive permanent amnesia. However, from time to time he would ask his dad questions about things that popped into his head, like a sequence of numbers... it was the family home phone number when he was in early elementary school. Another time, he knew their postal (zip) code from high school, even the license plate of his first car. He didn't know what these numbers were, they were just things in his head he didn't understand, and they wouldn't go away so he asked about them. He didn't remember me when I visited, but he remembered the smell of patchouli oil (which I wore when we spent most of our time together). He hugged me because he knew the smell was one that had made him happy (the accident left him with the capacity of a 5 year old) but he couldn't name it; he had no clue who I was and asked me my name every 10 minutes.
 

Orianna2000

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This isn't unusual and many psychologists describe it as a sleep induced fugue, kind of like what happens in deep sleep where even REM cycles stop. Your mind can't remember what happened, or only partial glimpses. There are people who have medical conditions or side effects of treatments that experience this, and opiates can cause similar effects.
Interesting! I used to be on opiates for severe chronic pain, but I no longer need them. I haven't had an amnesia spell in awhile, so I'll be very interested to see if they occur now that I'm not taking pain meds. Having an explanation for the amnesia would be great!