A woman suffering from a rare condition can remember every single thing that has happened to her over the years, even moments in the womb.
34-year-old Rebecca Sharrock has a neurological condition called Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory (H-SAM), which allows her to recall most moments in her life in great detail.
Sharrock is one of 62 individuals with this rare condition and currently remembers 95% of what has happened in her life.
“What’s interesting is that no memory is important to me,” she said. “For some reason, they don’t hold much significance.”
Sharrock was diagnosed with H-SAM on January 23, 2011, when she was 21 years old.
Initially misdiagnosed with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) at the age of 16 because she would compulsively replay past experiences.
Her childhood memories, like being bullied at school or having her lollipop stolen in primary school, would bother her, even though these events were deemed “insignificant.”
“I always attributed my memories to OCD,” she said. “When I recall the past, the emotions from that time come back.”
“Many times, these are things that happened to me when I was very young.”
Recalling one of her earliest memories on December 23, 1989, Sharrock said that she was just 12 days old when the first photo was taken of her.
“I spent many years later telling my mom about this experience,” she said.
She has memories dating even before that but due to being too young to understand the concept of calendars, she is unsure of the dates.
Her “truest” earliest memory comes from being curled up in the womb or minutes after birth.
“I don’t know the exact date of my earliest memory because I was too young then,” she said. “I remember being curled up, with my head between my legs.”
“Researchers told me this could have started from when I was in the womb or after birth.”
H-SAM can lead to severe mental health issues, and Sharrock struggles with insomnia, requiring treatment for trauma and anxiety.
“Few therapists can treat my condition, so they have to borrow some things from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) therapy,” she said. “It’s all experimental.”
In an attempt to alleviate her insomnia, she tries listening to classical music at night and takes sedatives to help her relax.
“This memory condition is essentially a health issue and does indeed pose problems in my daily life,” she said. “All these memories flashing in my mind, I do experience insomnia throughout the process.”
“My mind never stays quiet.”
Sharrock tries to do some positive things with her condition and has started learning French and Spanish.
From scratch, within two months, her foreign language skills have become almost fluent.
“My French teacher is from Marseille, and now I can converse with her in French,” she said. “I can watch Spanish and French TV without subtitles.”
She mentioned that she can understand everything she learns in class but needs practice on her pronunciation.
She now hopes to learn Italian.
The original article “Woman With Extremely Rare Condition Remembers Everything—Even a Moment in the Womb” was published on the English language Epoch Times website.