Lost Memory

If I were to lose all my explicit memory in an accident, the first step would be to try and recover my episodic memories. Although semantic memory is very important, if I were to suddenly wake up in a hospital bed and not remember a single event with the ones around me, I would not think about recovering my semantic memory at first. Because of the emotional roller coaster it must be to suffer retrograde amnesia, I imagine I would like to know who the people around me were and what happened in my life time with them that caused them to be by my side at such a terrible situation. Therefore, the first people I would turn to would be my closest friends and families and use their memories with and of me in order to reconstruct my life. I would also look at family and friends pictures and videos. I suspect that the act of doing all this research might help my brain in recovering memories on its own with the help of the medication.

The emotional journey would definitely  be very confusing and frightening, yet very endearing as I would be reliving important memories with the people most important in my life. I believe at some point I might even feel as though I am very alone, because even though I have my family and friends to help me get through such a difficult time, I don’t feel as connected with them because I cannot remember being with them and cannot remember anything about them. It would be a very empty and dark situation.

Although many people might say they would only like to remember positive and happy memories, I differ in my choice simply because negative and/or painful memories might be very important events that have shaped the person I have come to be. I would not like to exclude such memories just because they would not please me. Both good and bad memories are important for a person who has lost all episodic memory.