How reliable are recovered memories?

[bikergary]

My abuse happened between the age of 6 months and 4 years so I questioned the memories and flashbacks. I was raped (he stopped before forcing the entry but still was rape) at 2 1/2 and remember what I was wearing, what the room looked like and the ticking clock. When I first sought counseling over 20 years ago I was told I couldn't possibly remember anything from that age.
For years I felt that an adult woman friend of the family did a number of things to me and just a few months ago had a flashback that goes back to about 6 months old. Part of me wants to doubt it but it just makes so much sense and fits in so many ways. My personal experience is I probably shouldn't doubt the memories. Guess part of us just doesn't want to believed it actually hapened to us.

Keep up the hard work. Over time the pieces will fit together more and the healing progresses.

Gary

 

[Thomas]

Warned you that you would get tired of hearing from me . I guess I was a little too theoretical in my previous post in this thread. Living in my head(rationalization) and pretending to be emotionless(denial) have been my strategies of choice for coping.

True, most people don't remember much, if at all any, from early childhood. I've known at least one person, however, with confirmed memories from
one year. So I would say that it's a good idea to give those memories with strong emotional content the benefit of the doubt.

Second, my own recovered memories came in bits and pieces, accompanied with definite emotional content. In the first episode, I knew it was my paternal grandfather, yet details came only in subsequent episodes, again in pieces.