Trouble remembering events during conversations? Memory?

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Does this happen to anyone? Can anyone shed light on what it may be? When iam trying to recall events during a conversation I have trouble doing this.(incidents can also be very recent) This can lead to me trying to plug the gaps, if I sat and thought about the past incidents for a while I can usually(not always) recall them but it sometimes can take a while. This can make conversations difficult and I avoid at times. Is this a specific memory issue? The way I would describe it would be like trying to remember which way to go during a car journey( that I have been before) I can't so i have too guess. There is also another issue, there are times when people ask me questions at work etc and I can't understand what they mean. They repeat it but i still don't understand what they mean. Once someone else answers it's usually something really simple but at the time it sounded really complex, almost like a really math question that I haven't got the answer too. does this happen to anyone? If so what is it?

I have a insane memory for details but if someone would ask me what to eat, I'd have to have 30 minutes to decide lol.

I get this too. I think it's because the social environment and sensory overload cloud my mind. I'm too focused on laughing when I supposed to, bits of eye contact now and then, not getting in peoples way, coming up with replies, squinting because of light, not being distracted by background noise or people moving, etc. This doesn't leave much room for recalling events or thinking too hard on the content matter.

I have this problem, OP.

It's like my brain freezes when I'm talking to someone. I have trouble understanding them and can't recall simple things. It's part of the whole social awkwardness of autism for me. There are so many things going on that my brain can't function.

My memory lets me down all the time. My mind works in an interesting way. If something interests me, I'll have no trouble remembering details very accurately. If it's boring and I couldn't care less, I'll forget about it immediately. Similarly it will be easier to recall the name of attractive or interesting people. So if I don't remember who you are, you know the reason...

Seriously though, it's not the best. I had to study a lot harder in high school than the average student and eventually quit uni because of it.

I'm glad it's not just me then :0S I usually find stressful scenarios make it worse. But even non stressful scenarios when I'm trying to recall it is a problem. Has the deficit got a specific name? Or parts of memory that cause it? Would it be episodal memory? Rote memory? Long term memory? All of them or something else?

My ability to remember events, conversations and what I have said (written) to someone is usually pretty fuzzy.

I'm trying to underline exactly what it is,if it is executive function is it the specific short term or long term or both? I've read eposodal/declarative memory can be an issue, is that part of the executive function also?

I have enough trouble forming coherent sentences XD. My conversational eloquence has actually gotten worse over the years... perhaps because with school no longer being an issue, I don't have enough reason to regularly practice socialising.

As for remembering events... I don't know, I mean... I think I can remember events in a conversation but have difficulty then putting those memories into words. I can sit there going "ummm" for a few minutes before giving out a semi-intelligible account. But then I do that with a lot of thoughts and concepts too. Honestly, I have more issue with short-term memorising... things like if I need to copy down a short list of numbers, I have to keep checking back every 5 seconds because I've already forgotten all of it. And often times I forget what someone's said a few sentences ago and have to backtrack the conversation to remember what they were talking about.

I've also had moments when someone says something and I'm like "what...?", not really getting what they're trying to say, and yet they look at me as if they think my brain has melted or something. They then repeat it in equally perplexing, alternate ways.

Another thing brought up in this thread I can empathise with is indecision. My god, I drive my parents crazy. "Why can't you just decide!?" If I had a penny for every time I've heard something along those lines...

I remain convinced that I am intellectually handicapped because my memory is so remarkably poor that it's almost laughable. My mind seems to be either empty or in an utterly bewildered maelstrom. I hate my brain.

I'm ok in a quiet environment with only one person.

If it's more than one person, it gets overwhelming because I can only focus on one person at a time. Then, if the information is contradictory, it really throws me. I have trouble sorting opinion from the needs of the job. Make sense? And people love to talk all over each other. How the hell do they sort that?

If in a noisy or chaotic environment, it's just mostly muddle and most of my thought processes are put towards trying to reconstruct sounds into meaningful information. Then I get really lost.

Anyway, after a short time, it's more about juggling what is happening at the moment and all the input sorting, I just can't keep up on the fly. Some things I can sort through later, but it confuses the opinion vs. fact parts, and, who knows what I was missing while doing all that sorting and catching up.

A perfect example last night. It was the Girlfriends birthday. I booked a quiet hotel near by. I've been learning Spanish for the last year. I thought that I would try and remember phrases in Spanish(as an exercise)that I would ask(as if I was in Spain)(we are not in Spain but you get the idea). I could not think of anything. We got to our room and it took me a long time to even put a coherent Spanish sentence together. I get home today on my own, I put the dvd on. The narrator starts speaking and instantly I get Spanish popping in my head. It's like I shut down whenever I'm around people or there's a lot of stimulation of any kind or in a situation I'm not familiar with. Even around friends having normal conversations I find myself trying to plug gaps and make coherent conversations and make myself seem normal. I feel like everyone is walking on a long wide easy to traverse road,while I'm juggling on a long thin tight rope just to remain average :0/