How bad is your memory?

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I have an appalling memory. I'm constantly losing things,misplacing them,not a day goes by when I don't lose keys,remote,or something I need at that moment,I can't remember people's names,even people I've known a while,I can spend time learning a subject then forget what I've learned,forget actual life events often. It's like my brain is two steps behind social protocol when talking I'm usually trying to play catch up. It's much worse when I'm stressed or in groups. I get body parts or basic names of things mixed up. What is your worst memory about your memory? How bad is it? Is poor memory a general trait?

My memory is really bad in some ways and really good in others.

It's bad in many of the ways you said. I have a lot of trouble remembering where I placed things, what I plan on doing today, people's names, lists of instructions, and stuff like that. It's good in a lot of ways though.

I have a sort of photographic memory (I don't really know how to classify it) in that I can recall images of anything I have seen but they are usually blurry and sometimes even a bit distorted. It's like blurring your vision as much as you can, that is about the level of detail these mental images have although it is quite variable. I can get around this by taking a bunch of small images and stitching them together to make a high quality one, but this takes some time. I have a limited ability to recall characters and symbols with this, and for some reason it's easier with numbers then it is with words. I can use this to recall anything a teacher draws on the white board or any diagrams they show, although as I said before recalling the text is very hard of not impossible, it's almost like reading out of your peripheral vision.

I also have a pretty good monophonic memory (I think that's what it's called) where I can recall anything I have heard in a ton of detail, but the catch is that it's always fragmented into audio clips just a few seconds long. If I listen to something multiple times then these fragments connect together into bigger fragments, but they can't exceed more then about 30 seconds long. If I heard something less then 20-30 before though then it's not fragmented, this is useful because if I am zoned out and someone is talking to me then I have a small buffer so I can skim the conversation in fast forward and be caught up. It's still not perfect though. It's also much harder to search my "audio database" then it is with my "image database", and obviously some things are easier to find then others.

One thing I have that I have been told is unusual is a great memory for anything that has happened in my own mind. I can remember all sorts of stuff that I visualized many years ago, and in more detail then any other memories from that time. This makes it really easy to understand concepts, because I can just visualize a representation of it and it's pretty much learned for life. For example in biology I am creating a virtual 3D model of a human body in my mind that I can reference any time, although I suck at remembering terminology and the names of things. This is also helpful for remembering anything I have rehearsed in my mind like a social situation that I anticipate. This works very well for rapidly learning concepts, although it doesn't work with names, dates, and stuff of that sort.

In some ways my memory is spectacular and in other ways it's a disaster zone. Like if someone have just said something that is an instruction, then chances are I've no idea what I'm meant to do. I can remember the most randomest of things from years ago like I'm watching them on the telly. Also if I have to memorise something, not a chance in hell I can do that but I anything I don't put an effort into remembering I will know it forever.

Mine's pretty bad:
I forget conversations right after having them.
My mom tells me to do something after I'm finished eating, and then when I'm done, I (almost) always forget.
I'm really bad at matching/concentration games!

However, I don't have much trouble memorizing information for school. I hardly have to study.

Bad Short term, Excellent Long term. Though sometimes with my long term I get this kind of fog that I know it's there I just can't access.

I have a pretty appalling memory too.
My episodic memory is good and past experiences play like a movie in my head, but I have a hard time memorizing facts and lists of things. Or I may memorize them but have a difficult time recalling them later.

Sometimes I can't recall words when I'm trying to explain something or I can't recall the exact meaning of words I read and have to look them up even if I have looked them up before. (words with difficult abstract meanings).
Or I copy other peoples ways of explaining things.

I loose things because I don't pay attention when I put them down. It helps to try and pay attention and put things in designated places.

My short term working memory is bad and I have to write things down like driving directions because I can't hold all the directions in my head while trying to navigate unfamiliar roads.

I've always been this way, even when I was young.

Wow...I experience all of that to some degree or another.

My memory is phenomenal. But I can't control it. Sometimes it seems as if it just absorbs everything and eventually gets sorted.

But simple things like where I laid something down just two minutes ago and I can't find it. Worse, I am sitting in the same spot and the damned thing just can only be within arm's reach...and it just ain't there.....

What I have noticed is that have a mental map of everything. A literal picture of everything. If it is not exactly as I picture it, I can be looking at it and not see it.

I like what Pliepup said: "Though sometimes with my long term I get this kind of fog that I know it's there I just can't access." Only mine is the short term memory that is a fog. Only it goes beyond that into an actual brain 'itch' that can graduate up to a 'burning' sensation. if that makes sense......

I used to have nightmares when I was a kid of walking into a room of patterns and numbers. My brain takes it all in. I would even 'know' to remember, say, the position of '4' in the room. It's me and several other people. The first task is to find the '4' and the first person to do it moves ahead. As soon as the goal is announced, I can't find the '4' and I panic. I am looking right at the spot it should be in, but I can't see it. Someone else wins, and it was right where I was looking.

That's happened since I was 5.

^^^ gonna try again...It is one of the few skills I have honed over the years..If you're interested, I will try until you do.

Let's ignore all that went before.

The nightmare is about me being somewhere that I have completely mapped out. I know exactly where everything is.

The test is to find one thing in all that room.

Suddenly, I cannot see it, even though I know where it should be.

Not being able to connect my 'map' to the current reality panics me. And, it does in real life too. When I see that map in my head and I can't find it in real life, it makes me very, very anxious or even panic. And it doesn't take not being able to find the keys or something important. It can be just...'where the hell is my spoon?' I'm eating a bowl of soup and where the hell did I put it? Why would it go anywhere but back in the bowl? I haven't moved from this spot, it must be in arm's reach...that sort of thing.

But the nightmare is intensified because I am being tested and it is a map I know completely that fails me. Much like real life.

To me, it's striking that I've had that nightmare since I was 5.

My memory is fantastic. The problem is that I do not get to choose what I remember and I don’t, or can’t, always remember some very important things. I remember numbers that are so old they have no meaning anymore but sometimes I can’t remember the names of people I know and work with every day. I sometimes shut down in the middle of a conversation because I can’t remember a specific word, name, et cetera, I get lost searching my memory for the artifact and lose focus on the topic altogether. My memory is like a gymnasium filled with post-it notes from floor to ceiling; all the information I've ever learned is there but good luck finding it when you need it. I’ll remember what I need at 2:30am and have to get out of bed to email myself so I don’t forget again.

Also, Google’s auto complete feature that guesses what you are typing and completes it for you constantly makes me forget what in the hell I was looking for in the first place.

Looking at this thread just now made me remember to do my laundry, which I have been forgetting to do for days.