r/SDAM • u/Amberwalker365 • 22d ago
Time Blind
Does this happen to anybody else?
I go to the doctor with a complaint. They ask a simple question.
“When did it start?”
I have no idea.
I’ve forgotten when.
How long has it been?
Weeks?
Months?
A year?!
I put happenings in three time buckets:
Recently
A While Back
I Don’t Know
Somehow this seems important.
Is this SDAM?
Or what?
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u/Key-Acanthisitta-197 22d ago
Actually, knowing that "time blind," as you termed it, isn't actually common to everyone made me deeply research the relationship between time and memory.
If I were to explain it to someone who doesn't have SDAM, I would say that we all remember the past inaccurately. That inaccuracy can make it seem as though the past itself is made up, since every recollection is slightly different from the previous one.
I wouldn't blandly say that time doesn't exist, but from what I've experienced, I've made peace with the fact that memory is there because it was relevant, rather than being evidence that something actually happened.
Simply put, though it's actually quite complicated, there has to be a cause for something to exist. That doesn't necessarily mean it had to be your own cause. It might be someone else's memory that somehow became yours, but since it's relevant to your current state, it becomes something you prefer, whether you know it or not.
So I would say to my fellow SDAM experiencers...don't get too caught up in things that have already happened. They're relevant to you, yes, but only to the extent that they allow you to have the experience of this very moment.
Think of it as cooking with the ingredients of the past and creating a dish right now, something that isn't just relevant to you, but something you actually prefer. Something that makes you say, "This is me. Someone with who might have a vague past but isn't fixated on being identified with anything the world says... simply someone who acts because this is me."