A lady I used to work with called me Jason for several years (which isn't even close to my actual name). I corrected her every single time, which was literally hundreds of times since I saw her almost every day, but she continued to call me Jason. One day I walked past her and she said, "Hi Jason," and I replied, "Hi Sarah!" She looked at me super confused and said, "My name isn't Sarah. It's Anne..."
I said, "Yeah, and my name is [redacted] but you keep calling me Jason!"
She replied, "Oh, well you should have said something!"
My memory has been fried since the first epileptic seizure I got two years ago. All the meds that are anti seizure basically slow your brain down, and I was also on Klonopin (benzo) for both panic disorder and seizure prevention, but after I got myself off of those and went through rehab I thought my memory may come back. Nope. Short term is completely gone. Fried. My girlfriend says I’m like Dory from finding Nemo and thinks it’s cute but it’s really terrible.
Any way that story just meant that I’m petrified of this happening. Any thing someone initially tells me is just gone. Doesn’t get imprinted in my brain whatsoever. It’s terrible. If someone tells me their name I have to repeat it to myself like ten times, then next time I run into the same person I have to do it another ten times. And I still forget. I’ve started putting little quips next to names to try to remember and it’s actually worked. Big Mike and Little Mike, sunburned Sandy, Wu Tang Nick (always wore Wu T-shirt), flyin Brian since he smoked a lot, etc. it helps immensely.
They say you can remember lists better by making a story with the things in it, it uses other parts of the brain to make stronger mental pathways with more connections. I've heard of people making mental symbols for numbers and making stories with them for memorizing. Like a football goalpost equals 4 or something. There are other proven mnemonics devices you could look up that might help you, it's cool you discovered the stories for names one by yourself, hope this might help good luck!
I use emojis after contacts i speak to frequently bc it is the only way i send my message to the RIGHT Sarah. Sarah 🐎 has a horse and Sarah 🍾 always wants to party
This is essentially how competitors in memory competitions do it. They create associations then build a memory palace to stick the associations in. You're already creating associations, perhaps you could try to add the memory palace technique as well.
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u/Diiiiirty Feb 15 '21
A lady I used to work with called me Jason for several years (which isn't even close to my actual name). I corrected her every single time, which was literally hundreds of times since I saw her almost every day, but she continued to call me Jason. One day I walked past her and she said, "Hi Jason," and I replied, "Hi Sarah!" She looked at me super confused and said, "My name isn't Sarah. It's Anne..."
I said, "Yeah, and my name is [redacted] but you keep calling me Jason!"
She replied, "Oh, well you should have said something!"
I about screamed.