False memories?

Question

I drove a couple of hours yesterday to a meeting out of town. I passed a hotel and had a memory of going into it, panic like, with my mom, carrying clothes. I called her and asked her about it, and she said that nothing like that has ever happened. The memories were very real and very fresh once I saw the hotel. I even remember being panicked when we were hurrying up to the door. Any explanations?

Answer 1

Maybe you saw a movie with that scene in it and you internalized it as your own memory.

Answer 2

Continuing to "recall" a potentially false memory CAN make you confirm that the memory is real when it isn't, so there is no guarantee that thinking about it over and over again is going to help you "remember". If this specific memory is causing you to have anxiety attacks and/or otherwise unable to function normally, you may want to speak to a therapist. I've had a similar thing happen to me: I have a very vivid "memory" of playing outside of some french doors with a huge black lab, but my entire family has confirmed that we have never lived in a house with french doors when I was a child nor have we ever had a black lab. To this day I still can't figure out where I came up with it, but I really feel like I experienced it. It happens. If your mom is telling you that it didn't happen and you have a normal, healthy relationship with your mom, I wouldn't worry about it. If it's bugging you, however, you should talk to a therapist.

Hope this helps.

P.S. False memories CAN inadvertently be implanted by therapists while patients are in therapy. There is a well-known case about a young woman who believed that her parents and grandparents were devil worshippers who sexually abused her and tortured her as a child, but she (with the help of her quack of a therapist) really believed that it happened. And it's not like she was blatantly making it up; she started to believe it was the truth because of what her therapist was telling her to do ("keep thinking about it", "play out the scene in your mind", etc.).

Answer 3

Maybe there's a time in your Moms life she doesn't want to share with you just now or ever.Keep thinking about it. It might come back to you. I have had memories my family won't share with me. I remember being told once that they are not my real parents. They are the only ones I've known though. I remember one woman who would come to see me every once in awhile who said she was my guardian. Or was.You should be glad if this is your only false memory or repressed memory.Are you sure this person was your mom? Maybe you are psychic and had a glance at someone Else's memory there. More an more people are coming forward with these stories. Have you seen the movie White Noise? Just a thought.