Forcing oneself not to remember

Does it work with you? If you force yourself not to remember something i.e. deliberately force oneself not to think about some information.

• No. I have made mistakes in my past that I can't forget. At random times one of them will pop into my head out of nowhere. I cringe and try to think of something else quickly. On the other hand, as I get older some bad memories aren't as terrible as they once seemed. I just say to myself "oh well, can't do anything about the past". Don't be hard on yourself, we all have things we regret.

• Absolutely, you can forget. I know this from experience. If you determine to force your mind and thoughts elsewhere when the distressing memory floats up to the top of your awareness (having a few happy scenarios in mind from the outset would not go amiss either) you can, over the course of a few months force it down below your awareness. But you have to do it every. single. time. You can't brood over the memory one day and then try to send it packing the next. Won't work. But if you are determined, you can make this work for you. The drawback here is that banishing the memory will, most likely, take the memories around it as well. I really have no memory of a big chunk of my childhood. Something obviously happened; my photos from that time show a very happy and outgoing child --- and then, seemingly overnight, I changed into s completely different, obviously unhappy child. I've thought of the obviously explanation, and yeah, maybe. But that's the thing, I really have no idea. I also have no real memory of any of the holidays, birthday celebrations, friends, enemies, or anything else. Apparently, at some point, my brain decided the trade-off was worth it. Who am I to argue?

  good%20luck%2C%20whichever%20way%20you%20go

• I just met someone with the inability to conjure images in his mind. He said there are some advantages, since there are images one wouldn't want to be able to visualize again. He said he does see images in his dreams.

• I didn't like Ledger in his role as "Joker".

• Ann, don't think about the word 'banana.'

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• [quote] Does it work with you? Isn't it kind of hard to tell? If your goal is to not remember something, then tracking your success in not remembering it ("Today is the 5th day in a row that I'm not remembering the horrible breakup!") kind of forces you to remember it, doesn't it?