I do not remember my life and it's fine

Difficulty with autobiographical recall & interviews

• Many commenters struggle with “tell me about a time…” or STAR-style interview questions.
• Common issue: memories aren’t indexed by abstract tags like “hard problem” or “conflict,” so recall is slow or fails under pressure.
• People describe needing prep, notes, or rehearsed stories; others liken it to being asked to remember specific walking steps.
• Several argue these questions primarily test interview prep, not skill; some openly fabricate or embellish stories to fit expectations.

SDAM, aphantasia, and the memory spectrum

• Numerous readers strongly identify with SDAM: life feels like a blur of facts without vivid, first‑person replay.
• A frequent pattern: strong spatial or semantic memory (places, systems, concepts) but weak episodic details (names, timelines, trips, events).
• Others report the opposite: highly detailed episodic memory, even of childhood, sometimes verging on intrusive.
• Many have aphantasia; others have normal or hyper‑vivid imagery but still poor autobiographical recall, reinforcing that SDAM ≠ aphantasia.

Emotion, ADHD, and encoding theories

• Several link SDAM‑like experience to ADHD, alexithymia, or “muted” emotions: if events don’t feel like “achievements” at the time, they may never be stored as such.
• One line of argument: emotional salience is key to autobiographical encoding; if that pipeline is disrupted, memories become bare facts.
• Others with SDAM push back, saying their issue doesn’t seem emotion‑based and mechanisms are still unclear.
• ADHD itself is contested: some insist it’s a disabling condition helped by medication; others frame it as mismatch with rigid systems and are skeptical of over‑diagnosis and meds.

Coping strategies

• People use work logs, markdown lists, email/ticket history, photos, maps, and even LLM scripts over Jira/Linear to reconstruct achievements.
• Suggestions include “memory palaces,” interviewing former colleagues for stories, and reframing interview prompts as giving advice to a coworker.
• Some keep running lists of challenges, accomplishments, and anecdotes specifically for interviews and performance reviews.

Social, emotional, and existential impact

• SDAM/aphantasia can ease rumination, grudges, and trauma replay, but many feel significant grief over weak memories of loved ones, children, or a deceased partner/child.
• Face‑blindness and poor recall of shared experiences cause social embarrassment and difficulty networking.
• Some see their profile as an advantage in staying present and less attached; others feel it’s “mostly downside” and worry about aging and loss of life narrative.

Debate over aphantasia/SDAM

• A minority claim aphantasia is just semantic confusion; others counter with research (image priming, brain measures, acquired cases) as evidence it’s real.
• Several highlight that people systematically overestimate the fidelity of their own imagery and memories, complicating comparisons across individuals.