Confabulation

[Rorey]

I somehow got wrapped up in a long conversation with my ex-husband today. At one point he questioned why my daughter had never called him to make amends as part of her steps. I had no idea what he was talking about. So he told a very detailed story about how I had told him sometime within the last two years that she was in AA and was making amends as part of the 12 steps and was going to call him.

My daughter was never in AA. Never. I never told him any such story.

I've been researching cognitive disorders and my guess is that he's confabulating.

Confabulation is a memory disturbance, defined as the production of fabricated, distorted or misinterpreted memories about oneself or the world, without the conscious intention to deceive.

Before we had gotten to that stunning part of our conversation, we were stupidly rehashing some things that happened during our marriage, and we were definitely remembering things differently, but that part about my daughter going to AA meetings was glaring.

So, I wonder if that's what's going on with Trump. Lots of similarities. It's terrifying that someone with obvious cognitive impairment has such a following of devoted believers.

[marble falls]

1. I'm sold. Put 45 in a jacket and lock him up.

[Rorey]

2. I think it's entirely possible that he really thinks he won the election NT

[marble falls]

3. If he didn't think it before, I think he's talked himself into believing it.

[PoliticAverse]

4. Trump just lies a lot.

[Rorey]

9. Seinfeld was an amazing show

I never watched it when it was actually on, but later watched it in syndication. There are a lot of messages in the shows.

[ymetca]

5. Yeah, I think Tee-Rump

is more of a CON-fabulist than what you're describing.

Having said that, I remember as a small boy wetting my pants on the submarine ride at Disneyland. I remember the embarrassment, my mother chiding, but kind, etc. It's etched into my now aging brain. A childhood mini-trauma.

But then a few years back, at a family gathering where we were all talking about times we had embarrassed ourselves, my brother goes, "no, that was me who peed my pants, not you." It was just as deeply etched into his brain as mine! We discussed it, but could not agree which of us it actually was, and we both started doubting our own recollections.

But the kicker was that neither my sister, nor my parents could remember which one us suffered that embarrassing moment that fateful day in Disneyland.

The mystery remains!

[Rorey]

8. Interesting

It's very interesting that both you and your brother remember that uncomfortable experience as happening to your own self, rather than to your sibling. Maybe your bond to each other was (and hopefully still is) so tight that you sort of felt each other's discomfort.

I don't know, but it sounds like your family is super close in some ways, and that's awesome. Personally, I've always felt like I was an only child who somehow got plopped into the wrong family. Maybe my parents brought the wrong baby home from the hospital.

[multigraincracker]

6. As an old fart, I'm amazed how my memories differ

from others of the same event. I came up with my theory that dreams rearrange our memories to make more sense to our life stories.

[Rorey]

7. I've been reading about memories

I read a theory once that we start remembering our memories rather than the actual event.

Both my brother and my ex-husband seem to want to live in the past a lot because they talk about it so much. I honestly don't really care if I remember something that happened years or decades ago exactly the way it happened, because it just doesn't really matter. Talking about those things seems to become storytelling at some point, and a lot of those stories just weren't all that interesting anyway. I guess that's why people alter them in their minds......to make them more interesting.

I prefer to live in the day that I'm in. When someone hurts me, I work hard to get past the hurt. I put a period after it and move on.

I do hold grudges, but only for a short period of time. My ex-husband holds onto them forever, and now I'm seeing that he not only holds onto them, he embellishes them. Such a sad way to live.

[multigraincracker]

10. There are 3 sides to every divorce.

His, hers and then the truth.

[Rorey]

11. That is true

He seems to be having a very difficult time moving past it. I mean, I obviously am not completely over it, but I don't know that I could be without a lobotomy.

He's actually quite an amazing person. He's never been wrong about anything in his entire life. Never.