This woman has an extremely rare condition that makes her forget past life events

Imagine living without remembering things and people from your past. Sounds horrible, right? Sadie Dingfelder from Washington has been living with a rare neurological condition that has made her forget her past. Dingfelder has been diagnosed with Severely Deficient Autobiographical Memory (SDAM) and Prosopagnosia (face blindness). In fact, she is among the handful of people who have been officially identified as having SDAM.

Living with SDAM

A former science writer with The Washington Post, Dingfelder recently opened up about living with SDAM in a Reddit AMA. "I was working at The Washington Post when I discovered that I am faceblind. That led me down a rabbit hole where I also learned that I have Severely Deficient Autobiographical Memory. I'm one of the few people officially diagnosed with SDAM," she said.

Also read: Teen Struggles With Short-Term Memory Loss, Unable To Remember Beyond Two Hours

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How she found out

According to her, it was an incident at a supermarket that made her realize there was something wrong. She said that one day, she spotted her husband with a jar of store-brand peanut butter and plucked it out of his hands. The only problem was that it wasn't her husband.

When asked about why it took her so long to figure out, Dingfelder said she thought it was normal. "I didn't realize that people could actually mentally time travel. Have you had the experience where a smell or a taste suddenly transports you back in time to some important moment from your past? I haven't -- and I thought that everyone else was just speaking in metaphors or talking poetically," she said.

Also read: Tiktok User Claims She Has Goldfish Brain

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What life feels like

Dingfelder said she can only remember incidents from her past like reading a book. "I remember moments from my life as stories -- just words, no sensory details, and very muted emotions. I may as well have simply read a biography that someone else wrote about me. In some ways, this makes being a writer easier -- I just write down what is already composed in my head," she explained.

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Despite her condition, Dingfelder managed to write a book about her life, titled Do I Know You? A Faceblind Reporter’s Journey into the Science of Sight, Memory, and Imagination.

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