We've all woken up after an evening's refreshment and tried to remember what happened the night before.
Imagine that you could remember all of that, and in fact, all of everything that happened when you were sober, and then everything that happened in almost every aspect of your life as well. From the very beginning.
That's the everyday reality of Rebecca Sharrock's life.
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She is one of just 80 people in the world with Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory (HSAM), a condition that means that she remembers details of her life that are far beyond the average person: she can remember what she got as first birthday presents, memories from when she was just 12 days old and every bad break-up, death in the family and embarrassing moment as well.
"My earliest memory of which I can date is from when I was twelve days old," she wrote in a blogpost.
"My parents carried me to the driver's seat of the car (my father's idea) and placed me down upon it for a photo. As a newborn child, I was curious as to what the seat cover and steering wheel above me were.
"Though at that age I hadn't yet developed the ability to want to get up and explore what such curious objects could be."
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Sharrock is 27 and appeared on Good Morning Britain to discuss her unique brain. Speaking from her home in Brisbane, Australia, she described her experiences as a 12 day old, which her mother was able to corroborate exactly.
Rebecca is autistic and has OCD, which her mother thought might be related to her memory.
Her mother first heard of Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory after seeing a news segment about it and suspected that her daughter might have it. Rebecca herself did not understand that other people did not remember things in the depth that she did.
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On top of remembering every aspect of her own life, Rebecca, who is a huge Harry Potter fan, can remember every word of all seven of J.K. Rowling's books.
"When she had nightmares as a child, to take her mind off it we got her to just start reciting Harry Potter from chapter one," said her mother.
Rebecca is now taking part in studies of people with exceptional memories, which researchers hope could be useful in understanding memory-related disorders such as Alzheimer's and dementia.
She explained her motivations for taking part in the study, which is organised by the University of California, Irvine and the University of Queensland.
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She said: "Alzheimers is a condition which is very close to my heart as my step-father's dad had that condition. I loved him as if he was my biological grandfather."
Featured Image Credit: Channel 9Topics: Community