How can you distinguish?

How can you distinguish between memories and imagination? How do you know when it's a true memory and not only you imagining that certain things had happened? I am referring to time loss here and blackouts. How do you know what is real when an alter tells you something, and a person from the outside tells you something else?

I'm sorry if I don't make any sense, I feel really fuzzy and dissociative.

I think that what she meant was if one can be 100% sure if a memory is real. We're going through some denial and that's making this dissociating even worse.

I always say it like this - if you have the memory something happened - even if the people on the outside try to cover their sins up. You see, they won't tell me truth because they don't want you to know about what you've been through as it would incriminate them.

Your memories are real no matter how hard or bizarre they may seem. Never doubt yourselves


-Sacred

So...are you saying that it is not possible for someone to imagine something and then think of it as a memory? Whether it is bad or good

I am not so sure about that... Memory can be erroneous sometimes, but I think clear memories are not imagined.

One way (I think) to make sure it is a real memory is do you have a strong feeling with it? Would you feel invalidated when someone said it wouldn't be true? If you have strong feelings with it it likely is real.

One thing my T has told me is that while memories can be erroneous, those associated with multiple sense are less likely to be incorrect.

For example, my T and I are working on a traumatic dream/flashback/whatever at the moment and initially the T called it a dream until we got deeper into description. Scents, temperatures and sounds all play a part in this. The T now calls it a flashback. She admits that she could be wrong in this, but that it is less likely.

Do you experience body memories at all?

I think the biggest curse with dissociated memories is that, in actuality, if there is no outside corroboration than it is impossible to ever really know what is real and what isn't. But, what matters most, is validating your experiences. If you feel something happened, and it is real to you, especially if you have multiple senses attached to it (as others have already stated), then it is your real experience. It may or may not be the entire story, it may or may not have happened as you 'remember' it, but it is real to you. Rather than worrying about the accuracy (because that is a dead end road that only serves to make you suffer more), try to understand what the experience means to you. Even if it is more imaginative than real, there's a reason you are imagining it. What does it mean? What does it represent? How does it make you feel now? Those are questions that can be tackled and make a difference in your present day life.