Rebecca Sharrock can remember the earliest days of her life (Picture: Rebecca Sharrock/SWNS)
A woman with a rare condition says she can remember being in her mother’s womb.
Rebecca Sharrock, 34, has a highly superior autobiographical memory (H-SAM) – a neurological condition which leaves people able to remember most of their life in huge detail, also known as hyperthymesia.
It’s extraordinarily rare – Rebecca is just one of 62 people in the world who has it.
She said her earliest dated memory is from when she was just 12 days old – but that isn’t her first.
‘My earliest memory is possibly from when I was a foetus in the womb,’ said Rebecca. ‘The interesting thing is I don’t have to have any personal significance attached to a memory.
‘They don’t need to mean much for some reason. At the moment, I’d say I can remember 95% of everything that’s happened to me in my life.’
However, the condition also leaves her needing therapy.
‘My mind is just unable to let go of rubbish from the past,’ she said.
Rebecca can remember being in the womb (Picture: Rebecca Sharrock/SWNS)
Rebecca, an author and public speaker from Brisbane, Australia, wasn’t diagnosed with H-SAM until she was 21 years old, on January 23, 2011.
She said she was originally misdiagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) at the age of 16 because she’d ‘obsessively’ relive past experiences, like having toys taken away from her at school.
These memories would cause her genuine upset, despite seeming ‘trivial’.
She said: ‘I always put my flashbacks down to OCD. When I’d have a flashback my emotions would remember too.
‘I don’t just remember the past – I get all the sensory information that I had in that moment. When I’d relive a moment from my childhood, I’d feel immature emotions.’
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These upsetting memories include the time she had her lollipop stolen at school, or when she built a Lego tower in preschool and another child knocked it over.
Rebecca said the earliest memory she can recall is from December 23, 1989, when she had her picture taken.
‘I can remember everything from about 12 days old,’ she said.
‘The earliest one I can date, I had a photograph taken and spent many years afterwards telling my mum about this experience.
‘I do actually have some memory prior to that, though but I couldn’t date them as I was too young to understand the concept of the calendar.’
Rebecca, now 34, is using her condition to become fluent in other languages (Picture: Rebecca Sharrock/SWNS)
She also recalls the time her mother was holding her in a pink cotton blanket at around a week old. In 2017, she told the BBC: ‘I’d always know when it was Mum holding me, for some reason. I just instinctively always knew and she was my favourite person.’
Rebecca says her ‘true’ earliest memory was from when she was in the womb, or potentially in the minutes after being born.
‘The earliest recollection I have I can’t date because I was far too young,’ she said.
‘I have this memory of me being scrunched up, having my head tucked between my legs. Researchers have told me this could’ve been from when I was in the womb. Or, it could’ve been straight after being born.’
Memories Rebecca can vividly recall
Rebecca has the ability to recall some specific moments in her early life which may pass other people by. She recalls:
‘December 11, 1996. My seventh birthday, waking up to this beautiful pink and golden sunrise. I remember laying in bed, waiting for Mum to get up so I could open my presents. One of them was a DIY miniature house, and another was a plastic princess tiara.’
‘November 1997. I was a month off turning eight. I was dressed in an Ariel/Little Mermaid ballet costume, I was having my photo taken and I thought it’d be fun to poke my tongue out.’
‘When I was five, I thought it would be a good idea to cover myself in mud – mostly my hands, arms and my legs. I thought it would be a fun activity, but as soon as my mum saw me, she wasn’t amused because she had to hose me down. I thought, “this isn’t as fun as I hoped it would be”.’
H-SAM can cause significant mental health issues such as anxiety and depression. Rebecca has shared that she struggles with insomnia and needs therapy for trauma and anxiety.
Some people with H-SAM describe their memories as highly organised. However, Rebecca, who is also autistic, described her brain as ‘cluttered’, which gives her headaches and insomnia.
She said: ‘All these flashbacks going through my mind are constant and throughout them I do experience insomnia. My mind will just never stay quiet.’
She revealed that she listens to classical music before she goes to sleep, and if that doesn’t work, she takes Valium, which has been prescribed by her doctor.
‘There are very few therapists who can treat my condition so they have to borrow things from PTSD therapy. It’s quite experimental,’ she said.
However, there is one bonus to the condition. Rebecca has been using her condition to learn new skills, and has started learning French and Spanish 10 weeks ago. Now she is almost fluent.
‘I can watch Spanish and French TV without subtitles,’ she said. ‘Everything I’ve been taught in class I now know – it’s just a case of practising my pronunciation.
‘I’m hoping to learn Italian next.’