They say time heals all wounds. But for Aarav, time did something stranger—it preserved them. Every pain, every regret, every awkward pause at a party remained vivid, tucked into memory like pressed flowers, still smelling faintly of that day.
Aarav wasn’t just someone with a good memory. He had Hyperthymesia—a rare neurological condition known as Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory (HSAM). He could tell you what he ate for lunch on any given Tuesday ten years ago, and what song played in the background while his classmate cried during lunch break. His brain kept a seamless record of his life, and the record never stopped playing.
The Weight of Never Forgetting
For most of us, memory is selective. It edits, erases, exaggerates. But for Aarav, every scene stayed in high resolution. He could not forget, and so he could not heal. He often described it as “living with every version of myself in the room at once.” The emotional toll was immense—he was irritable, socially withdrawn, and often plagued by guilt over things others had long forgotten.
While people praised his mind, no one saw the price he paid.
What Is Narrative Therapy?
When conventional therapy yielded little change, Aarav’s psychologist recommended something different: Narrative Therapy.
Developed by Michael White and David Epston in the 1980s, narrative therapy rests on a deceptively simple but powerful premise: we live by the stories we tell ourselves. These stories shape how we understand the past, relate to others, and see the future.
The therapy invites clients to:
- Externalize the problem (“Your memory is not you—it’s something you carry”)
- Name the dominant story (e.g., “I ruin every relationship because I remember every mistake”)
- Find alternative stories (e.g., “I care deeply about others and strive to learn from the past”)
- Re-author life events with new meanings, perspectives, or outcomes
Instead of trying to delete memories, Aarav and his therapist worked to reshape them.
From Memory to Meaning
Aarav began writing out painful memories—then retelling them from a different angle. He would take a cruel comment someone once made and explore what that person might have been going through. He began to dialogue with his past self, not just record him.
One such memory, of being humiliated in a debate competition at age 14, was rewritten as a story of resilience—his first brush with public speaking fear, which later motivated his writing career. Another painful recollection—of forgetting a friend’s birthday and losing that friendship—was reframed as a lesson in empathy, one that helped him support others with similar struggles.
The Blog: “The Archive of Me”
The therapy didn’t just change how Aarav thought—it changed what he created.
He launched a personal blog titled “The Archive of Me”, a quiet corner of the internet where he began sharing episodes from his life, interwoven with psychological commentary and reflections on memory, identity, and healing.
Some of his most-read entries include:
- “Tuesday, May 3rd, 2005: My First Lie” – A memory retold not to shame, but to explore the roots of honesty and self-protection.
- “I Remember Too Much, and That’s Okay” – A post about making peace with his memory, which was picked up by mental health blogs.
- “The Diary I Never Needed” – An exploration of how HSAM robbed him of forgetting, but gave him the gift of story.
His writing is gentle, precise, and almost painfully sincere—mirroring the very condition that shaped him.
Conclusion: A Memory Reframed
Aarav still remembers everything. But now, instead of drowning in the past, he curates it—like an archivist who finally learned not just to preserve, but to interpret.
“I live with a perfect record,” he wrote. “But I’ve learned the secret no one tells you: memory isn’t the story. Meaning is.”
Sidebar: Narrative Therapy in Practice
- Goal: Help clients reconstruct personal narratives in ways that foster agency and healing.
- Methods:
- Journaling and storytelling
- Externalizing problems
- Using metaphor and symbolic language
- Creating timelines of alternative “strong” moments
- Effective For:
- Depression
- Trauma survivors
- Chronic illness
- Identity crises
- High-functioning neurodivergence like HSAM