Suddenly remembering something embarrassing...

[ChickenStu]

Sometimes, I'll be walking along. Quite happy, minding my own business. Maybe stopping to smell the odd flower whilst I feel the warm sun on my smiling little face. And then, for no reason at all, I'll remember something humiliating - probably as far back to my teenage years - and stop, assume the fetal position where I'm standing - cradling my face in my hands - and shout something along the lines of "ARRRRGHHH!!!!"

It can strike anytime. Even when I'm in the company of a friend. I'll just do it, they'll ask me what's the matter and I'll try and explain... but not be able to get halfway through the sentence without exclaiming "ARRRRGHHH!!!!" again.

Does anyone else suffer from this debilitating condition?

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

No. Especially not after a night on the sauce.

[Frank]

Not to the crippling and outwardly visible extent you describe, but I assume being blindsided by the memory of a time you acted badly or did something you regret is a common and semi-regular feature of human consciousness. Books are usually a good way of understanding what goes on in other people's heads and why they behave the way they do - and there's no better guarantee of becoming a fan of an author's work than coming across an aspect of human behaviour in their work that you thought was unique to yourself - but I'm not sure I've ever read a description of that phenomenon in print.

Most folk will be familiar with the way every setback you've experienced and everything that causes you feelings of guilt sneak up on you when you're lying in the dark, waiting for sleep to come. I used to get that all the time as a teenager, but I'm out as soon as my head hits the pillow nowadays. Oblivion or getting out of your own too-thin skin seems to be the most practical solution, and the Doc's prescription might illustrate how others cope with similar problems. See also, apparently random street violence against innocent strangers. I don't recommend either, but immersion in some activity which absorbs excess physical and mental energy seems like a good idea.

[skurvy]

Yes, every day and every night. And of course every day I just add more and more entires to my library of shame.

[The Doctor Alt 8]

Dose this smell really trigger this behaviour? Or were you just being poetic?

That seems a silly question but smell is subconsciously more powerful than you think.

[JayzusB.Christ]

then, for no reason at all, I'll remember something humiliating - probably as far back to my teenage years - and stop, assume the fetal position where I'm standing - cradling my face in my hands - and shout something along the lines of "ARRRRGHHH!!!!"

Yes.  I shared a hostel room with a friend recently who thought I was having night terrors.  I wasn't - I was only half asleep, and remembering times when I was drunk, taking dodgy chemicals, with a lady or a combination of all three (especially the first and third).
The only consolation is that if you don't have any embarrassing memories you're probably an egotistical and arrogant gobshite.  Or a complete sociopath.

[The Doctor Alt 8]

OI, some of us haven't had the opportunity to gain embarrassing memories....

[IAMTHESYSTEM]

I refuse to say what my most embaressing memory is but the Police I felt we're definitely in the wrong....

[Ghost MacRoth]

Why were you feeling the police in the first place?

[IAMTHESYSTEM]

AAARRGGHHH! no, NO! I'm stronger, better person now and that's all I have to say on the matter.

[Mardroid]

I don't curl up in a fetal position when they strike, but yes it happens on occasion. I actually created a whole new embarrassing memory just yesterday in fact.

I was invited to attend a wedding, so one of my work colleagues offered to give me a lift since she lives near me. Anyway rather than her going out of her way to come to my home we decided to meet nearby. Anyway there I was with my eyes peeled looking for a black lady in a blue car, and I saw one stop some way back in the traffic line near the junction. She even raised her hand and waved! So I trotted up to the car...

I think you can guess the rest. Thank goodness I made sure I had a good look to make sure it was her before opening the door and entering, or the memory would be 10 times cringe-worthy but I got close enough for her to notice me and frown at me with a puzzled "who the smeg are you?" expression. (Incidental why did she wave, I wonder? Was she waving to someone else or did she coincidentally mistake me for someone else as well?)

"Sorry, wrong person!" I blurted, then ran away up the street.. (Not "sorry I thought you were someone else". "Wrong person." What a dough nut.)

Probably pretty minor embarrassment in the scheme of things but I'm pretty shy and thus easily embarrassed. At least I didn't actually get in the car. An aunt of mine actually did that thinking it was her husband's car of all things.

[Spikes]

Does anyone else suffer from this debilitating condition?

Once, getting a blow job off a lass, i broke wind. Looking back on it now, i kinda smile at the whole thing.
Hope that helps.

[Simon Beigh]

Does anyone else suffer from this debilitating condition?

Once, getting a blow job off a lass, i broke wind. Looking back on it now, i kinda smile at the whole thing.
Hope that helps.

Bloody hell, JJ! I've just had a coughing fit laughing at that. My 9 year old wants to know what's so funny 

Right, Mardroid. As a person in the past who suffered from anxiety attacks (mainly as a teenager and mainly involving exams) I can sympathise with this. I get these little episodes sometimes. I'll clench a fist and grit my teeth or get butterflies in the belly. It passes. The trick is to push them straight out of your mind the moment they strike. Have a 2 second cringe, but then focus on thinking about something else. Something happy or just plain ordinary (what's for dinner is a classic!). If you let the memory play out, or take hold, it's much worse!

You won't be able to do it straight away, but practice it and it gets better... You'll soon have it down to a couple of seconds...

Hope that helps...

[TordelBack]

My whole life is spent in an only-vaguely-metaphorical foetal position of embarrassment as ChickenStu describes, a perpetual cringe awaiting blows that have already fallen.  Even with this high background level of regret, I've been known to pound my forehead with my fist as some particular lowlight of my past comes swimming past the porthole.  Despite my generally monogamous existence, a surprising number of these moments seem to involve women of my affections.  The rest are evenly broken down between mind-numbingly stupid financial decisions, and times when I've gone along with a group decision that I knew to be wrong rather than causing a fuss.  And no, I am not Weimar Germany.

[I, Cosh]

Every so often a chill runs down my spine when I recall signing up to an online forum devoted to the fetishisation of a once popular science fiction anthology comic.