I've often said I have OCD. Though I am relatively high-functioning, stress definitely aggravates the obsessive quality and those obsessions increase my stress levels. Part of what I've wondered about, inspired by a fictional character in House, has been whether my obsessive nature causes me to remember traumatic events with an emotional clarity as if I were flashing back, like someone with PTSD. Whether or not it is due to this, that, or the other, I know that for me, memories do not fade.
When speaking on the topic of forgiveness of past transgressions, I am at a loss. I am not a forgiving person. I understand on some cognitive level that obtaining peace in one's heart, if you'd term that forgiveness, allows one to break the hold the offending person has upon one's life, in a way. However, it seems that to forgive, one must reach a point in one's own life where the offense has faded or healed enough to allow for forgiveness. If my memories do not fade, when a remembrance of the offense brings back everything with such clarity, then how do I begin to forgive?