How's Your Memory?

[blithe spirit]

There's long term and short term....

My downfall right now is short term loss...

For me, I have become a big list maker....for most everything.

grocery lists...i've always done them

making lists of thing I need to do...I do that now.

I have lists of passwords and websites I want to remember.

Programs and movies and books I want to read.....and those I have read before.

The names of plants and flowers....

I know there are things I try consciencously to forget...like phone numbers and adresses from places I've lived...that seem stuck there...totally useless, but there they are....

I did some reading about it and if you rely on lists, your memory gets worse....hmmmm

[frenchy]

well i make lists too now and i didn't use to have to .. so whats to become of us ?? eeeeeeeee.. i'm ascared ... 

[0qbw0p9940ht5]

Blithe,

It's like you're talking about me!  I have severe short term memory loss, enough so that my sister told my doctor that she and her husband are worried about me.  I can't remember what I eat, what I watch on tv, etc.  Yep, I have pads and pens in every room so I can write things down while they are forming in my brain.

This sucks!

[Lucinda Stone]

my short-term memory is, aw jeez i forget already...  actually it is pretty piss-poor right now... like blithe, i can remember ancient stuff, like part numbers on jobs i had 40 years ago, but do i know where the scissors are that were just in my hand??? i've been "losing" things lately cuz i simply forget where i put them, the thing shows up eventually tho... 

not real big on lists, just something else to misplace  :(

[blithe spirit]

On the plus side, I do get a little extra exercise walking around looking for things because I can't remember where I put them.

I always used to be the go to person in my group for trivia.. I played a board game with my sisters and my nieces a couple weeks ago...I'll just say they aren't feeling threatened by me in the least....oh how the sister with the mind like a steel trap has fallen.

[Lifesighs]

I used to be so fast at jeopardy, now I can sometimes come up with the question but not fast enough. They should have slow jeopardy for seniors. Sometimes I know and can actually picture someone but can't bring up the name. It's in there somewhere, I think I've piled too much useless info onto my brain.

[P.A.]

I think we may be related. You described me exactly.

[P.A.]

I can't remember numbers at all, not that I was bad at math. Actually I was very good at it. But phone numbers, car tags, or anything that is just a series of numbers loses me. Cell phones were a Godsend to me. Now I can just carry a phone book in my pocket.

[T2Friends]

It is getting harder to remember things lately.  Names have always been difficult for me, and sometime I can't grab the exact word I need, or something that I would normally be able call up from my memory banks, seems gone forever.  It isn't all the time, but there is definitely a difference.  I wonder how much is left over from the chemo treatments 4 years ago or the added stress and responsibility of running my department.   Either way, I am working hard on not letting it freak me out.  I am not good with lists, but I find writing stuff down always helps me remember it, so I always go to meetings with pad and paper and take notes.  I might not ever have to look at them again, but if I didn't write it down I would never remember anything. 

[crestofwaves]

Names I lose because I think I had to remember so many new ones each year.  Where I put things, I forget, but as someone else said, I think of it as using calories cause I'm always on the search.  Sometimes a word gets lost and I need a prompt.  I can still remember every word the "other" person said in every argument I ever had in my life and sometimes I remind them, so, I don't know if that's bad or good. Other than that, I'm not complaining too much.  I can still learn and retain, and for that I am gratefull.

 

Billy Collins wrote a great poem about this:

 

Forgetfulness

The name of the author is the first to go followed obediently by the title, the plot,
the heartbreaking conclusion, the entire novel
which suddenly becomes one you have never read,
never even heard of,

as if, one by one, the memories you used to harbor
decided to retire to the southern hemisphere of the brain,
to a little fishing village where there are no phones.

Long ago you kissed the names of the nine Muses goodbye
and watched the quadratic equation pack its bag,
and even now as you memorize the order of the planets,

something else is slipping away, a state flower perhaps,
the address of an uncle, the capital of Paraguay.

Whatever it is you are struggling to remember,
it is not poised on the tip of your tongue,
not even lurking in some obscure corner of your spleen.

It has floated away down a dark mythological river
whose name begins with an L as far as you can recall,
well on your own way to oblivion where you will join those
who have even forgotten how to swim and how to ride a bicycle.

No wonder you rise in the middle of the night
to look up the date of a famous battle in a book on war.
No wonder the moon in the window seems to have drifted
out of a love poem that you used to know by heart.

Billy Collins

[AmerikinWmn]

My short term memory isn't great sometimes, but I've noticed it's usually if I'm stressed out about something. I do get really aggravated when I have a hard time pulling up the 'right' word when I'm discussing something. It's like one second it's there and BAM - it's gone and doesn't come back till I'm going to bed 2 hrs later or something. That drives me nuts! As for lists, I keep them for groceries and appointments and for packing when I'm going away but other than that, I don't really use them. I think they're a good idea though so it's kind of surprising they're saying lists aren't good for your memory. Life, you mentioned Jeopardy and I like your idea! I love that game and have noticed that some nights I'm really 'on' and then the next night I can't remember the easiest answers. 

[Lucinda Stone]

i have a similar issue with crossword puzzles, sometimes the whole thing in one pass, other times it might as well be in greek since nothing is making sense...i know i've had some puzzles that i could not not get one night but the next the answers flew like the wind, and i didn't read the dictionary in the meantime!...maybe the subconscious mind does really work behind the scenes and brings stored info to the front...  dunno... but it is weird...

[Kim]

I struggle with this too and am relieved to know its not as scary as i have thought i am getting.  i never did have the greatest memory but in 2004, i had an EXPLOSIVE HEADACHE one day and since that day, i wake up nearly every day asking myself what month, day of week, and year it is. There are other things but those are the most troubling to me. And i move things and have no recollection sometimes. TODAY, I left my boyfriends house and stopped for a sweet tea and reached in my pocket for a dollar or two. INSTEAD...I pulled out a $20.00. I called him to ask if he gave me that.  I picked up something for him and though, i know we TALKED about him paying me back but i did not remember him handing it to me. And by the way...after that crazy headache incident, i went to ER to have PERFECT test results. I was diagnosed a few months later with LYME DISEASE.....A diagnosis that came close to 15 years after symptoms began.