Losing My Mind, or at Least My Short Term Memory
Nov 20th, 2006 by Jeremy
Please tell me this is a temporary thing, like puberty for people getting older? I hate to say it, but I am losing my mind. I am afraid to admit it, but I am getting older. I am really not that old, just mid-30s, but my body and brain think this is a race to senility and seeing who can arrive first. My joints, especially my post-ACL replacement knee I can blame on noone but myself for my overactive athletics when younger, but having my brain go at such a young age just isn’t fair.
I tend to think of myself as one of the sharper knives in the drawer, using an old saying. Now, I am not self-centered in saying that, but I faired well in academia, graduated college, hold a good job and consider myself a good contributing member of society. I try to keep myself up-to-date on current events, well read and trained in my profession. I like being the guy people turn to for answers in certain fields. All good things. I was under the apparently incorrect assumption that if I kept my brain engaged and challenged on a daily basis that I could forestall the memory loss we all know comes with later years in life. Yep, I was wrong, at least in my case.
I have always had a good memory. I am not photographic by any means, I have never done that well on factual exams in school, but I have what I call a “situational memory.” For any given situation that sticks in my mind I can pretty much remember all the details of what was said, describe the surrounding, recall important facts, etc. The part that is going, going gone is my short term memory. Since when did I become such a creature of habit with no ability to keep the most important of details in my mind? A few examples are in order:
- My wife calls me at work right before I am headed home to ask that I pick up a (insert important item here such as missing food needed for dinner, prescription, etc.) on my way home. I leave the office 5 minutes later only to head directly to home.
- Deadlines at work - even if I make note of it, my brain for some reason tucks it away until just past the time necessary to do it without rushing like a teenager writing that all important term paper.
- Kids birthdays - I’m a man, need I say more on this? I actually did ok at some point in my life, but now I understand why my dad had such a hard time with this one. It wasn’t his fault, it was premature mental aging.
The list really could go on and on, but I forgot what I was…hey, what am I doing…oh yeah, writing about my short term memory.
I have always been one to steer clear from taking any kind of pills, whether they be pain killers, supplements, whatever; but I can honestly understand now why the ginko craze has such staying power. We all what the magic cure to get our brains back. Forget reclaiming my childhood sports abilities, I know those are gone for ever…I want my brain back! There really is something to the joke about going back to your teenage years when you knew everything! At least I could remember a few more things even if I didn’t actually know as much!
I have learned to live by reminders. I love my smart phone, I carry the Treo 650 these days. It is really my saving grace most of the time. Anything important gets put in the calendar with an alarm with appropriate lead time. The only downside is the dread I feel sometimes when I hear that reminder chime. Oh boy, what have I forgotten now.
So kids, my kids specifically, have a little patience with your old man when he shows up at your birthday party with the look of surprise on his face or a little late for the soccer game you have been talking about all week. It isn’t his fault, he’s just lost his mind.
Jeremy I do wish I could tell you it gets better (as I am a bit older than you…ok a lot older) or that I have info on a certain Amazon root drink that will help you remember what you went to the store for in the first place but I can’t help ya friend. I am getting to the end of the downhill side of forty…with that old 50 brick wall in front of me and finding the breaks no longer work and have found my brain no longer functions. My rooms are plastered with yellow sticky notes to help me remember errands to run, to pick up my daughter (last time I left her stranded at the Mall she wasn’t a happy teen), to change the clothes in the dryer…I have a basket hanging on my front doorknob to allow me (and my hubby) to drop our car keys in so we are not late for EVERYTHING looking for them. I can now understand the obsession with older men marrying much younger women…they need them to help them remember to put their pants on before leaving the house!
Just the other day I spent 10 minutes wandering in the Mall parking lot searching for my car…panicked it had been stolen only to remember my hubby had dropped me off as he went to Best Buy. Thank heavens he remembered to pick me up! LOL!
My favorite saying is, “Have you ever stopped to think and forgot to start again?” Welcome to middle age! LOL!
Jeremy - Sorry but I will have to second Ali on the memory issue.
It’s so bad sometimes for me that I can go into another room to get something and once in there promptly forget what I went in there for!! Talk about frustration. I forget things like that, but amazingly, I still do not need to write down my work schedule or appointments. I just seem to remember those. It’s crazy. It’s my VERY SHORT term memory that has short circuited HA
Oh heck!! Can’t even remember what comment I was going to add… **sigh** - “I’ll be back” (I think)….
SueM
Yes, i have the same problem, but i’m sure it really is my age. Its got worse over the past year or so, so i think its just one of the symptoms of Menopause, and i’m told it gets better, so i’m not worried too much, its just more annoying then anything, especially for my kids i think, when they’ve just told me about something, then 5 minutes later i’m asking them something about the very same thing they just told me. They tut and go off in a huff. They think its because i’m not listening to them, but its not that at all.
Do you have a PA Jeremy? You know the sort that keeps your diary and reminds you every 5 minutes that its your childs birthday etc…maybe thats the solution. (But make sure she/he is young, you don’t want them to forget to look in the diary…:) )
This short-term memory loss started happening years ago when I had 3 little children, a full-time job, and a house and a husband to take care of - brain overload! And it’s just gotten worse as the years go by because I still have all the same things to do, the kids are just older! My kids laugh at me all the time, because I too will ask them something or make a comment about something we just discussed 5 minutes ago - completely forgetting we just discussed it! Or I’ll dial someone’s number, only to say, as they pick up, “I forgot why I was calling you!”
As Pam said, I have no problem with remembering deadlines or things to do at work. It’s just my home life for some reason. I leave myself voicemail messages all the time, because if I don’t, it’ll go out of my head instantly.
You know that character Dory from “Finding Nemo”? I can so relate to her!
Gee….I haven’t that problem at all. At least I can’t remember if I do or not!!!! Oh no!!!!
I wish my kids would laugh at me!! Instead I get that “eyes raised skywards” look….along with something muttered under their breath! Well heck how can I be to blame when I have a hubby 4 kids and 3 labradors too, remember! So what if my daughter gets called by the dogs name (ok well she may get called by everything until I eventually stop and ask her “who are you again ?”), I can’t help the hormonal rush that seems to appear out of blue and carries off any short term memory that may have been lingering just for a while. Now, hot flushes (or flashes as you may call them)..Nope none of those…..hot flushes from the sheer embarrassment of turning up somewhere and having no idea why I am there! The amount of times I have returned from shopping with a load of tosh simply because I could not face walking out with nothing, having got there and realised I simply could not fathom why I had made the trip in the first place. Supper in our house can be very interesting sometimes……..
The really frustrating thing though is that I always remember that my husband has forgotten…if you get my drift! I may tell him 3 zillion times I am going such and such a place…only to have him tell me indignantly just as I am going out the door “well nobody told me you were going”! So what is that all about? If I could forget that I had told him our lives would be a lot more harmonious I am sure!
Right I have to drop my youngest off at the school disco in 10 mins…please pray that i will remember to collect him again in 2 hours !
For me im worse off than all of you.
I am 15 years old and my short term memory is GONE!
well and truely gone. It may be because of my problem with alcohol, for the past 7 months i have been drinking pretty much every day. On average i would drink 6-7 pints of Stella Artois down the local seeing as they all thought i was 18(No complaining from me). Then maybe there would be once or twice a week where i wouldnt drink.I used to drink every friday and saturday night, but that would only be like 7 cans of Carlsberg Export. Yet Now it has got so bad i walk downstairs to get a drink and come back up with a pizza… It really is starting to get to me a bit now. My long term memory is fine. Just my short term is in pieces.
I started to lose my ST memory recently, and I am only 28. I am not sure what happen.