Dealing With Memory Loss

[June70]

Akela, I'm really sorry you are having memory problems at such a young age. It sounds like you have a good counselor.

 

[Bridgette]

Best. Trick. Ever….For ruling out dementia.

- If you forget where your keys are? That’s a memory issue.
- If you forget what keys are for? (Combing my hair? Adding to soup?) Thats dementia.

***

I have my own spectrum on memory loss/memory issues.

One of the things I’ve found with PTSD is that the more my mind is in the past? The less I’m able to form new memories in the present.

Journaling reeeeeeally helps.

I despise journaling. But it’s a useful tool when my memory is getting iffy, or collecting gaps / losing time, etc.

Sometimes -often- it’s just the cue needed to remind me / help move a memory from short term into long term. Oh. Right. That.

Other times there’s no memory whatsoever, but at least the note I took give me a general outline of what was happening when &/or any patterns that start to develop. Like I can remember all of this, need cues from here on, remember that, don’t remember this at all… okay! What was happening in my life right before &/or during the times I’m having memory issues, and related to what?

I'm sorry if I am doing this wrong. I am new but I didn't do my introduction. I had a flashback earlier today and it won't leave me. YES, the more I am in the past, the less short-term memory I have. It makes me feel a lot better that I'm not alone. I'm tired. It's 3 a.m. My blessing of a husband is sleeping soundly next to me, but I am half in 2012. A bloody decade. I think--I am not a scientist or medical expert at all--that because our subconscious and/or conscious minds are in a trauma situation, our brain doesn't process or keep why I walked into the kitchen. I haven't read a book in four years. I don't journal--I used to, but now I write fiction, I guess. My main character goes through the kind of stuff I did, but she doesn't take any abuse. I find that writing about an incident or an amalgamation of incidents that end with "Rebekah" (my main character) speaking up and standing up for herself helps...

One of the things I’ve found with PTSD is that the more my mind is in the past? The less I’m able to form new memories in the present.

 

[Wellthatsunexpected]

Stuff can go away quickly. Inside a month or two I couldn't remember names or faces of people who I worked with when my second trauma happened. Just gone, all gone.

The rest of my working memory is a mess too. I forget meds and stuff but I started looking for phone apps to help keep me organized. Alarms annoy me but I just can't do without them now.

Makes me a bit AAAAAAAHHHHH since I have lived with PTSD for 45 years and my memory has never been as bad as it is now.

I would ask your T about hacks to help. I got one before Christmas and it works - I just don't like using it because it feels like getting zapped by an electric fence when I do it, but it works.

If ur mind could hide abuse, it can hide another knowledge. I bet that what you have now is just a disorganized filing system from these old files coming up. Be very kind to yourself- things will come back to a new order, I betcha. Just stress won't speed this process up xxx