Poll Does PTSD Present You Noticable Memory Problems?

[Deleted member 541]

If memory issues aren't listed as one of the symptoms of PTSD, it should be.....You know the store cards that you use to get discounts on groceries????? Well, I will go to Big Y, and give them a Price Chopper card, or vice versa.....

I drive by places that i need to stop at, I can't remember HOW to get to a place that I have been 1000 times before. If anyone is with me, I just say, I am directionally challenged... But the truth is, I can't remember!!!!!!

 

[shiraz]

My short term memory gets particularly poor the more stressed I am. I am no longer able to study because of it and go around like other members here, making lists, going back home to retrieve lists I forgot to take with me, then forgetting to look at the list anyway.

At present we have 4doz eggs and three loaves of bread, because I can't keep track of what is in the fridge.

My worst memory lapse was putting the card in the ATM (automatic teller), then opening my wallet to find my card (which wasn't there) to put into the ATM!! I stood there for 30sec with my world falling apart, dissociation hitting hard and trying to backtrack my thought about where I last used it ... then the ATM spat it out as it had been idle and no pin had been put in .... F****!! I had already put it in and had not realized! I burst into tears and got out of the mall as fast as possible.

 

[2quilt]

Memory problems? I can't remember...

 

[Dragonfly]

Here I thought it was just because I'm blonde. I have good days and bad days with short term memory as well as blocks of time missing from parts of my life, when I try to remember the missing blocks I usualy get little glimmers then have a panic attack. so I've stopped trying to find memories from those periods of my life.

 

[Mina]

My short term memory gets particularly poor the more stressed I am.

SO true for me as well. I started my current job about 14 months ago, shortly after I was diagnosed and had started therapy. I had to write down everything, and started a large notebook with a section for every project. If someone asked me a question, even a simple one, I would tell them I would have to check my notebook, as I couldn't remember the answer without it. Of course I was trying not to cry as I said that, because I felt so stupid.

Luckily, this has gotten WAY better as I've made progress on my trauma and done a lot of therapy. But like Shiraz said, when I get stressed out, I start to forget again.

 

[Kaamos]

Oh yes, my memory became really worse. Until 'it happened' I was brillant at school; I nearly knew everything by hearing or reading it once. I didn't recognice it at first. My girlfriend and I were always arguing, because I asked and reasked all the time, I just forgot my question and her answer. This was really hard for our relationship... I often enter a room and stand still, asking myself what I'm wanting here. I have to make breaks in my work, because I'm simply didn't know what to do next.
But sometimes my memory gets better, especially when I'm relaxed. Then I am nearly the same as before.

 

[Dylan]

I have read that PTSD/trauma sufferers whose trauma began when they were young actually have smaller hippocampuses (hippocampi?). Not sure about those who develop PTSD later in life; the article I read was about victims of incest who developed CPTSD (and then, obviously, passed away; this measurement was done physically - during an autopsy - not using an MRI or something).

Stress/anxiety is a memory killer for anyone (higher reasoning gets abandoned during fight/flight response) but I do think the amygdala is much more sensitive to shutting down higher reasoning/memory on those who've experienced trauma. Makes sense to me, really: the brain is a highly complex, ever learning organ set up, primarily, to help me survive. If I've faced a highly charged, life threatening situation even once, my brain is going to put that experience pretty high up on the "remember this" chart.

-Dylan

 

[miahowl]

It is EMBARRESSING!!! My memory is shot. It's not so bad that I don't remember things moment to moment, but day to day is terrible unless, as others have said, I write it down (primarily for work). I don't remember people I've meet up to half a dozen times who, understandably, then get offended. I don't remember IMPORTANT things that friends have told me about their lives, but only if it pertained to their past, not their present - a connection? I have realized over time that I remember very little about my childhood - I'm not sure what's normal and what isn't, I just know it's minimal until high school.

 

[dancingmayflower]

My short term memory is also shot to pieces which is really distressing and very limiting. Can't remember what I have done a day or two ago, forgotten how to get to a (long-term) friend's place, kids tell me things and I promptly forget, verbal invitations forgotten etc etc etc.

 

[Marlene]

My short term memory gets particularly poor the more stressed I am.

Echoing that. It's never what you'd call good, it does improve with less stress. Although I'll ask my husband something and he'll say 'How many times are you going to ask me the same thing tonight?' and I'll look at my youngest and she's nodding yes that I've asked the questions before. My response is 'Well, since I don't remember asking before, I obviously don't remember you answer. So tell me again.' It's become something of a running joke in my home.

When I've been really stressed before I've forgotten how to do my job on the computer. I even got out the manual (that I helped write) and it still didn't make sense. I've forgotten, literally, how to read for a couple of moments. I was filling out a form I used to use daily and I looked at the first time and I knew it was letters and I knew it was something I should understand, but it made no sense at all to me. After a couple of moments, those wires in my brain stopped touching and I could read that it said 'Date'. There's been times that I've had people tell me something and I could hear and understand them, but when I asked my brain to engage and do what was asked, it was like their words turned into babble and I just couldn't do anything.

It's frustrating to me in the extreme. I write notes and I write notes about notes and I send myself reminder emails from work to home. E-notes, I guess you'd say.

Lisa

 

[Mercy]

Short term memory loss is hard but so is having absolutly no memory of some important things from last year. I think I can understand how this happens. But It makes me feel helpless on the inside and a brave front for the rest of my family. But my grown kids sometimes treat me as defective and who can blame them.

 

[lexie381]

Yes! I agree with most others on here, I have terrible short term memory - I always thought it was because of the tranqs I used to be on, but obviously not!