Huge Problems With Memory. It's Scaring Me.

[nimkekaa]

I appologize if there is another thread with this but I could not find one.

Just wondered what kind of "current" memory issues people are having. I lost many years when I was younger due to trauma and abuse but I have never felt so lost as I have lately.

I can't remember what I am doing from one minute to the next. My children keep telling me that we talked about things and I don't remember. This goes way beyond just walking into a room and forgetting what I was doing. I have notes and reminders in my phone but I can forget what I am supose to be doing 30 secs after reading a reminder. It's starting to really scare me. I worry abouit driving as I can forget where I am going or why I am driving in a certain direction. I know that some forgetfulness can be because of remembering traumatic events but this seems excessive. I just wondered if anyone else has experienced this.

 

[Kaii]

Yep.

It's pretty common here, from what I can gather. It's gotten so bad for me that I worried that I might have early onset Alzheimer's. My doctor and psychiatrist say "nope, it's the PTSD".

I have even forgotten to pick up my own son from school....4 separate times. I now set a daily alarm on my phone to remind me to pick him up. I also keep a notepad next to the bed, incase I think of something that I need to do or information I don't want to forget.

It's awful, I find myself standing in front of the fridge and can't remember why I'm standing there. Or call my bf to tell something and then can't remember why I called.

You're not alone. I hope you can find some small comfort in that many of us are suffering right along with you ;)

 

[Abrasky]

Yep very common. I can't remember if I have done something one minute to the next either. I compensate by setting multiple alarms on my apple iphone which tells me what it is. Even had to cook a slow cooker meal at 8.30 this morning, and I had forgotten it already. So thanks for reminding me.:)

I'm pretty sure I will forget my name soon.

 

[nimkekaa]

Thank you so much for your replies. I knew a little forgetfulness was common but it's nice to know that others find it extreme also.

 

[BigBear]

I know that Angel has at least 2 things that happen to her.

She'd be going down a street in our own town. One we travel all of the time. An invasive memory would hit her. When she broke free of it after a minute or so, it seemed to have overlaid all of her short term memory (my way of thinking about it), probably be cause she was having severe body memories. So her last memories tell her that she's in some other town, where the street that she's currently on doesn't exist. Very hard to overcome... Fortunately, I believe that her experience is that therapy is really squashing this one.

As a second alternative, she has pretty severe splitting. This is similar to DID but only vaguely. Her other personalities (splits) do things that she can't remember. Additionally, during the change over periods, there is no memory available, because the pathways are temporarily confused. Each split seems to use different pathways and her mind has adapted to that. But there is no adaption for no one in control. Its pretty chaotic. She can't be diagnosed as DID and so can't be treated as such. Therefore, the counselors can't really do much for this. On the good side, she's done some work with recombining the splits and so they appear to be having less of an effect...

I'm sure that there are other things that she experiences, too.

Bear

 

[Tinyflame]

I can relate to the invasive memory, or thoughts, or overwhelm, and then forgetting, the worst being specifically not recognizing what street I'm on or recall where I was going (let alone how to get there), that's the worst. Literally 'lost' and don't know where to go.

 

[Deleted member 14228]

Really? The more I read the more I wonder why my symptoms seem to be so different. I literally have the memory of an elephant. Don't test me, I'll win every time. Except, when I'm triggered. Hypervigilance takes over, and memory takes a back seat.

I've never met anyone else like this. Maybe it's genetics combined with PTSD. (My mom has a good memory, but not as extreme as mine.)

LOL, that reminds me, I'm insane at the game "Simon". Once I got a sequence into the forties. The friend I was with sat there with her mouth gaping.

But I digress.

 

[Tinyflame]

"Except when I'm triggered", maybe that's the key.

 

[LawPhotos]

I am experiencing the same thing. I have always had an excellent memory. In the past two years my anxiety, stress and fear issues have spiraled out of control and I noticed that my memory was, understandably not what it once was. About the first of this year my memory problem seemed to get markedly worse. I would find things that I had written, like in my journal and posts on this website that for the life of me I could not ever remember writing. For the first time I couldn't keep track in my head of schedule changes or remember what people had asked me to do and I began to feel very frustrated with the fact that in the average day I spent more time looking for the things that I needed than I did actually using them.

This decline has continued and now it has me terrified. At first I thought people were just messing with me by saying we had conversations that for the life of me I didn't remember no matter how hard I tried. I will go to do a piece of work and find that I've already done it but have no memory of it. I have had to go to using a daily pill organizer or I'd never take my meds or take them twice. I sometimes have to actually go back home when I am driving as I simply CANNOT recall where I was going! My T will bring up things from our sessions that I swear never happened. I continuously lose my train of thought even mid-sentence while talking. Particularly unnerving is the fact that my father died from Alzheimers a year and a half ago. My psych became very concerned and put me on attention meds. Without them I think I wouldn't be able to function. Just last week my T began suggesting that I see a neurologist for an evaluation, alarmed by the fact that I find things that I have no recollection of buying, I sometimes can't remember something seconds after having done it, it is often a struggle for me to figure out what month and year it is, nevermind the date and that my teenage children are now very afraid that I have Alzheimers.

 

[nimkekaa]

Wow LawPhotos. That must be scary expecially with the family history of Alzheimers. My grandfather had Alzeimers also. I don't have any problem with days of the weeks or buying things that I can't remember but I do struggle with conversations and people saying we have talked about things that I can't remember talking about.

For me right now the main problem is that my family has counted on my amazing memory so much in the past that eveyone is struggling when I forget things. Me, I just wish everyone would understand that it's not that I don't want to remember I just can't. But then my children don't know what I have gone through and they don't understand PTSD. My husband understands but he has always had memory issues and is therefore no help.

I too feel that mine is getting worse. My T just says it has to do with remembering so much really horrible stuff lately and due to the fact that I disociate. But it sure can be scary.

 

[Omnia vincit amor]

I fully understand you. I had always a very good memory, could concentrate well and learn very fast. Now my daughter is laughing about me how simple thing I am not able to remember, I am going to places and need GPS to locate myself and find the way back or forgetting in the middle of the sentence what actually I am talking about. I am not able to read books, only short text, paragraphs and can not watch TV. I am lost in the story.
I am slowly coming to a stage that I am never sure whether I have deja vu, or I really repeating the same things again and again.
I try to compensate with looking for topics that I feel resonance with eg spirituality (completely new area for me) I still need to read the same sentences again and again but at least they are always interesting.....

 

[Anna]

Same with me. My memory is like a sieve. I forget loads of things, it is really annoying.

I have a calender at home on the wall where I highlight all important events and appointments.