How good is your memory?

Vermilion wrote:

Peter Crisp wrote:

Oblomov Boblomov wrote:So what is it?

A white hole.

I've never seen one before, no one has.

White hole
Spewing time
engines dead
advice please!

Although to be fair what's more important, remembering bits from old TV shows or the names of people you work with and potentially vital work stuff?

Peter Crisp wrote:

Return_of_the_STAR wrote:

Peter Crisp wrote:My memory is strawberry floating atrocious and I'm currently taking tablets to try and help as I can't remember names for the life of me (its become a running joke at work) even with people I've worked with for almost 10 years and if I put something down chances are I'm going to forget where I put it .
The GP started to suggest it was my age but I have the memory of a 90 year old and I'm 44 and I work with people my age who don't have the same issue so I'm pretty sure it's not that. We have people on here of all ages so I thought it may be useful to just see how good or bad all your abilities to remember things are and if you feel it could be better or are you happy with your ability to recall things?

There is medication for your memory?

At the moment it's anti-depressants to see if that's a problem as I've never been the most cheery of people and my job doesn't help. I've been given a 3 month trial on those to see if it helps and then they'll send me back to a neurologist. I went to see one about 4 or 5 years ago when trying to work out an eye problem and had some pretty thorough brain scans (I had 2 90 minute scans as part of a study into my condition but they were just part of the study and not shown to the doc as far as I know but I got a few nice days out in London and Nottingham so that was nice) back then but something may have changed. I had 2 shorter scans by the local hospital before that.

My memory is a disaster zone at the moment though.

What anti-depressants are you on? I take sertraline and I’m convinced they’ve made my memory worse too be honest.

Citalopram 20mg.

I have no idea if it's working and I've not suddenly become a memory champion who can memorise 20 decks of cards in 90 seconds so that's a bit of a blow as that would have been nice.

My memory is awful and it's a real worry of mine.

I lost my Mum in October and for her birthday a few weeks back I got myself a nice note book and started just writing down a whole bunch of memories I have with her no matter how small to make sure I always remember things as I just have no faith in my memory at all to remember some of these smaller things going forward.

Used to be absolutely incredible, near eidetic, but since becoming a father my short-term memory has taken a substantial hit.

You’ve passed your skills on and no longer have any use for them. Alternatively - sleepless nights have affected your concentration.

I have an excellent memory for facts, figures and statistics; it’s the reason I was able to obtain a masters degree with minimal effort. It’s been a very effective procrastination tool.

However, a few years ago I noticed that I struggled to remember conversations, tasks I’d been asked to perform and events in my own life - I’d drive from my mum’s house or work to my flat and not remember the route I’d taken, for example. I also found that my concentration lapses a little too easily, something that had low-level bothered me for most of my life. Turns out I’ve got Attention Deficit Disorder, and had avoided diagnosis as a child purely off the back of being able to use my strong memory to cover a complete inability to study or concentrate.

My genuine greatest fear is losing my memory - I don’t know what I’d do.

Corazon de Leon wrote:Turns out I’ve got Attention Deficit Disorder, and had avoided diagnosis as a child purely off the back of being able to use my strong memory to cover a complete inability to study or concentrate.

Christ. I wonder how common that set of circumstances is.

Corazon de Leon wrote:You’ve passed your skills on and no longer have any use for them.

I suppose, save for AYAW.

my memory is so poor to the point where I spoke to my doctors about it as I thought maybe it was a side effect from my pills, I forget what I was doing as Im doing it, forget what Ive said, frequently forget what my point was mid sentence, forget Ive sent messages to people until I go to write another and see what Ive said and completely dont recall, forget what I was supposed to arrange or plan. In short, not very good.

similar to cora I was provisionally diagnosed with adhd about 7 years ago but now it seems its more likely I have add with bipolar disorder

also, something that a lot of people dont know or dont want to discuss is that depression is a big factor in memory loss - its been proven in testing that people who are depressed can have significantly impaired short term memory and even general confusion - one to bear in mind if you are a professional sadboi x

That makes a whole lot of sense actually. I never had a problem with my memory until my anxiety hit its peak a couple of years back. I still wouldn't say my memory is terrible but it's definitely worsened.

depression, stress, and anxiety poop on your body and mind in a number of ways, a multitude of which can manifest in unexpected and super shitty ways

stay safe out there

My memory is great for some things and terrible at others.

Names/faces are things I easily forget, but random little facts seem to sink in.

Peter Crisp wrote:

Vermilion wrote:

Peter Crisp wrote:

Oblomov Boblomov wrote:So what is it?

A white hole.

I've never seen one before, no one has.

White hole
Spewing time
engines dead
advice please!

Although to be fair what's more important, remembering bits from old TV shows or the names of people you work with and potentially vital work stuff?

-10 points for forgetting "air supply low" from that quote.

Clearly you do have memory problems!

i remember a lot of pointless lore facts from various nerd worlds better than i remember facts about this world

Long term memory is sometimes excellent, short term memory is strawberry floating terrible. Which makes long term memory unreliable because I'll just remember the wrong things as well. Sometimes I'll legit memorise things that never even happened and were just hypothetical thought exercises or even dreams.

False wrote:my memory is so poor to the point where I spoke to my doctors about it as I thought maybe it was a side effect from my pills, I forget what I was doing as Im doing it, forget what Ive said, frequently forget what my point was mid sentence, forget Ive sent messages to people until I go to write another and see what Ive said and completely dont recall, forget what I was supposed to arrange or plan. In short, not very good.

similar to cora I was provisionally diagnosed with adhd about 7 years ago but now it seems its more likely I have add with bipolar disorder

also, something that a lot of people dont know or dont want to discuss is that depression is a big factor in memory loss - its been proven in testing that people who are depressed can have significantly impaired short term memory and even general confusion - one to bear in mind if you are a professional sadboi x

Definitely true in my experience but yeah probably some neurodivergencies there boi, rip

Peter Crisp wrote:Citalopram 20mg.

I have no idea if it's working and I've not suddenly become a memory champion who can memorise 20 decks of cards in 90 seconds so that's a bit of a blow as that would have been nice.

It takes about 6 months or your biochemistry to level out when starting SSRIs so don't take any side effects too badly for a time but it could just as well be the underlying symptoms or even you becoming less confused and more acutely aware of how you actually are as your mood stabilises, it's very hard to demuddle the medication with what you're being medicated for and in the end it's really all a balancing act to see if it's more helpful than not helpful.

Jenuall wrote:

Peter Crisp wrote:

Vermilion wrote:

Peter Crisp wrote:

Oblomov Boblomov wrote:So what is it?

A white hole.

I've never seen one before, no one has.

White hole
Spewing time
engines dead
advice please!

Although to be fair what's more important, remembering bits from old TV shows or the names of people you work with and potentially vital work stuff?

-10 points for forgetting "air supply low" from that quote.

Clearly you do have memory problems!

So what is it?




...only joking.

Green Gecko wrote:

Peter Crisp wrote:Citalopram 20mg.

I have no idea if it's working and I've not suddenly become a memory champion who can memorise 20 decks of cards in 90 seconds so that's a bit of a blow as that would have been nice.

It takes about 6 months or your biochemistry to level out when starting SSRIs so don't take any side effects too badly for a time but it could just as well be the underlying symptoms or even you becoming less confused and more acutely aware of how you actually are as your mood stabilises, it's very hard to demuddle the medication with what you're being medicated for and in the end it's really all a balancing act to see if it's more helpful than not helpful.

That's good to know as at the moment it feels like I'm getting worse if anything. Today it felt like a win when I remembered the name of the guy I was going to be working with all day and I'm pretty sure that's not normal given that I've known the guy for about a year now.

If the memory is effected yeah it could pass but it's also good to know what in my experience if you sleep more or forget more or some other thing and that's generally better than being sad all the time you can always just nebulously remark "oh sorry, my medicine makes me a little forgetful at times" people tend to say "oh ok that's not your fault then" and don't really push further on it, so profesionally it shouldn't make you feel awkward to say that maybe your medicine is affecting it. All medicines have at least some side effects unfortunately and people generally accept that as outside of your control, without needing to mention it's anything to do with your brain or anything like that.