Depression and memory loss?

Hello. Just wondering........I think I was born depressed, then had a bad family situation growing up. I'm 72 now and have bad osteoarthritis, fibromyalgia, sleep apnea, etc., etc. And it doesn't help having a fear of docs......so I don't always see them when I probably should (mostly because they are fairly useless).
My question........my memory has gotten soooo bad recently. I know it is said that depression can cause memory problems, but it's hard to believe it would be this bad. For those of you who have depression........has it really affected your memory? Mostly I can't remember words, names. I also have pretty bad short term memory........like I forget if I've done something I just did. Maybe I'm just not accepting growing old very well. I am having headaches and I also dream constantly. Probably should change my sleep apnea doc. I went to my ENT last week, since in the 1990s I needed 2 sinus surgeries and my head feels similar now. But the CT scan was normal. Any ideas?
I hope I can remember posting this. ;) Thanks for listening.........

As far as the Osteoarthritis, mayoclinic.org said, it “is the most common form of arthritis.”

It said, “Both heat and cold can relieve pain and swelling in your joint. Heat, especially moist heat (squeezed out moist towel), can help muscles relax and ease pain. Cold can relieve muscle aches after exercise and decrease muscle spasms.”

On 2-24-2022 somebody said to a fellow poster:

“All I can do myself (living with constant body pain and mental anguish), is to go through the day and try to be aware of everything that is good, and for which I am grateful. It can be simple things........like watching the birds, or see a beautiful sunrise or sunset, or how the sunlight hits a picture on the wall, or having food to eat.. I know this might sound silly to people, but sometimes, it's all we have. And I guess we need to figure out how to encourage Hope. I'm trying to "re-train" my brain with good thoughts. But it's hard. All I can say is good luck to you and be grateful with anything you can find to be grateful for.”

You should find that person and take their advice.

I learned to be positive 25 years ago tomorrow when a columnist in a newspaper (you remember newspapers, anyway) recommended being positive. That was a foreign language to me.

But she suggested believing you can solve a problem before going into it. Because it opens up your mind to solving the current problem, rather than closing it to try and not solve it.

I believe some of this can be genealogically traced back to your living room when you were a child. Which is where mine began.

Thanks everyone. Tim Tam.........LOL......yes, I'll look for that person and try to take her advice.
paul_t, I do fairly hard jigsaw puzzles all the time, plus easier crossword puzzles. I think that's supposed to help with my thinking......but it hasn't happened yet. ;)
I'm overly-analytical about everything, so that might be taking up too much space in my brain, and not leaving enough space for some other things.