Anxiety; short AND long term memory loss?

I'm not a professional or anything, but just from what I know: if you go through an event that was particularly traumatic, that memory can be kind of locked inside where it's hard to reach it. It's kind of your brain's way of saying: I can't deal with this right now, so I'm just going to lock it away in a place where I don't have to face what really happened. I think it's called a repressed memory. My guess is that the hospital visit was really traumatic for you. I suggest going to see the doctor or a clinical psychologist.

There's a three year period of which I only have about five memories, during the time that my mother had cancer. I think it's a defensive mechanism. I have no research to back that up.

As far as short term memory and difficulty communicating, I'm experiencing that at the moment, too. It's absolutely frustrating. It's affecting both my written and verbal communication. I have 12 chapters written for a novel, which I've had to abandon because my writing is so clumsy right now. My day job is writing, too, so I'm mortified that I'll lose my job. My pdoc told me Saturday, "you don't have to keep correcting yourself if you use the wrong word." She's wrong, I do.

Anyway, long story short, I would check in with your doctor to rule out any physical cause, if I were you. If you get the all clear, I would chalk it up anxiety. Like Larry, I don't think you need to be worried about Alzheimer's just yet.

"I think when I see my doctor Friday I just need to make him answer my VALID question without skirting around it." - Yes, I think you do.

"$$$ isn't growing on my tree this year. Must've been the bad fertilizer. Ha." This made me laugh out loud! At least you've got a sense of humor about things. :)

I do understand the frustration of not being able to enjoy reading. Have you tried reading some less challenging books? Sometimes when I'm not in the best spirits, I read the kind of books I'd be a little embarrassed to read in public. Young Adult novels in my favorite genres, for example. (Yep, I totally read the Twilight series and LOVED them. lol)

Definitely get onto your doctor!

When I first became ill, my brain felt like it hard turned to mush - I was constantly stumbling over words and not comprehending even simple TV programs. All I could read was children's books, and I even struggled to remember the storylines of those. But I slowly read more and more difficult children's books to the point where I can now read adult's books (slower than before, though) again!

And my speech improved as I stopped hanging around people who laughed at me when I stumbled over my words or forgot what I was saying mid-sentence. Now I only do it occasionally, but it doesn't matter because I have surrounded myself with people who care about me as a person and not my performance (all my friends get much better grades than me, but they are always happy for me when I get a grade that is "good considering how sick I was"). My writing is pretty good now, unless I'm having a flare-up.

I do like your sense of humour.

I really hope you find a psychotherapist/psychiatrist who understands what you really need help with.

Post Edited (Jasmine Grace) : 6/12/2013 8:23:42 AM (GMT-6)

When my mind is really going a mile a minute I forget all sorts of stuff in the short term. I leave the refrigerator door open (annoys my wife), leave the front door open after letting the dog out (annoys my wife some more) and generally do other things that annoy me too! Like I'll go to try and find a screwdriver and then end up wandering around my bedroom looking for something until I snap out of my anxious thoughts and remind myself that all I came up here was a screwdriver.

I think at least for me, it's the distracting thoughts that easily take me away from the task at hand.

Hope you are feeling better soon, let us know how it goes with your doctor.

Joshua

Good luck!