Coping with thingummy

[NoJo]

Like a lot of forty-somethings I'm forgetting names.

I rely heavily on various mental prostheses, foremost of which is Google.

I don't really mind too much not being able to remember names, but this morning, for the first time, I was really pissed off: Late last night I though of a really funny piece of dialog, so funny it actually made me laugh (which I never normally do at my own stuff). This morning: gone with the wind.

I'll never do that again: I'm keeping my pen an notebook with me *all the time*. In the toilet, during sex, driving...

How do you cope with failing memory? Do you do mental calisthenics? Make up obscure mnemonics?

Help appreciated.

(checks "Logged in user:")

Sub Joe

 

[Guest]

Dunno, haven't got there yet.

Eh, what was that?

Forgotten what I was gonna say now...



Oh yeah, and that "check logged in user" is a very familiar thing to me.

Seriously, though, I do rarely forget anything. Maybe because I've always used "techniques" for remembering things. I always use association, or the telling of a story in my own mind, when I want to commit something to memory - always have done. Say I want to remember my PIN number: I'll make up a mathematical equation in my head, then associate the result with something obscure that I know I won't forget. I do the same with names, etc.

I do think I have a naturally very good memory; I never forget anything. Which can be a pain in the arse, when I actually want to forget something and put it out of my mind. I think too much, that's my problem.

Lou

 

[snooper]

... How do you cope with failing memory? ...

I'm sixty-five and i don't recall ever having had a problem with whatever it was ...

 

[Liar]

Re: Re: Coping with thingummy

I'm sixty-five and i don't recall ever having had a problem with whatever it was ...

First laugh of the day. Thanks.

 

[Lucifer_Carroll]

I don't want to think about when I get older. My memory is already so shit now that I have the "write down every idea when I have it" habit and forget the names of almost everybody I know.

When I get older, I'll probably have to label my shoes to remember what they are and write my own name on a post-it note on the mirror.

Not at all looking forward to it.

 

[Guest]

Me last now.

 

[matriarch]

You wait until menopause hits you, girrlllly............you have never know frustration until menopause short term memory loss hits you. Drives me absolutely crazy.

Perdita and I had a few good laughs over the last couple of days, both of us trying to remember words, names, and using each other for mental clues.

It is a serious thing for me, particularly at work. I have always had a brilliant memory for telephone numbers, names, all sorts of stuff.......now....poof!! Gone. And it really does make me very very angry. And it will only get worse as the hormone levels change even more.

So, make the most of it while you've got it, but in the meantime, make sure your database is up to date !!!

 

[matriarch]

Me last now.

Errrmmmmmm.......wrong thread???? Or has your memory gone already?

 

[Guest]

... make the most of it while you've got it...

That's how I live my life, honey.

 

[matriarch]

That's how I live my life, honey.

ps, sent the last of those pics over a short while ago.

 

[carsonshepherd]

My memory is shit for everything except writing. I can't remember what I went to the grocery store after because I keep all my notes and dialogue in my head. If I jot it down on paper - it's poison to the story. People wonder how I remember it all. I just keep it churning in my head constantly till it falls into place and I get a chance to put it in the story.

 

[SensualCealy]

WRITE EVERYTHING DOWN!!!

I have noticed the on set of my MS its a mild form but so far its hit my balance and memory. I write everything down, and put the list exactly where Ill need it for what ever its for. Grocery lists, beside my wallet, if I put it in Id never see it and forget where I put it. Notes for the kids, on the fridge so they go with them first thing in the morning. Notes for hubby, in his lunch pail. Alot of times for small grocery purchases Ill write it on my hand, cant lose that unless I drive with my arm hanging out the window! lol
C

 

[carsonshepherd]

. Alot of times for small grocery purchases Ill write it on my hand, cant lose that unless I drive with my arm hanging out the window! lol
C

A tip: if you write in on your wrist, it doesn't wash off as fast (Been doing this most of my life!)

 

[NoJo]

Phone number of Pete Czajkowski , who I last spoke to forty years ago, when I was eight: SPEedwell 2432

My mobile phone number: er... erm.. It begins with 078...

 

[NoJo]

A tip: if you write in on your wrist, it doesn't wash off as fast (Been doing this most of my life!)

I read "The Mind of a Mnemonist", by the Russian psychologist Luria. He researched a mnemonist he found in a travelling circus. Brilliant book. One quote from the mnemonist really struck me:

"If I didn't write things down, I'd never be able to forget anything."

He was being serious. His memory was like an infinite sequence of photographs. An amazing case of eidetic memory.

 

[pop_54]

I went to the doctor with just this problem recently Joe, memory loss like.... He said "where were you born" I said "Aylesbury" He said well how much fucking further do you want to remember back.

 

[eric shawn listo]

I'm told drinking lots of water helps...no, wait, that's hangovers.

I find one's forties and one's alcohol make for many a forgotten evening. Not that one drinks every night...or...hmm.

Plotted out an entire story in my head last night, wrote none of it down and now it's gone..completely vanished. Bah humbug, indeed.

 

[BlackShanglan]

Not only must I write everything down, but I have to put the notes where I will see them without looking for them - stuck to my computer monitor, or on the door to the garage. My home is a maze of sticky notes.

Shanglan

 

[NoJo]

I went to the doctor with just this problem recently Joe, memory loss like.... He said "where were you born" I said "Aylesbury" He said well how much fucking further do you want to remember back.

Thanks pop. BTW I still haven't forgotten the 50 quid you owe me, even if you have.

 

[ABSTRUSE]

My short term memory has gotten worse lately and it frustrates people when they ask me something and I don't answer right away because I have to process it all. They don't realize how frustrating it is to me also.
I have to do the Winnie the Pooh thing and sit and tap my head for a while.

Yet trivial things from the past I can recall.

 

[pop_54]

Thanks pop. BTW I still haven't forgotten the 50 quid you owe me, even if you have.

Thank fuck for that, I thought it was a 100.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Two things I always forget as soon as I hear them are phone numbers and driving directions.

I think it's that I'm so busy concentrating on not forgetting what the person's saying that I don't even pay attention to their words.

Someone can tell me a phone number and I'll forget it before I can even pick up the phone. It's like some sort of mini panic attack.

---dr.M.

 

[gauchecritic]

I have mild aphasia and constantly query the family over the actual word I'm trying to think of, I can give synonyms and describe exactly the word I'm searching for but simply cannot pin it down. I have noticed occasionally however, that just by asking I can jog my own memory.

Apparently (and the reason you had to do it in school) writing something down actually helps you remember it. Saying something out loud helps too.

But as a bloke I don't worry about it too much. I have a wife who does all my remembering for me!

 

[carsonshepherd]

I have mild aphasia and constantly query the family over the actual word I'm trying to think of, I can give synonyms and describe exactly the word I'm searching for but simply cannot pin it down. I have noticed occasionally however, that just by asking I can jog my own memory.

Apparently (and the reason you had to do it in school) writing something down actually helps you remember it. Saying something out loud helps too.

But as a bloke I don't worry about it too much. I have a wife who does all my remembering for me!

Since I don't have a wife, nobody EVER gets birthday cards.

 

[Bridget69]

I've always been pretty good at remembering names and numbers.