My Memory Is Getting as Bad as a ... Um ... I Forget

[the_gneech]

My concentration and memory have taken a noticeable decline lately (as in, the past few years generally, and the past few months especially). I have been assuming that's it's mostly a result of lack of sleep combined with stress, but whatever it is, it's annoying.

Anyway, sometime in the past week, somebody posted response to a comment I made in somebody's LJ, in which they said something to the effect of, "Your handle seems familiar, but I can't place it. Who are you?"

Chances are, since many of the people I follow in LJ are furries, this person saw SJ and caught my name there, although I have in the past been semi-noteworthy in other circles as well (primary in the RPG writing world). I meant to post as much in response to the person ... but now I can't remember whose LJ their comment was in! I went back on my friends list and looked for all the posts I remembered commenting on, but never found it.

It's kind of amusing ... I've forgotten where the person is who forgot who I was. :) But at the same time, I am a bit disturbed by the big ol' swiss cheese that my consciousness has been turning into. My mind is one of the few parts of me that I have much faith in, and it's a scary thing to have it coming up lemons and oranges so much.

I have a particular fear of ending up with my dad's habit of not being able to finish his sentences because his mind chokes on a relatively simple word.

"Okay, put the bacon into the ... um ... the thing."

"The thing?"

"You know, the ... THING!"

"What thing?"

"The thing the bacon goes into!"

"The refrigerator?"

"No! The ... *frustration* the THING! You know!"

"Ummm ... tupperware?"

"NO! The ... damn it ... the THING!"

"The frying pan?"

"FRYING PAN! Yes! Put it into the frying pan."

I've had many, many such conversations with my dad over the years, and I don't relish the idea of other people having similar conversations with me.

-The Gneech

Comments

[punktiger.livejournal.com]

I can sympathize. I have to do simultaneous translations for what my father says all the time. A recent example is "disinfectant." It means "weed killer" (as he wanted me to get some "disinfectant" for the poison ivy that we found growing in the back yard). There are a handful of other examples, but you get the picture.

[doodlesthegreat.livejournal.com]

My paternal grandmother spent the last decade of her life in senile dementia, thinking such things as the TV was actually talking to her. I think I shall have a special contract written up with the local Mob to get me offed should I find myself in a similar state...

Aspartame?

[agtiger.livejournal.com]

I had a very similar thing happen to me a few years back. I couldn't balance my checkbook in my head anymore, deal with simple math, in short, my short term memory was _shot_. I drink a fair number of sodas out of those aluminum cans, and I was actually worried about the early onset of alzheimers or something because they'd linked that disease to aluminum particles at one point.

My doctor at the time, a very sensible man, simply asked me if I was drinking diet drinks. Well, yes, I was, I was trying to lose some weight and still get my caffeine fix.

He suggested coming off them for a couple of weeks, and then coming to see him if the problem was still happening. He also said to avoid anything with aspartame in it as a sweetener (which diet drinks use).

Well two weeks later my short term memory seemed to be a lot better.

Apparently about 5% of the people who regularly ingest Aspartame have this particular symptom/problem.

Worth mentioning to you anyway... Hope it helps.

Re: Aspartame?

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

Well, that's not it -- no diet sweeteners for me except the occasional bit of Splenda. But thanks for the tip!

-The Gneech

Re: Aspartame?

[mooncat.livejournal.com]

Apparently about 5% of the people who regularly ingest Aspartame have this particular symptom/problem.

Interesting. My poor memory is nearly legendary and I do happen to consume rather a large amount of diet soda. *ponders*
I wonder...

re: Aspartame

[aatheus.livejournal.com]

Certainly worth a try. All you'll lose is some synthetic sweetener!

Re: Aspartame?

[murrrmaiyd.livejournal.com]

Hmmm...my sweetie has the same problem and also drinks a lot of diet drinks....interesting....

Mur

having had that type of experience before..

[mammallamadevil.livejournal.com]

I recommend 5 3/4 days on the California Central Coast with only music, writing utensils, and LOTS of tri-tip...excellent restorative...(grin)...

in a pinch, more Starbucks writing and exercise should help...good luck!....MLD

Re: having had that type of experience before..

[vlad-badger.livejournal.com]

AMEN! Like Santa Barbara? it's very nice right now, here in the Central Coast we deal with people who are sick with MEAT! lot's of MEAT!.

Re: having had that type of experience before..

[mammallamadevil.livejournal.com]

I'm a 4th generation native of Arroyo Grande and proud grad of Cal Poly SLO, so Santa Maria style bbq is in my BLOOD...(grin)...nice to see the Tri-Counties well represented in this thread..(evil grin)...

MLD

Re: having had that type of experience before..

[vlad-badger.livejournal.com]

MMMMmm Santa Maria BBQ...i so want some of that now.

Re: having had that type of experience before..

[torakiyoshi.livejournal.com]

Mmmmmmm.... Tri-Tip!

*gurgles and drools*

Share?

-=TK

[willowanderer.livejournal.com]

My mother had the same problem. I mean, really bad. She doesn't seem to realise that trailing off and never finishing her sentneces is just as annoying, but hey. She started taking Ginko and goto kola, and has improved alot in the last few months.

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

Is ginko that herb supplement that could save you up to 15% on your car insurance in fifteen minutes?

-The Gneech

PS: Thanks for the tip, I'll look into it!

[punktiger.livejournal.com]

I have a Gingko tree in front of my house. Maybe I can send you a few leaves to chew on...

re: Ginko!

[aatheus.livejournal.com]

Yep, and Geiko restores your memory!

Seriously though, a lot of places are carrying ginko supplements these days. Hell, even Longs had some, last time I checked.

--Aatheus

[torakiyoshi.livejournal.com]

That's the neat thing about having my LJ post notices come in to Hotmail. Any emails that carry the LJ reply address go directly to my "LiveJournal" folder. If I want to reply to them later rather than immediately, I mark them as unread, and I only delete unread messages when I clean up the folder. That way, it's much harder to lose the comments wo which I want to reply.

-=TK

[kelloggs2066.livejournal.com]

Umm...

Just who *are* you anyway?

Scott... um... Thingy.

(Seriously, though, man, I have the same fear. My dad forgets all the simple words, and very often, so do I.) :(

i can relate.

[kailucidricwolf.livejournal.com]

'cuz of my life an situation. I had no one to talk to, but myself for all my life. So my mind runs not only too fast for me (in which i stammer) but its so abstract, i get lost on simple words constantly.

Its why i tend to keep quiet in person. I constantly stammer, an have the exact conversation you transcribed. In which i franticly make hand gestures trying to shape the object, or i look franticly around me for somthing simmular to explain it. etc

so, yea, i can understand your fear...

*hugs ya tight*

^~Kai

[kesh.livejournal.com]

The 'frying pan' thing? Yeah. I do that a lot. It's quite frustrating and embarassing. And I'm only 28!

[jamesbarrett.livejournal.com]

*whine* But I have those kinds of memory lapses already and I'm not that much older than you. I can't count the number of times I've done that this week already. -Frisk

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

Not even a year, IIRC ... we would have been in the same class if I hadn't started early.

-TG

[blacktigr.livejournal.com]

Do you have another word for filing cabinet that I can use? I chronically can never come up with that word, and I don't know why, but I hope that it is an isolated...er, *thingy*. ;)

[elektron.livejournal.com]

'paper drawer thingy'?

The person who was asking you was...

[aatheus.livejournal.com]

this person! And it was in your LJ ::grin::
http://www.livejournal.com/users/the_gneech/449109.html?thread=2726997#t2726997

--Aatheus

Re: The person who was asking you was...

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

Thanks! =)

-The Gneech