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Compensating Strategies for Memory Problems
If you have memory problem, how do you try to compensate for them?
I'm looking for tips and tricks.
I've always been highly organized and a firm believer in structure, or routine. This has helped me for many years and the importance of this has been reinforced by having a child who is ADHD.
My short term memory has gone way downhill, so that I try to write things like telephone numbers down on my work calendar. Likewise, with appointments and meetings, I automatically put them into Outlook, with reminders to pop up. At home, I write things down on a calendar.
I used to be able to rely on memory for all of this. Not so anymore.
What concerns me is that I have experienced some memory problems that I consider very abnormal. There have been conversations that are completely out of my recall. It's as if the conversations/events never got stored in my brain. No discussion with others involved can help trigger recall. The scary part of this is that I am not aware of the memory malfunction until a subsequent event makes it important and I realize that I remember nothing. this has happened both at work and at home.
With work, I try to document things either through email or by making notes on my calendar.
I've also had some incidents where ingrained tasks have escaped me completely. For example, forgetting how to use cruise control on my car, which I use daily. I had one day driving to work when I wanted to use it, but could not remember how to turn it on. After about 20 minutes, I remembered, but was not confident to use it. Today, I pulled into a gas station to fill my tank and had trouble turning off the ignition. It took me more than a few seconds to realize that I had not put the car in park, and that was why I could not turn the car off.
I think that I am asking for miracles here in terms of advice for some bizarre memory problems. At the same time, I hope it opens the door for suggestions with the types of memory problems that can be helped with compensating strategies/tips/tricks.
What was my name again?
Oh, yeah,
Audrey
I'm looking for tips and tricks.
I've always been highly organized and a firm believer in structure, or routine. This has helped me for many years and the importance of this has been reinforced by having a child who is ADHD.
My short term memory has gone way downhill, so that I try to write things like telephone numbers down on my work calendar. Likewise, with appointments and meetings, I automatically put them into Outlook, with reminders to pop up. At home, I write things down on a calendar.
I used to be able to rely on memory for all of this. Not so anymore.
What concerns me is that I have experienced some memory problems that I consider very abnormal. There have been conversations that are completely out of my recall. It's as if the conversations/events never got stored in my brain. No discussion with others involved can help trigger recall. The scary part of this is that I am not aware of the memory malfunction until a subsequent event makes it important and I realize that I remember nothing. this has happened both at work and at home.
With work, I try to document things either through email or by making notes on my calendar.
I've also had some incidents where ingrained tasks have escaped me completely. For example, forgetting how to use cruise control on my car, which I use daily. I had one day driving to work when I wanted to use it, but could not remember how to turn it on. After about 20 minutes, I remembered, but was not confident to use it. Today, I pulled into a gas station to fill my tank and had trouble turning off the ignition. It took me more than a few seconds to realize that I had not put the car in park, and that was why I could not turn the car off.
I think that I am asking for miracles here in terms of advice for some bizarre memory problems. At the same time, I hope it opens the door for suggestions with the types of memory problems that can be helped with compensating strategies/tips/tricks.
What was my name again?
Oh, yeah,
Audrey
My son is ADHD, so on top of being organized myself, I have tried to teach him organizational skills.He's very resistant to suggestion.
I am not aware of having trouble finding things, unless someone else (wonder who that could be) moves them. If everything has its place and I stick to the routine of using that place and doing things in more or less the same sequence of steps, I don't have a problem.
In fact, it is my son who comes to me and says "Mom, I can't find XXX". I may have seen it or remember the last time he used it to help him along the way.
My memory problems are short term, which is where writing things down comes in handy.
The other problem is a total lack of recall of fairly important conversations. One would think that given the importance of the subject and length to which it was discussed, someone could trigger my memory, but NO.
Audrey
I am not aware of having trouble finding things, unless someone else (wonder who that could be) moves them. If everything has its place and I stick to the routine of using that place and doing things in more or less the same sequence of steps, I don't have a problem.
In fact, it is my son who comes to me and says "Mom, I can't find XXX". I may have seen it or remember the last time he used it to help him along the way.
My memory problems are short term, which is where writing things down comes in handy.
The other problem is a total lack of recall of fairly important conversations. One would think that given the importance of the subject and length to which it was discussed, someone could trigger my memory, but NO.
Audrey
COMMUNITY LEADER
Deb has given some good ideas and i've been teaching many of these techniques for years, though they are totally useless for what i'm dealing with. When i can't name my husband, mother, child(ren) and i'm reduced to describing them, the association trick doesn't work at all then lol.
Over the last 7 years this problem with names cropped up, would go away only to crop up again, i was aware i was having some issues but didn't become concerned until i lost the names of my close family, Huston we have a problem!
I adopted the name trick, just in case for when ever it happened again, for example one of my son's teachers was called Mrs Latch, i changed it to Madam Lash, it was working well until i started calling her madam Lash, pssst dont do that!
I've found that when the brain is working its working, when it goes on holiday and forgets to let me know, it doesn't matter what i know, um all the tricks are packed away in the bottom of the suitcase, probably still going around and around the luggage carousel waiting for my brain to claim it lol.
Sorry couldn't help my self, poking some fun into a difficult issue i know well. I would recommend checking out the ADD, Dyslexic or even CAPD (central auditory processing disorder) community or information sites, lots of usefull information to be found.
Cheers............JJ
Over the last 7 years this problem with names cropped up, would go away only to crop up again, i was aware i was having some issues but didn't become concerned until i lost the names of my close family, Huston we have a problem!
I adopted the name trick, just in case for when ever it happened again, for example one of my son's teachers was called Mrs Latch, i changed it to Madam Lash, it was working well until i started calling her madam Lash, pssst dont do that!
I've found that when the brain is working its working, when it goes on holiday and forgets to let me know, it doesn't matter what i know, um all the tricks are packed away in the bottom of the suitcase, probably still going around and around the luggage carousel waiting for my brain to claim it lol.
Sorry couldn't help my self, poking some fun into a difficult issue i know well. I would recommend checking out the ADD, Dyslexic or even CAPD (central auditory processing disorder) community or information sites, lots of usefull information to be found.
Cheers............JJ
I've talked with my neuro about my memory issues, and he says that I have ADD! I guess it's related to the MS because I don't remember (LOL) having this kind of issue before with it.
I'm taking Provigil for the fatigue, but my neuro told me to increase it to the full dosage. When I did, it really did seem to help. Lately, though, I've only been taking half the dosage because I was only approved the half dosage this last time. I will be talking with him about increase it when I see him next. If you're not taking this medicine, maybe you can talk to your neuro about this one or find something that may help with memory (it may not even be close to Provigil).
I am a teacher, and have learned tips at a workshop from a neuro-psychologist when working with students who have trouble holding information. Here's one that actually does work (if I can remember the technique to use it-- hehe):
When trying to remember a list of things that you need at the store, you can visualize the items. Picture a room in your house, like your foyer. Imagine a place where you would set items, like the foyer table. Visualize the item you need on the table. Visualize another item you need on that table, underneath, or in a weird location in that same room (maybe hanging somewhere in the room, tipped on it's side, etc.. Do this for all your items.
A variation of this is called method of loci. Imagine the item in a familiar place or route. "Pick up" the items when you visualize yourself either walking through your house or driving your car. You can memorize your shopping list, etc. this way.
There's many other tips, using other senses, like auditory. Songs, rhymes, hearing you say the words, lists, nams, etc. Then there's organizational techniques, like mnemonic devices-- For example: My Very Earnest Mother Just Served Us Nine Pickles. This acrostic is the planets in order from the sun out: Mercury, Venus, Earth, etc.
Another one that I like a lot is to make an association to remember names of people. My husband gave me this tip. He's the world's best at remembering names of people. I had a friend name Stuart and I couldn't remember his name to save my life. When I saw him in the grocery store last, I was sweating bullets to get his name out to introduce him to my husband. He took the pressure off of me and introduced himself. After we left the grocery store, my husband told me that this was an easy association. Stuart "Little" because Stuart is not little he was big. I still remember his name to this day, and have no problems with that. Associations are big in education these days. Association and making connections is key to remembering what you read. Connect when you see something that you should remember. That reminds me of . . .
Okay, enough for now. Look up mnemonic devices for other tips. I have to brush up this as well. My memory has gotten bad, too!
Sorry this is so long!
Deb
I'm taking Provigil for the fatigue, but my neuro told me to increase it to the full dosage. When I did, it really did seem to help. Lately, though, I've only been taking half the dosage because I was only approved the half dosage this last time. I will be talking with him about increase it when I see him next. If you're not taking this medicine, maybe you can talk to your neuro about this one or find something that may help with memory (it may not even be close to Provigil).
I am a teacher, and have learned tips at a workshop from a neuro-psychologist when working with students who have trouble holding information. Here's one that actually does work (if I can remember the technique to use it-- hehe):
When trying to remember a list of things that you need at the store, you can visualize the items. Picture a room in your house, like your foyer. Imagine a place where you would set items, like the foyer table. Visualize the item you need on the table. Visualize another item you need on that table, underneath, or in a weird location in that same room (maybe hanging somewhere in the room, tipped on it's side, etc.. Do this for all your items.
A variation of this is called method of loci. Imagine the item in a familiar place or route. "Pick up" the items when you visualize yourself either walking through your house or driving your car. You can memorize your shopping list, etc. this way.
There's many other tips, using other senses, like auditory. Songs, rhymes, hearing you say the words, lists, nams, etc. Then there's organizational techniques, like mnemonic devices-- For example: My Very Earnest Mother Just Served Us Nine Pickles. This acrostic is the planets in order from the sun out: Mercury, Venus, Earth, etc.
Another one that I like a lot is to make an association to remember names of people. My husband gave me this tip. He's the world's best at remembering names of people. I had a friend name Stuart and I couldn't remember his name to save my life. When I saw him in the grocery store last, I was sweating bullets to get his name out to introduce him to my husband. He took the pressure off of me and introduced himself. After we left the grocery store, my husband told me that this was an easy association. Stuart "Little" because Stuart is not little he was big. I still remember his name to this day, and have no problems with that. Associations are big in education these days. Association and making connections is key to remembering what you read. Connect when you see something that you should remember. That reminds me of . . .
Okay, enough for now. Look up mnemonic devices for other tips. I have to brush up this as well. My memory has gotten bad, too!
Sorry this is so long!
Deb
I forget all my memory tricks at the moment Audrey.
But seriously, don't be too distraught about things like the car ignition. They seem bad but my guess is that you got distracted by something you don't even remember and your usual action sequence was disrupted. You were left in the middle of a multi-step task that usually is only accomplished in one smooth beginning to end flow. Your brain will need time to sort through and reconstruct. We can train our brains to perform better in such situations. Still, when they take us by surprised, we are..... surprised!
Before I turned 50 and before I was diagnosed with MS, I had the same type of memory incidents I have now. I AM sure my memory (heck, everything that makes up my mind) is slower these days. I try to resist the tendency to give the same incidents more significance today than I did in the past.
Mary
But seriously, don't be too distraught about things like the car ignition. They seem bad but my guess is that you got distracted by something you don't even remember and your usual action sequence was disrupted. You were left in the middle of a multi-step task that usually is only accomplished in one smooth beginning to end flow. Your brain will need time to sort through and reconstruct. We can train our brains to perform better in such situations. Still, when they take us by surprised, we are..... surprised!
Before I turned 50 and before I was diagnosed with MS, I had the same type of memory incidents I have now. I AM sure my memory (heck, everything that makes up my mind) is slower these days. I try to resist the tendency to give the same incidents more significance today than I did in the past.
Mary
Alternate ways of making coffee
Omit the water
Omit the coffee
Neglect to place the carafe in the brewer
Pour water in twice
Forget to empty the old coffee first
Lose count on the scoops - how hard is it to count to 5?
I have done all of these in rotation. It's a true celebration when we get real coffee.
Omit the water
Omit the coffee
Neglect to place the carafe in the brewer
Pour water in twice
Forget to empty the old coffee first
Lose count on the scoops - how hard is it to count to 5?
I have done all of these in rotation. It's a true celebration when we get real coffee.
One thing I do for fairly simple things is to put something where I'll be less likely to overlook it when I need to deal with it. For instance, I've used a drill in the house, and it will need to be put away in the garage. I'll put it by the back door so I'll see it on my next trip out. Same with stuff headed upstairs, like clean laundry, prescription refills, etc. -- put them on a convenient step until I am ready to make that climb.
I am terrible with names, and have tried practically everything. Suggestions welcome. For appointments, addresses, phone numbers, and the like, it all goes into my phone.
One thing that still gives me trouble is making coffee. I have no idea why, but my train of thought still derails right after the pot's clean and the tank filled. Now what? Hmmm.... Oh, right! Get the coffee out and put it into the grinder! Gee, why didn't I think of that? Such a simple step, but I stop there more mornings than not.
I am terrible with names, and have tried practically everything. Suggestions welcome. For appointments, addresses, phone numbers, and the like, it all goes into my phone.
One thing that still gives me trouble is making coffee. I have no idea why, but my train of thought still derails right after the pot's clean and the tank filled. Now what? Hmmm.... Oh, right! Get the coffee out and put it into the grinder! Gee, why didn't I think of that? Such a simple step, but I stop there more mornings than not.
1) apologize a lot
2) have a running tab at local candy shop
3) offer to try again
4) express you undying love
5) write DMV and explain cognitive deficits so that they will waive late fee
6) write credit cards and ask for pity
7) go back to bed. It's what you wanted to do anyhow.
8) Close the refrigerator - frostbite IS possible in the winter.
9) Buy Post-Its by the gross - repeatedly. Place Post-It on fridge reminding where Post-It case is.
10) Check the car
11) Ask your sister what you said you were going to do.
12) Set two alarm clocks. Place Post-It on second one to remind you what there were for.
13) Look in the oven
14) Close the refrigerator
15) Check the close hamper
16) Complain about your day on the forum. They'll understand and might even know what it was you were trying to remember.
17) Oh yeah, go to the bathroom, then mop the floor. THAT was it.
Quix
2) have a running tab at local candy shop
3) offer to try again
4) express you undying love
5) write DMV and explain cognitive deficits so that they will waive late fee
6) write credit cards and ask for pity
7) go back to bed. It's what you wanted to do anyhow.
8) Close the refrigerator - frostbite IS possible in the winter.
9) Buy Post-Its by the gross - repeatedly. Place Post-It on fridge reminding where Post-It case is.
10) Check the car
11) Ask your sister what you said you were going to do.
12) Set two alarm clocks. Place Post-It on second one to remind you what there were for.
13) Look in the oven
14) Close the refrigerator
15) Check the close hamper
16) Complain about your day on the forum. They'll understand and might even know what it was you were trying to remember.
17) Oh yeah, go to the bathroom, then mop the floor. THAT was it.
Quix
I started keeping a big calendar on the wall, with all the dates of stuff I'm supposed to do written on it. I also started keeping a 'bill wall' - all the bills that I need to pay each month are up on the wall, and the amount and date are written on each one.
I keep a list of passwords, and I only have two - high security and low-security. I don't have to write those down. If I have to have a different password, that's when I get into trouble - I have to write that one down so I'll remember.
I keep copious notes of everything, and when I don't, I forget!
Also, I practice memory techniques that help me categorize information I'm supposed to remember. One thing that really helps is saying it out loud. It plugs the info into a different part of your brain, so your brain stores it in two places, not just one. If you say it out loud, then write it down, then it's three places. If you have a list to remember, try organizing the information into categories.
I've heard people talk about their dayminders and iPhones, but I just know I'd lose the phone or the dayminder, then I'd be up a creek without a paddle.
I keep a list of passwords, and I only have two - high security and low-security. I don't have to write those down. If I have to have a different password, that's when I get into trouble - I have to write that one down so I'll remember.
I keep copious notes of everything, and when I don't, I forget!
Also, I practice memory techniques that help me categorize information I'm supposed to remember. One thing that really helps is saying it out loud. It plugs the info into a different part of your brain, so your brain stores it in two places, not just one. If you say it out loud, then write it down, then it's three places. If you have a list to remember, try organizing the information into categories.
I've heard people talk about their dayminders and iPhones, but I just know I'd lose the phone or the dayminder, then I'd be up a creek without a paddle.
I have ADD and have been through a lot of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. My #1 memory trick is my Lotus Notes Calendar on my PC and the Alarms on my iPhone. I also print out my current week of calendars that I have in my "Go Bag" in case I have to run out for meetings. If things change a lot, I just print a new page. I take notes on the clendar pages and add in notebook pages. I also have a notebook for the Drs. with tabs, labs results, CD pages to hold image disks. I write it down, or I will forget it.
Bob
Bob
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