Forgetfullness
We all associate getting old with getting forgetful, but in some people it has more serious implications as with Terry Pratchett and his early onset dementia. He recently started one of his public addresses by introducing himself to the audience by saying, “My name is Terry Pratchett, or at least I think it is, and I have early onset Dementia.”
My classification is Paranoid Schizophrenia and at 51 I am much younger than Terry, but for many years now my memory has been progressively deteriorating. My memory is so bad that I rely on my 86 year old mother to remind me to do many things! In fact I believe my memory was poorer than other teenagers when I was at school and has been slowly getting worse ever since.
As a youngster I loved to read Science Fiction and Detective stories, but that had all but stopped by the time I reached my thirties because I couldn’t follow the plot any more. Some 15 years ago I tried to read “A Brief History Of Time by Stephen Hawking and having got to the end, I had to admit that I hadn’t really understood very much of it. On the other hand after talking to many friends I was pleased to hear them say that neither had they when they read it!
Some 10 or 12 years ago I renewed my interest in computers by enrolling on many free training courses, but found learning very difficult and frustrating. By this time I was about 40 and my memory was getting so bad that I had difficulty in remembering enough of the instructions that I was reading to be able to comprehend them. The answer, I found was to simply read and enact the instructions phrase by phrase until the particular set of instructions was completed. With enough repetition of things I managed to learn quite a bit, albeit very slowly and with much frustration. Nowadays I actually teach computers skills as a volunteer with Age Concern at a computer club and also as a “Computer Buddy” at my local library, although I should not use the word “Teach” as I am not a qualified teacher.
Even though I have the skills, my memory problems are always apparent at the club, as members will often say to my co-volunteer/worker, “He told me how to do that last week and he has forgotten.” I have often heard my co-volunteer/worker say quietly, “He has forgotten more about computers than the rest of us will ever learn.” The problem with this is that it is often something that I have leant only five minutes before that I have forgotten!
My memory is still deteriorating and most days I struggle to actually read much of our daily newspaper. As I read a short article a little bit of it sometimes sticks, but generally by the time I have put the paper down I have virtually no recollection of what was in the paper. On a bad day I do little more than glance at the headlines and read a few odd words out of captions on pictures. Sometimes I even struggle to understand the cartoons if there are too many words in the strip. This may all sound ridiculous as you read this, but I promise you it is true.
Whenever I write anything I am Ok as long as I follow a train of thought, but as soon as I hesitate, or try and recap I am lost and spend a long time trying to pick up where I left off. Again this may sound ridiculous when you think that I am still writing/editing and publishing several short books a year, but as I say I follow a train of thought and do struggle very much, for most of the time. When I am typing up someone else’s manuscript I read two or three words and type those as I can't remember a whole sentence. Then I read another two or three, type those and so on. When I stop typing I honestly have not got a clue what I have typed. In fact I often joke with friends, when they ask me about the last few books I have edited and had published for other people, by saying, “I don’t know what’s in them, I haven’t read them!” They think it is a joke, but it is true, I don’t know what is in them. (Also see another article I wrote on memory some time ago.)
What if it's the drugs we have to take to cope with our illnesses that cause such forgetfulness? \i suppose it's a bit like which came first, the chicken or the egg, but I can SOOO relate with what you're saying. It gets me in trouble at work a lot, and it annoys me endlessly. \i believe it's getting worse for me as well, and more rapidly of late. I am 45.... Ithink? (,,, and no I'm not trying to be a laugh there!)
are we all headed for dementia?
Drug damage.
At the age of about 26 I was put on Chlorpromasine/Largactil tablets by my consultant, after having, for want of a better term, a nervous breakdown, I was diagnosed as a Paranoid Schizophrenic. I lost my job as a Sales representative, sold my house and moved back with my parents, where I lived and worked, after a fashion, on their garden centre. For the 10/12 years I was on Chlorpromasine tablets I was very sleepy much of time and regularly slept the afternoons away in the aquatics department where I was supposed to be working.
Then I started to question if the medication was having a detrimental effect on my physical health as my tolerance of alcohol/beer was practically nil and all those soft drinks were affecting my darts! So after another hospital admission, the consultant decided to put me on a more modern drug and my medication was changed to a depot injection of Modecate which I stayed on for another 10/12 years or so.
A change of consultant then nearly brought about a new classification of my mental health problems, and did result in another change of medication to a Risperidone depot injection that was supposed to have less serious long term side effects, although the consultant said it could have more, less serious, side effects and some people couldn’t take it at all physically. It was about this time that I was told to have annual medical health checks with weight, blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, white blood cell count, etc to see how much I was deteriorating physically, I guess due to the medication.
After 3 or 4 years I had another crisis point last Christmas and seriously tried to get myself admitted, but my consultant simply upped the dosage by 50% and increased the frequency of his check ups, although now, some weeks later, he has reduced the frequency of his visits, but not the drug dosage. In some ways, I think I am coping very well, because a little while ago, my 86 year old mother had a bad fall, broke her second hip, was hospitalised, and after nearly two weeks on my own and then a week of looking after her at home, we are both still going strong! I might even be putting on weight, because I never prepare the right amount of food for us! This may be sexist, but I now understand why ladies are always concerned about the state of their hands and wearing rubber gloves for washing the crocks!
This Topic Is Locked To Guest Posts
It's been a while since this topic was active, if you'd like to get it going again, please post as a registered member
