Senior Moments

I think we all sound pretty normal. As we age, apart from our memories slowing down, in order to reach that vital piece of information, the wheels of the old brain have to manoeuvre through so much clutter.
I often remember the name the next day or when it's too late. Google is very useful for actors in films .
When we were teenagers and watching a drama on TV with our mum, she would spend the whole time saying "now what was she in before??" "you remember don't you" and "who is she?", spoiling the programme for us who were desperate for quiet to concentrate on the plot.
Now that people no longer watch TV much as a family I suppose this problem no longer exists.

I was just about to post on here, scrolled down a bit only to find I had ousted a comment on Friday, ?now I’m really worried!

I'm not quite 65 and I do the word substitution thing quite often then correct myself - or I think I do, but sometimes The Wonderful Man gives me a strange look and then I have to ask if I've said something odd, and I have! I forget not only names, but faces and facts. Yesterday I met the local MP and we had an exchange of words, which I repeated to TWM shortly after; later in the evening I had to ask him what I'd said to the MP because I couldn't remember.

Pollyperkins I do the same thing. I substitute an unrelated word and have to correct it. I also find recalling names etc really difficult. As for game shows like Pointless it takes me so long to figure the answer that I would be useless on it. I’m alright when the possible answers are put up. If only I had the brain I had twenty years ago or more.

On the one hand I do that old people’s thing of shouting at the TV
But on the other, it is often enough a right answer on University Challenge or Only Connect ahead of the contestants .

Remember: dementia is not forgetting where you've put the keys, but forgetting what they're for. x

I do all these things. I can also be half way through a conversation and forget what I was about to say. I’ll worry about it when I don’t know I’m doing it. ?

I find I suffer from some of these memory lapses but am only 66. I wonder whether I need to get checked for dementia. It does run in family and I am really scared it is happening yes me.

Names sometimes take a time to register, but oddly I can always remember which film/play an actor has played in when I see them, strange as that is unimportant really.

I still have all my marbles.
I occasionally play with them on the carpet. Reminds me of my childhood.

What can I say except....... "The name is familiar but the face escapes me"

I thought I was the only person who does this. I have mentioned it to friends and family before and they think I’m odd. So pleased to know that I am not the only person who does this

Yes, usually in the middle of the night I find. Thinking about something else and the name you had been struggling to remember earlier just pops into your head unbidden! As if your subconscious had been working away in the background.

I always have a problem lately with the name of a very common garden shrub. It's mahonia - and it's taken me a minute or two just now to recall it. I always know it begins with M, though.

With other things - names or words - I usually find that if I stop trying to recall it, the old subconscious gets to work and it will pop up half an hour or so later.

More worrying to me is that as well as forgetting words (especially names) I sometimes come out with a completely unrelated word -I know immediately it's wrong and correct it but it's a bit embarrassing. I have to make a joke of it!

Not senior moment at all. The most forgetful people are teenagers.

Yes definitely with the rest of you, going through alphabet, picturing a person, etc , I was getting paranoid. Apparently if we are aware we are forgetting things , then it’s not too serious, just part of ageing?or maybe?

I find that my memory is getting worse. Often I can recall the first name only and the surname is added by a visitor. I love doing quizzes so it is exasperating.
As for practical things like keys I make sure these are in the same place in the house. When I go out I put my house keys in the LEFT pocket as I have LEFT the house and my car keys in my RIGHT pocket as I have the RIGHT to drive.

Nfk Dumpling; No way are you going senile if you can remember a nickname like that!

But can you remember how you came by it? That would be the test!

However, don't talk to me about senility. When I was in my 80's everybody was watching me for signs of senility, but now I'm in my 90's everybody assumes automatically that AM senile..

Fortunately I've still got most of my marbles and an excellent memory to prove them wrong, (except when I can't find my postings!), but a lot of other things don't work as well.
That's life I suppose
Good Health.

shysal I have that problem with a few plants - why can I never remember (stopping to look them up) astrantia and agapanthus and eupatorium, but can remember pretty much all the others?

I do the same. I watch Pointless and go through the alphabet to remember all sorts of things, including names.

Gosh, I'm an alphabetist too. It's so common here that I must have read about it somewhere originally. It certainly works for me on most occasions. It actually fascinates me a lot in that when I'm alphabetalising I begin to pause or hover around the relevant letter. Why? How on earth does that work? Interested to hear any theories, please.

We have strange conversations such as "You know the one...he was going out with that woman from xxxx before he married that nice one with the blonde hair from xxxx. He used to be in that programme, can't remember what it was about..."!

If going through the alphabet doesn’t work,I try to recall how many syllables the person’s name has. Helps to jog my memory.

Not only do I forget names but sometimes I am talking to my dh and I can't think of the word I want. My mind just seems to go blank.