My memory is going

The U3A here started a course about memory loss - but I forgot when it started!

Aggie - I hope that is why I now sometimes make mistakes in very simple sudoku. I used to do much more difficult ones with less trouble!

Lack of sleep renders the usual crossword indecipherable to me , a goodish sleep and I can finish it !

I try to change tv channels with the landline handset. More idiocy than forgetfulness, I tried to turn off a house alarm (not mine) with a Green Day key fob instead of the plastic that would have stopped the noise ....

I also 'mislay' fairly common words and names and go through the alphabet to 'find' them. It sometimes brings them back to mind!

Last time I visited mum I spent five minutes trying to open the unit doors using my bank pin number rather the door code.

After the staff openedthe door for me, they asked if I wanted to see one of the vacant rooms.

Charleygirl I could have written your post almost word for word, with me it was " Lasagne" I couldnt think of the word at all, only that it was a mince meat dish layered with pasta ! I blamed it on a migraine I had brewing !

I fill my shopping basket at the supermarket, when I get to the till I could tell what each item cost, even if there are 40 items, but the other day I could not remember the word microwave. I knew what it looked like but not what it was called.

I've noticed difficulty with some words, but it's mostly with not very commonly used words, e.g. the name of a plant. Today I can remember the name virginia creeper, but tomorrow I may struggle a bit. I go through the alphabet until it pops back into my mind.

I started doing crosswords and I'm finding that this is re-establishing some words back into my memory. I think it literally is a case of 'use it or lose it'.

Azie, I'd read about fish oil too and mean to remember to take them!!!!

Try also www.memory-improvement.com

Jeannie I noticed a big difference in my memory when I took fish oil capsules for my joints! Might not work for everyone, worth a try. I only use the Boots ones, you can get fancier. I don't take them all the time but I do think they make a difference.

I'm sure this starts to happen with the loss of hormones at menopause.

jeanie my husband and I both have that problem - we often say to each other "How can we not remember so-and-so?" or such and such a film? It comes in the end or ... as my husband says maybe it wasn't important enough to remember!

I know I am not nearly as sharp as I was 5 or so years ago - I was like a walking directory/dictionary/memory bank at work, now when someone says "Re that email you sent me last week ..." I invariably think "What flipping email?" and blag it until it comes back.

I wouldn't worry too much, I think it is quite "normal" as you get older to forget stuff. Or search for a word.

Someone put forward the theory that as you get older you try to keep cramming new stuff into your memory bank, but there's not enough room for the recent stuff

I agree with this, but is it the older stuff that gets chucked out, or the younger stuff?
My son needs memory for his job, and he says that if he has a lot to retain, his brain becomes selective.

Moments of memory loss are not uncommon, I think. Most of us will have gone upstairs and wondered why, or gone to the fridge for something, and forgotten what. It is the not knowing what the fridge is, that is when memory becomes a problem. A specialist told us that some time ago. When I was in hospital recently, I was asked to say the months of the year in reverse, I managed this easily, thank goodness, but there were one or two others who got so far and became confused, I think this is the time to start to worry,not Panic, but realise something is not quite right. (The reason I was asked to do this was because I had been asked how I slept, and I said badly, and when asked why, I said that I felt the bed was rushing away with me and it was quite frightening - the doctor put down against my reply "demented").

I was told it is if you don't recognise what the object is , not it's name , that is when you worry

I think that may have been me (theory) TriciaF because that is what I always think.
The brain is a sort of computer, and it deletes some things and stores others in trash and keeps the relevant or meaningful things in the inbox.
I sometimes forget names or words of everyday objects but not often, I would worry if it happened all the time though.

There was an interesting thread on here about memory problems.
Someone put forward the theory that as you get older you try to keep cramming new stuff into your memory bank, but there's not enough room for the recent stuff. It doesn't get correctly categorised, so more difficult to recall.
I've often thought that's the explanation.

Me too, Jeanie. It's been a problem since I was in my 50s, but the word usually comes in the end. Apparently there is no need to worry .