Memory Loss. Seriously. It's happening to me.

Hey SJers.

I'm not even 50 but, over the past six months, my memory capacity and recall has hit a disturbing decline.

What was once a brain that could recall all sorts of trivia, historical facts, etc, has faded.

This isn't something that, yet, impacts my day-to-day life. However, I can't finish a story at times. I can't recall a movie from, say, 1986, or the name of a favorite actor or comedian.

Couldn't remember "Norm MacDonald"'s name the other day.

Lately, I've forgotten to fill up my gas tank and drove off after paying $40 inside. (The one time I didn't pay at the pump).

I've left the stove or oven on twice in the last week.

I worked out this morning in the living room and didn't remember if I did a second set of pushups after doing a second set of crunches.

I'm very concerned about this, as you could imagine.

Wondering if this is a bi-product of a very stressful time. Lost my anchor job (company move -- nothing to do with my own skills. Dozens of other anchors in the company are out of work) but now I'm running the newsroom and I hate it.

However, the few times I am anchoring, I'm not as sharp. Can't recall certain facts or events that I had full command of for decades. I can't really say anything at work about this nor, as I'm looking for anchor jobs elsewhere, I can say, "oh, I'm about 70% of the memory I had two years ago!".

Puzzled as to what I could do.

Thanks, friends.

 

Do you have a history of some form of dementia in your family? Not saying it is because being south of 50 makes it unlikely, but it’s worth ruling out. Bring it up to a doctor during a check up. If nothing else the doc can have it on a radar.

It could also just be stress. You’ve had at least one major life change not terribly long ago plus a career move.

Either way, good time to check with your doctor to make sure it isn’t something else.

 

It's happening to me too. Just turned 52. My mom had it.

 

Quit all booze and get into ketosis as quickly as possible and gauge improvement after 2-3 weeks.

 

I’m 55 and I’ve noticed some of this in myself. I just figure my brain is offloading some data it no longer needs.

Of the incidents above, @exmediahack, the only one that would even mildly concern me would be the gas-station faux pas. But you’ve had to deal with some shit the last few years. It’s well within the realm of expectation that some things might no longer be front of mind.

Do run it by the doc, but unless there’s a significant family history about which to be concerned, I wouldn’t use too much brainpower worrying about it.

 

I don't drink so that's not an issue -- also eat fairly clean.

 

Clean is good of course but your brain’s memory function improves notably when in ketosis.

 

Other than coming out of nowhere, sounds a bit like adult add.

 

I've found my brain every once in a while will hit a bad sector where I'll forget a word. Most of the time it's after I've tipped a few (tee hee).

But once it happened whilst stone sober (the word was actually, unfortunately in this day and age, "synagogue". It was during a tour of a biblical filming set.)

 

Memory loss beginning at your age can be normal. Or it might be symptomatic of something.

So. Talk to your PCP this week.

Get a referral from your PCP to visit a neurologist or geriatrician.

They'll set you up to take cognition tests to establish baseline brain function; and / or recommend you get scanned to rule out other causes.

We're all under a lot of stress the last few years - which contributes to it.

Hang in there.

 

I have nothing from personal experience to contribute other than hopefully it's just stress related and will improve. I think the thing that keeps me mentally sharp is not taking life or myself too seriously. Laugh every day. Laugh at yourself multiple times a day.
The only thing I seem to forget is that physically, 52 is not 25.
Sunday after particularly overdoing it cleaning out an old barn, I was over at my mom's and guess I made some kind of joint-creaking groaning noise.
"What did you do?"
"Hell, I got old!"

 

At 65, I've been noticing some isolated memory dropouts for a couple years.

Normally, I have a tremendous memory. I can remember in specific details incidents from my early early childhood -- 2-3 years old. I learned to read at about that age; I can remember verbatim some passages from books I read as a grade schooler 55-60 years ago.

That helped a lot in my journalism career. Names, dates, stats, computer codes, all came easy. Throughout HS and college I always had stellar results on all the standardized tests.

But since my effective retirement in the mid 2010s, I've noticed things getting spotty. I'll be talking about some NFL team from 1973, I'll remember a guy's height, weight and uniform number... but not his name.

It's very specific and very isolated; I'm not losing overall awareness, forgetting my keys, forgetting what day it is, any of that stuff.

I did have some temporary memory issues after I had a TIA minor stroke in 2004 -- for a few months I completely blanked on music memory, lost all internal sense of timing and rhythm, but that mostly came back.

Last year one of my doctors ordered a battery of cognitive skills tests, the kind I used to ace off the charts in my school years. My scores were "above average," but not great. I showed "possible indicators of temporary impairment," within the ranges of normal variability. They ran me through some other shit, EKG, ultrasound, etc etc.

Conclusions: Nothing physiological, no evidence of any chronic condition. Memory losses noted as an area for continued attention but nothing more.

They think there may be some lingering effects of the TIA (specifically motor skills) but after nearly 20 years, those are now baked in.

My alcohol consumption was already pretty low, I'd guess two or three beers a week, so that's not considered a likely factor. However my doctor said, "if you're thinking of dramatically increasing your alcohol intake, I'd probably advise against it."

I don't have a long family history of dementia, although one of my uncles died in 2022 at 89 after a 5-year battle with Alzheimer's, and it was bad at the end (although he retained intermittent clarity to the end).

Doctor said, "Don't ignore it, but don't worry about it. Some cognitive degradation is normal, and, well ... you're 65."