I wish my memory was in my head and not held in external books. Most of my memory is stored outside my head.
Of all the things this illness has damaged the most, I really am beginning to think my memory has taken one of the worst hits. When I want to bring up something here, I have to grab my journals and jog my memory.
Sometimes I think if I ever lost my journals, my past would be gone and I’d have no real memory about my past. My sis has been trying to make me recall things in my life without immediately reaching for the journals. Sometimes I can almost do it. Usually the journals will help jog a memory and some details will start to come up.
Maybe that is why I have a two window delay on my emotional reactions… I have no strong memory of things.
Can memory be built up and strengthened, or once it’s gone it’s gone?
What do you think?
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I think it can be build up to a certain degree. There are things that I don’t instantly remember but when I see a picture or someone says something about it then the memory becomes more clear. I don’t know if we can remember everything. Some people have photogenic memories so I guess it is possible but most of us don’t.
Something happens and you have a small memory of it. Someone tells you more about the incident. You imagine seeing it how that person tells it. Does that imagining become part of the memory? I think it can. Do we have memories that are just not accessed? I think so but I don’t know.
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Wow, for some reason that is jumping out at me. I’ll try and discuss some of our past with the sis and she’ll say stuff like, “I don’t think it went down like that, I can’t imagine you doing that”
I would be annoyed because her imagining had nothing to do with what I wrote in my journal. But if imaginings can influence memory, then it feels like memory is very fluid and can in fact change despite that it’s in the past. Since the past influences the present, that makes it odd to build a decision on.
sorry, I’m starting to drift and get all paradox and esoteric about this.
I guess I should try and work on strengthening the capacity for memory so I can recall actual events and information. I know that a lot of my perceptions are very warped due to this illness on drugs.
It sort of makes me shake my head when I add up the factors. My memory of things while drunk… a bit fuzzy. My memory of things while drunk, high, and psychotic?
No wonder some of my past doesn’t make sense.
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Don’t stress yourself about it. I feel no shame and accept the fact that a lot of my past memories are not what they used to be. Sometimes I really have to think what year something happened or even what province/state I was living in when it happened. I can try to piece it together.
I think sometimes worrying about past things is not always a good thing. How many times have you heard someone say “I don’t remember.” You accept other people saying it however you think that you should do better or remember better. It is ok to say “I don’t remember.” It does not make you any less of a person.
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this is why older people do things like suduko i think you can improve your memory by using it.
I think I have memory access problem. Sometimes I think I can only think of what’s right before me, nothing else. Almost like having amnesia.
i can’t remember what i posted a minute ago most of the time, but mrs sith reminds me all the time of my past life, she knows more about me than me !!
take care
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Yes, it can…unless it is some form of dementia due to something in the brain like Alz…
Ginkgo Biloba, Ginseng,.Omega 3 Fish oil (DHA)… start using these regularly. All enhance memory and/or brain function.
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Schizophrenia is known for causing memory problems, big and small. My working memory, basically short term memory that is automatic and subconscious, is not 100%, but too high to really be a problem. The only thing that makes me realize this is taking longer to get used to video game controls. Funny, really.
But you can strengthen the wiring of your brain my practicing memory tasks- this is proven to work, there’s a thread about neuroplasiticy Brain Plasticity and Recovery from Schizophrenia
and it has some hard science material about how you can improve your brain with your mind- my shrink is really into it, he says the way I logically use proofs to invalidate my delusions which happen once or twice a day is very good and says that I should experience less intrusive delusions as I do this. I shoot down delusions very quickly, I haven’t been truly delusional in a long time.
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