I suffer from confirmed short-term memory loss as a result of my mental illness and it’s usually more of a nuisance than anything else, but sometimes I get really down about it. During a break in a conversation, I’ll realize I can’t recall the last thing I said; people who don’t know me that well tend to think I’m joking when I admit that to them. I can’t absorb any instruction that is only told to me once which I fear makes me annoying to teach; I hate inconveniencing others in any way and I know by now how much people hate being asked to repeat themselves.
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My cognitive symptoms started 3yrs before I was diagnosed and put on meds. They slowly got worse with time but are stable now. I get thought blocking and blank mind sometimes, when thinking, when talking, when doing something, when trying to remember something, etc
I blanked on my address for about 20 seconds the other day. Frankly , it made me a little nervous. But I don’t think my cognitive symptoms are getting any worse tbh. Just a bad day. Brain fart.
Sounds more like a working memory problem than short-term memory. I have that too. One of the causes is poor attention, maybe from ADHD or maybe from DID (dissociative identity disorder) with depersonalisation/derealisation. Burnout/depression also plays a role.