Ever since my first psychotic episode I have been having issues with memory loss. The year leading up to my psychosis is almost completely gone.
My question is, have you dealt with memory loss as a result of psychosis and if so how long did it take you to get your memory back?
Are you on any benzo’s or had ECT? As both can cause problems with memory function!
I was on diazepam in hospital and it made me very sluggish and messed with my memory and speach in hospital.
Since getting out 5 years ago my memory has gradually improved!
I put this down to a few things my diet Eating fresh fruit and veg every day, with a berocca tablet each morning. This and volunteering 3x per week for 2 charities.
Im not on any benzos and I haven’t had ect done. It’s great to hear your memory gradually improved. It gives me some hope that maybe in the future mine will too.
My memory started progressively going to â– â– â– â– since I had my first full psychotic break about 4 years ago. Still waiting for improvements if anything is ever going to happen.
To be honest I kinda “lost” a few years during the earlier parts of my illness. Was smoking a lot of pot at that time though. But yeah I think psychosis can make you forget things.
Dopamine hormone is responsible with memory.any imbalance of dopamine hormone can cause memory loss.ap are decreasing the dopamine hormone and this can cause memory weakness or loss.
I have some short term/working memory problems. It’s a feature of the illness. It’s just part of it.
Long term memory problems are also reported a lot but less mentioned in books covering schizophrenia. I’ve seen them too much in people on here- I firmly think they are real and apply to most people with schizophrenia. Mine was pretty bad when I was not on medication. When I am psychotic, like last night, my short term and long term are both impaired.
Medications can help. Newer ones, called “atypicals” or “second generation” seem to have helped my memory. Also, I find that when I am out of sorts, say before I have my coffee and medications every morning, I can’t remember what I studied the day before, but an hour or so after taking all my meds, I can.
I honestly don’t know the best comprehensive answer to this, but I can say with confidence that our short term memory is impaired by schizophrenia (like forgetting if I just put something in the fridge and honestly not having a clue as to whether I did or didn’t less than a minute after doing it) and since short term is in fact impaired, a lot of it doesn’t get translated into long term memory.
Now as for why some of us can’t remember their childhoods and such, it’s either trauma or I just don’t have an answer.