Might we be at risk? THE BIG QUESTION listed some of the main factors that could contribute to a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) or another form of dementia. I shall be looking at them in more detail in a future post, but for the moment, I think it’s important to define what is normal forgetfulness as we age and what could be the beginning of dementia.
Even those of us who are over 40 (maybe even younger) probably have those dotty moments when, for example, we can’t remember why we went upstairs or into another room. We have to retrace our steps to jog our memories. As we get older, we have more of them along with other so-called ‘senior moments’, such as not remembering people’s names, the title of a book, a movie, an author etc. It can be infuriating and we wonder why the hell we can’t bring whatever it is to mind – often they pop into our consciousness at some unconnected later moment.
In cases like these I apply naïve logic to help me understand why things might be the way they are. In trivial memory lapses, I see whatever we’re actually trying to ‘access’ isn’t of lasting importance and certainly hasn’t had the time or need to be stored for future reference. So I don’t really worry. It’s frustrating, annoying even, but not a sign that we’re losing our minds. However …
… if we can’t remember what task we’re tackling, or if we can but have forgotten how, then it’s likely that what is known as our working memory is in bad shape. If we can’t remember activities we used to have no trouble with – how to drive, operate our computers, make telephone calls or follow a recipe, for instance, these are serious losses and it’s time to go see our doctor. If we’ve forgotten where we live and take to wandering and getting lost, then we simply have to get help. These lapses can be dangerous.
Our long-term memory is another matter and, put simply, is described as implicit – about those learned things that have become second nature, or explicit – recalling past autobiographical events, what we learned in school or general knowledge (semantic memory) and so on. With dementia, as our working memory gets worse, we’ll probably cling to the explicit past. We’ll reminisce, after all our past has shaped the way we are now, who we are now and it’s precious, even the bad experiences have a place and hopefully we’ll have learned from them, albeit the hard way.
Somewhere in between the long-term and working memory is, what I call our‘mid-term memory’ which is classed as long-term having been stored but, if affected, is harder to access without a certain amount of prompting.
To illustrate this, my previous husband, Terry, who became physically and mentally handicapped following a road-traffic accident back in 1987, suffered from retrograde amnesia. He’d forgotten the previous twelve years of his life leading up to the accident. Voluntarily, he could only bring to mind his life before that, the events in his long(er)-term memory. However, with the help of photos, I was able to take him back in time, and he could once more access those years, if only briefly. Our life together was captured in the images and they resurfaced to give him great pleasure.
In such circumstances diaries or journals can also be invaluable. For those of us who keep a record of events, observations and feelings, getting into the long/mid-term memory is a lot easier – it’s there written down for us to refer to whenever we need to. Leaf, my now husband, keeps a daily diary. It’s a very good idea, whether we have serious memory problems or not. In these days of emails, we don’t get many letters, if any, to keep for the future and even photos, which used to go into albums (if we were well-organised), are likely to disappear into the ether if we don’t upload them to our computer memory or print them up.
It may be mightily convenient and definitely has a lot to offer, but in these respects, modern technology isn’t helpful to those of us who are losing our recall.
Comments
doodahtwo.home.blog 
jan says
Thank you Sue, some very important information delivered in a clear and succinct way…….very helpful.x
Thanks Jan.. It’s a very complicated subject which I couldn’t begin to explain in any more detail. Anyway, the jury is still out (as usual). How memories of all kinds are stored and where, is still up for a certain amount of debate it seems! The brain is a mighty and marvellous creation.
Yes Sue, thanks indeed. We all want to think that our ongoing memory loss is in some way ‘normal’. Being able to distinguish it from dementia is something that would bring a great deal of relief to a great many people.
Messed up on the computer? Oh Gawd! (chuckles)! Try again!
Thanks Sue. Many of us want to feel that their ongoing memory loss is a ‘natural’ thing and not a dementia. This blog could give reassurance to many.
Well, that’s good to hear, John. Thanks for your comment, emphasised! Now I’m a carer (again!) I have to admit to getting a bit worried when I do weird stuff, whereas normally I would just say ‘silly me!’ and carry on. Having said that, I am pretty together with the stuff that matters – thank goodness!!!
I have things that I can’t recall, like names of films or books etc, but you made me aware that keeping a journal is a good idea, so i shall start again keeping one. Thanks.
Hello Lili,
Glad you found LET’S NOT PANIC helpful.
I’m sure your journal will not only be a good place to record activities, feelings etc. etc. but it’s fun to illustrate it too.
Again useful reassuring words xx
So glad you think so, Caroline. We all need reassurance!