[Humour] Middle aged absent-mindedness

[Zeberdi]

I’m beyond repair.

• Keep setting the fire alarms off because I forget I’ve put something under the grill
• Went to work in my gardening clumpy rubber crocs a few weeks back (they were so comfortable)
• Repeatedly putting things down and can’t find them for ages - cups of coffee, ear buds, glasses (spend ridiculous amounts of time looking for my damn glasses when half the time they are on my head)
• Turning up for work on days I’m supposed to be off
• Forgetting what day of the week it is
• Getting on the wrong train
• Forgetting appointments I’ve made

Check - Haven’t got lost in the street yet and still recognise my family, friends, work colleagues and neighbours so that’s a good sign

 

[Guinness Boy]

I sometimes get mental blocks on certain words. I know what I want to say but have forgotten the actual word itself. Wordle has been a great help with that, it seems to have unlocked my vocabulary files again. Which means I'll be forgetting something else at some point.

I honestly think the brain is a bit like a hard drive and at some point it has to delete stuff to fit other things in it.

 

[ozzygull]

Getting older sucks as evolution tries to kill us off because we're past the 'normal' life span - hearing starts to go so you can't hear danger coming, eyesight fails so you can't see it either. Then on top of that the body starts to fail in numerous ways both physically and then mentally which can be hormone related...

Currently going throught the Menopause and absolutely thought I was losing my mind, until the doctor prescribed HRT which has helped somewhat. I still find myself struggling to find the right words or remember stuff some days but its all just blooming hormones!

Same as you the Menopause has been a *ucker. Mind you I get my daily exercise from going downstairs from my home office to get a drink, Go down get distracted by something then go back up but forgot the drink, go back down, and get drink, but left glasses downstairs go back down to get glasses. Each drink at least four trips up and down stairs.

On a more serious note, the depression and complete loss of confidence it caused was the worse. Luckily for me, I was able to go back to motorcycling after a 20-year break, which scared the hell out of me at first but also made me feel alive. It meant I was able to pull back some control. It would have been really easy for me to just give up on life.

I am glad HRT is helping you.

 

[thedonkeycentrehalf]

When @Lenny Rider son Sam had to help me find my glasses on the flight to Rome I knew that I was in trouble.

Were they on your head?

 

[Flounce]

I went to a formal dinner and it was pointed out to me that my slippers didn’t really go with the suit as I stood for a pre dinner drink

 

[GT49er]

I sometimes get mental blocks on certain words. I know what I want to say but have forgotten the actual word itself.

Snap! Happens to me all the time!

I honestly think the brain is a bit like a hard drive and at some point it has to delete stuff to fit other things in it.

I'm not sure it deletes stuff - more that it doesn't take in stuff it hasn't got room for. I can remember, say, my teens and twenties much better than I can remember the last ten years since I retired!

 

[Coldeanseagull]

It’s the increasing regularity of going in to a room and forgetting why I wanted to go there, which is getting me

This is no laughing matter. I put it down to trying to multitask, but since I gave up work I still do it!

 

[GT49er]

Had a classic senior moment this morning. Got up, went to the loo, turned the bath on, cleaned my teeth - then went back to the bedroom and started getting dressed! Had almost finished when it suddenly dawned on me - why the **** was I getting dressed whilst running a bath!

 

[zeetha]

Same as you the Menopause has been a *ucker. Mind you I get my daily exercise from going downstairs from my home office to get a drink, Go down get distracted by something then go back up but forgot the drink, go back down, and get drink, but left glasses downstairs go back down to get glasses. Each drink at least four trips up and down stairs.

On a more serious note, the depression and complete loss of confidence it caused was the worse. Luckily for me, I was able to go back to motorcycling after a 20-year break, which scared the hell out of me at first but also made me feel alive. It meant I was able to pull back some control. It would have been really easy for me to just give up on life.

I am glad HRT is helping you.

Glad you managed to find something to help you with the depression etc as thats a real kicker too on top of everything else the effing Menopause causes. Luckily the HRT helped me with that too. Currently 5 years into this 'journey', oh the joy

 

[loz]

Were they on your head?

I have sear

Were they on your head?

I have spent ages looking for my glasses before, then found my spare pair, went to put them on only to find that I had my glasses on all the time FFS!

 

[dazzer6666]

I have sear


I have spent ages looking for my glasses before, then found my spare pair, went to put them on only to find that I had my glasses on all the time FFS!

I’ve got about 8 pairs lying around, yet still spend an inordinate amount of time looking for them

 

[chickens]

At what age do we all become totally useless?

For me, 48 was when I noted a significant enough deterioration to put it in front of the doc. I was definitely hoping to avoid having any issues with memory etc until my late seventies at the earliest.

The doc gave me a clean bill of health, and I can’t say I’ve got significantly worse since then, but I’d describe my memory as “consistently shit.”

The worst thing about it is the loss of trust in self. I can swear blind that I’ve done something, can mentally picture myself having done it, and yet discover that I haven’t performed whatever action it is I’m meant to have completed, and that my brain has inserted “stock footage” of some other time I’ve performed the action to trick me into believing I’ve done it.

It’s embarrassing and frustrating in equal measure.

 

[Triggaaar]

For me, 48 was when I noted a significant enough deterioration to put it in front of the doc. I was definitely hoping to avoid having any issues with memory etc until my late seventies at the earliest.

The doc gave me a clean bill of health, and I can’t say I’ve got significantly worse since then, but I’d describe my memory as “consistently shit.”

The worst thing about it is the loss of trust in self. I can swear blind that I’ve done something, can mentally picture myself having done it, and yet discover that I haven’t performed whatever action it is I’m meant to have completed, and that my brain has inserted “stock footage” of some other time I’ve performed the action to trick me into believing I’ve done it.

Nightmare.

It’s embarrassing and frustrating in equal measure.

Don't be embarrassed, we can't help what's happening to our old brains.

 

[AlbionBro]

How many people think COVID has damaged their brains via fog, strokes or mental health. I think short term memory has had a proper pasting in the last 5 years particularly with the over 50's.

 

[AlbionBro]

I don't just mean COVID as a disease, but everything that has rippled out because of COVID.

 

[Green Cross Code Man]

How many people think COVID has damaged their brains via fog, strokes or mental health. I think short term memory has had a proper pasting in the last 5 years particularly with the over 50's.

I noticed an appreciable deterioration in my memory after 2 nasty bouts of Covid. Also an increase in brain fog which often left me unable to think clearly in a way that I hadn't up until then experienced. My perception is that the fog symptom is lessening, but I am aware that it may simply be a case that I've adjusted accordingly and my expectations have changed.

 

[GT49er]

How many people think COVID has damaged their brains via fog, strokes or mental health. I think short term memory has had a proper pasting in the last 5 years particularly with the over 50's.

COVID - or more specifically the lockdown - definitely had an effect. As a vulnerable person with no friends or relatives less than 30 miles away, shielding meant months where my only 'conversations' were with the ASDA driver on my weekly delivery and for a couple of minutes with neighbours whilst applauding the NHS. That was, quite literally, solitary confinement - and it certainly changed my life, and not in a good way. It's never returned to what it was, pre-COVID.

 

[AlbionBro]

I noticed an appreciable deterioration in my memory after 2 nasty bouts of Covid. Also an increase in brain fog which often left me unable to think clearly in a way that I hadn't up until then experienced. My perception is that the fog symptom is lessening, but I am aware that it may simply be a case that I've adjusted accordingly and my expectations have changed.

COVID - or more specifically the lockdown - definitely had an effect. As a vulnerable person with no friends or relatives less than 30 miles away, shielding meant months where my only 'conversations' were with the ASDA driver on my weekly delivery and for a couple of minutes with neighbours whilst applauding the NHS. That was, quite literally, solitary confinement - and it certainly changed my life, and not in a good way. It's never returned to what it was, pre-COVID.

I think both of these are very common, I think many people are suffering from PTSD. But I doubt it would be viable to council probably 25% of the country. Exercise and time talking about it on forums like this may help. I am know expert, but I have certainly seen a change with my memory since COVID.

 

[Green Cross Code Man]

I think both of these are very common, I think many people are suffering from PTSD. But I doubt it would be viable to council probably 25% of the country. Exercise and time talking about it on forums like this may help. I am know expert, but I have certainly seen a change with my memory since COVID.

I hadn't considered PTSD as a cause for the foggy brain, rather that Covid had directly caused it. I am certain though that the measures we took and experiences we went through undoubtedly left many in the condition you cite.

 

[Fignon's Ponytail]

Constantly forget stuff these days. My wife has to remind me on a daily basis about things, but there have been numerous occasions the last couple of years when shes said something to me about plans, going out etc...and I have no recollection of it at all a few days later when she mentions it again.
Ask me about the 80s though, and I will come up with some really random childhood memories that have been tucked away somewhere for a long long time.