Memory Loss. It's All in Your Mind

Published: Jun 9, 2004

Application

A lot of the fear about memory loss is a lot of bull (see Manure story below) unless you're succumbing to that dreaded Alzheimer's disease.

As we age we are putting more stuff into our memory. We are being told that today's information age is increasing this input exponentially. It's reasonable to assume we are more aware of forgetting some of this overload. In other words, the increased awareness is proportionate to the increased input which means there's greater volume of forgotten data.

If you worry about this memory loss, chances are you will increase your forgetfulness.

My informal research has revealed a large number of people who moan about loss of memory, as they grow older, were people who never developed a good system for recall. It's not too late to learn some recall techniques.

Stories

The Bottle of Bull Manure

During my undergraduate years I worked on a farm for the summer. There was a special enclosure just for the bulls. I returned to university with a collection of small bottles filled with manure from that enclosure. The labels were worded to suit many different situations. Soon, everyone on campus was aware of the content of my bottles. During that following year there were many occasions when these bottles would be presented to speakers amid mixtures of dread, laughter and bull****.

Submitted by: NephewGerry

The Muscle Relaxant

My doctor helped a muscular problem by prescribing a pill. My muscles relaxed just fine. But, I was having memory problems. I would swing around to my credenza and forget why I was there. I had traded some business texts for a pharmacology compendium. It revealed the pill was a tranquilizer and it was doing to me what it was supposed to do – help me forget my cares and woes. I have never taken a tranquilizer since and my memory is back to its state of above-average.