Simple absent-mindedness or obvious health disorder? Can we cope with our forgetfulness on our own or should we seek help from specialists?

Memory impairment can have many causes. The most difficult cases are associated with neurological disorders. “And above all with Alzheimer's disease,” says neurologist Vladimir Zakharov. - Only in the initial stage of this incurable disease can we make life easier for patients. We store their memory with transmitters, drugs that make up for the lack of acetylcholine, the substance by which information is transmitted from cell to cell. Another common cause of forgetfulness is vascular dementia. It develops rapidly, and in this case, memory helps to preserve drugs that normalize cerebral circulation.

It is necessary to distinguish these serious disorders from simple forgetfulness, which can be caused by stress, depression, or long-term traumatic experiences. And in these cases, it is quite possible to improve memory. “If, having forgotten the name of the actor, you remember it when you hear his name, then the violation is not of a systemic nature. In this case, you can turn to a psychologist,” says Vladimir Zakharov.

Psychological reasons

“Forgetfulness often occurs at the moment when a person’s connection with himself is broken, he stops hearing his inner voice, and perceives life as a difficult test,” says psychoanalyst Ksenia Korbut. “Oblivion turns out to be a saving way out, however, only for a short time.” Psychodramatic trainings, work with a psychotherapist help to clarify the relationship with oneself and with one's family history.

From the point of view of psychoanalysis

Everything that we once experienced, everything that causes us a feeling of discomfort, anxiety, fear, we displace into our unconscious. “This is how one of the methods of psychological protection works,” explains Ksenia Korbut. - “Forgetting”, we get rid of the ambivalence of our feelings, protect ourselves from negative experiences - in a word, for a while we forget about what causes mental pain. But at the same time we move away from ourselves, because the cause of our suffering remains unchanged.

"I couldn't remember how old I was"

Nikolai, 51, employee of the Ministry of Culture

“For the past few years, I keep forgetting things. For example, I need to find something in the office. But while I'm going there, I forget what I was going for. On duty, I have to conduct many negotiations with a variety of people. And often I completely forget our preliminary agreements. Some kind of sudden failure, a veil ... This happens to me more and more often, and it becomes simply unbearable. And the other day something quite out of the ordinary happened: I could not remember how old I am! All of this makes my life miserable."

Everything that is stored in our unconscious periodically erupts in a symbolic form, in the form of plot dreams, erroneous actions (slips of the tongue, slips of the tongue), memory lapses. Alexander, 32, constantly forgets or loses the keys to his apartment. He grew up in an authoritarian family, and his parents made it clear very early that he had no place in their home. From the age of 18, Alexander lives independently. It would seem that he forgot about what he experienced in childhood, and perhaps only such a strange forgetfulness worries him.

“Rejection is a strong destructive feeling, it is difficult to cope with it,” comments Ksenia Korbut. - Unconsciously forgetting the keys, Alexander is still trying to free himself from this experience. But each time, faced with a locked door, again and again he feels abandoned. Forgetting indicates the presence of a problem, and what exactly we have forgotten can tell us where to look for the cause of suffering. Psychoanalysis helps to plunge into the unconscious, to relive painful experiences and thus free oneself from them.

What to do?

Do mindfulness exercises

Buy a beautiful frame, insert a sheet with some kind of poem into it and hang it in a conspicuous place. Your goal is to memorize one or two poems a week.

Work with the body

Sign up for a dance studio: classes will help you maximize your memory and attention.

Don't try to do everything

Forgetful people often think about a hundred things at once. Let's relax and learn to shift some business to others - then it will be easier for you to stick to the main thing.

Play associations

Pairing one performance with another is a great way to remember them. Look for your memorization techniques.

Develop sensuality

The more your feelings are included during some activity, the more likely it is that it will be well remembered. Go to a perfume shop to enrich your olfactory palette, quit smoking for a better taste, and pay attention to tactile sensations.

The main victims of forgetfulness are those who forget themselves! So don't be too harsh on them. If, having forgotten about the agreement, the person again let you down and is trying to find the reason for his forgetfulness, show tolerance. Prompt, ask leading questions related to a particular situation. This is exactly what the therapist does during the session. Help your forgetful loved one train their memory: instead of repeating the same thing three times, ask him if he remembers what you just said. Such "checks" will contribute to his greater concentration.

From our article you will learn how to distinguish simple forgetfulness from memory loss.

When we forget something, we always feel embarrassed. Given the high prevalence of Alzheimer's disease, memory lapses look quite frightening. However, in many cases, what we take for memory impairment turns out to be ordinary forgetfulness. How to distinguish the norm from the disease? Below you will find 5 examples of physiological memory decline due to aging. “If you are concerned about your condition, see a doctor. The examination will rule out possible causes of memory impairment,” says psychiatrist Harry Small, author of several books on memory and cognition.

It's Not Serious: Forgetfulness Doesn't Interrupt Daily Life

We all struggle from time to time with forgetting simple things: the title of a movie, someone's name, an important date, the reason we walk into a room. Such a periodic slowdown in the extraction of information from the bowels of our brain is a completely normal phenomenon associated with the aging process and lifestyle.

However, when memory impairment interferes with daily life, then this is an occasion to consult a doctor. The activities we do every day require basic skills that a healthy brain never forgets. If you continue to work, cook, get dressed, do your favorite things, and read books despite being forgetful, then you are fine.

It's not serious: "brain training" improves

Currently, there are many ways to "train the brain" (computer programs, cognitive therapy, special aids), which is aimed at improving the condition of synapses and brain function. Experts believe that "brain training" does not allow you to return memory in Alzheimer's disease. However, the question of the impact of "exercise" on the brain of a healthy person remains open. “Our brain compensates for memory loss, and we can help it. If you're doing "exercises" and seeing results, that's a good sign. Dementia is a disease in which the memory of new information is impaired. If you are still able to receive new information, then you are able to remember it.

It's not serious: you started taking a new drug

Before panicking about memory problems, think about the changes that have taken place in your life and how they may have affected your brain. Side effects of medications often cause memory loss. Many older people take a large number of drugs at the same time, which increases the risk of drug interactions. Therefore, some doctors believe that any new symptom should be regarded as a side effect, unless proven otherwise. Medications that affect short-term memory include sedatives, heartburn medications, incontinence medications, statins, and antidepressants.

It's not serious: no one notices your forgetfulness

“People may notice your forgetfulness, but not tell you about it, so as not to offend you. However, conflict situations related to memory impairment will certainly arise in the family. Such conflicts indicate the presence of a disease, in particular dementia, ”says psychiatrist Ken Robbins from the University of Wisconsin (USA). In this way, the relatives are the first to "make" the diagnosis, and often they are right. Relatives and friends are better at detecting early symptoms of Alzheimer's disease than traditional screening and high-tech testing, according to a 2010 study from the University of Washington. Early symptoms include: repeating the same stories or questions, social withdrawal, and disruption of daily life.

But if loved ones do not tell you about your forgetfulness, then most likely everything is fine.

This is not serious: forgetfulness appears with stress, lack of sleep and workload

Before you blame yourself, think about how much work you do. Our brain is not designed to deal with several issues at the same time. You switch attention from one issue to another, and when you are engaged in one issue, you do not pay attention to others, which leads to short-term memory loss. The task becomes even more difficult if you use the same part of the brain, for example, the speech centers for talking on the phone, reading information from the screen and typing. Another stress factor for the brain is lack of sleep, since the processing and organization of the information received occurs in a dream. And finally, stressful situations also negatively affect brain function.

People with true dementia forget, no matter how much sleep, work or stress.

If you are worried about your memory, our special project is especially for you "

Memory is an important function of our central nervous system to perceive the information received and store it in some invisible “cells” of the brain in reserve in order to retrieve and use it in the future. Memory is one of the most important abilities of a person’s mental activity, therefore the slightest violation of memory burdens him, he gets out of the usual rhythm of life, suffering himself and annoying those around him.

Memory impairment is most often perceived as one of the many clinical manifestations of some kind of neuropsychic or neurological pathology, although in other cases forgetfulness, absent-mindedness and poor memory are the only signs of a disease that no one pays attention to, believing that a person is such by nature. .

The big mystery is human memory

Memory is a complex process that takes place in the central nervous system and involves the perception, accumulation, retention and reproduction of information received at different periods of time. Most of all, we think about the properties of our memory when we need to learn something new. The result of all the efforts made in the learning process depends on how someone manages to hook, hold, perceive what they see, hear or read, which is important when choosing a profession. From the point of view of biology, memory is short-term and long-term.

Information received in a glimpse or, as they say, “it flew in one ear, flew out of the other” is a short-term memory in which what is seen and heard is postponed for several minutes, but, as a rule, without meaning and content. So, the episode flashed by and disappeared. Short-term memory does not promise anything in advance, which is probably good, because otherwise a person would have to store all the information that he does not need at all.

However, with certain efforts of a person, information that has fallen into the zone of short-term memory, if you keep your eyes on it or listen and delve into it, will be transferred to long-term storage. This happens even beyond the will of a person, if some episodes are often repeated, have a special emotional significance, or occupy a separate place among other phenomena for various reasons.

Assessing their memory, some people claim that they have a short-term memory, because everything is remembered, assimilated, retold in a couple of days, and then just as quickly forgotten. This often happens when preparing for exams, when information is put aside only for the purpose of reproducing it to decorate a grade book. It should be noted that in such cases, turning again to this topic, when it becomes interesting, a person can easily restore seemingly lost knowledge. It is one thing to know and forget, and another to not receive information. And here everything is simple - the acquired knowledge without much human effort was transformed into departments of long-term memory.

Long-term memory analyzes, structures, creates volume and purposefully postpones everything for future use indefinitely. Everything is kept in long-term memory. Memorization mechanisms are very complex, but we are so used to them that we perceive them as natural and simple things. However, we note that for the successful implementation of the learning process, in addition to memory, it is important to have attention, that is, to be able to concentrate on the right subjects.

It is common for a person to forget past events after a while, if they do not periodically extract their knowledge in order to use them, therefore, the inability to remember something is not always to be attributed to memory impairment. Each of us has experienced the feeling when "it is spinning in the head, but does not come to mind", but this does not mean that serious disorders have occurred in the memory.

Why do memory lapses happen?

The causes of impaired memory and attention in adults and children may be different. If a child with congenital mental retardation immediately has learning problems, then he will already come to adulthood with these disorders. Children and adults can react differently to the environment: the child's psyche is more tender, so it takes stress harder. In addition, adults have long studied what the child is still trying to master.

Sadly, the trend towards the use of alcoholic beverages and drugs by adolescents, and even young children left without parental supervision, has become frightening: cases of poisoning are not so rarely recorded in the reports of law enforcement agencies and medical institutions. But for the child's brain, alcohol is the strongest poison that has an extremely negative effect on memory.

True, some pathological conditions that often cause absent-mindedness and poor memory in adults are usually excluded in children (Alzheimer's disease, atherosclerosis, osteochondrosis).

Causes of memory impairment in children

Thus, the causes of impaired memory and attention in children can be considered:

• Lack of vitamins,;
• Asthenia;
• Frequent viral infections;
• Traumatic brain injury;
• Stressful situations (dysfunctional family, despotism of parents, problems in the team that the child attends);
• Poor eyesight;
• Mental disorder;
• Poisoning, alcohol and drug use;
• Congenital pathology, in which mental retardation is programmed (Down's syndrome, etc.) or other (whatever) conditions (lack of vitamins or trace elements, the use of certain drugs, changes in metabolic processes that are not for the better) that contribute to the formation of attention deficit disorder, which, As you know, memory does not improve.

Causes of problems in adults

In adults, the reason that has become a bad memory, absent-mindedness and inability to concentrate for a long time, are various diseases acquired in the process of life:

1. Stress, psycho-emotional stress, chronic fatigue of both soul and body;
2. Acute and chronic;
3. Discirculatory;
4. cervical spine;
5. Traumatic brain injury;
6. Metabolic disorders;
7. Hormonal imbalance;
8. GM tumors;
9. Mental disorders (depression, schizophrenia and many others).

Of course, anemia of various origins, lack of trace elements, diabetes mellitus and other numerous somatic pathologies lead to impaired memory and attention, contribute to the appearance of forgetfulness and absent-mindedness.

What are the types of memory disorders? Among them are dysmnesia(hypermnesia, hypomnesia, amnesia) - changes in memory itself, and paramnesia- distortion of memories, to which the patient's personal fantasies are added. By the way, some of them, on the contrary, are considered by others to be rather a phenomenal memory than its violation. True, experts may have a slightly different opinion on this matter.

Dysmnesia

Phenomenal memory or mental disorder?

Hypermnesia- with such a violation, people remember and perceive quickly, information set aside many years ago for no reason pops up in memory, “rolls”, returns to the past, which does not always cause positive emotions. A person himself does not know why he needs to keep everything in his head, however, he can reproduce some long-past events to the smallest detail. For example, an elderly person can easily describe in detail (up to the teacher’s clothes) individual lessons at school, retell the lithmontage of a pioneer gathering, it is not difficult for him to remember other details related to studying at the institute, professional activities or family events.

Hypermnesia, present in a healthy person in the absence of other clinical manifestations, is not considered a disease, rather, on the contrary, this is exactly the case when they talk about phenomenal memory, although from the point of view of psychology, phenomenal memory is a slightly different phenomenon. People with this phenomenon are able to memorize and reproduce huge amounts of information that is not connected with any special meaning. These can be large numbers, sets of individual words, lists of objects, notes. Such a memory is often possessed by great writers, musicians, mathematicians and people of other professions that require genius abilities. Meanwhile, hypermnesia in a healthy person who does not belong to the cohort of geniuses, but has a high intelligence quotient (IQ), is not such a rare occurrence.

As one of the symptoms of pathological conditions, memory impairment in the form of hypermnesia occurs:

• With paroxysmal mental disorders (epilepsy);
• With intoxication with psychoactive substances (psychotropic drugs, narcotic drugs);
• In the case of hypomania - a condition similar to mania, but not up to it in terms of the severity of the course. Patients may experience a surge of energy, increased vitality, and ability to work. With hypomania, a violation of memory and attention is often combined (disinhibition, instability, inability to concentrate).

It is obvious that only a specialist can understand such subtleties, distinguish between the norm and pathology. Most of us are average representatives of the human population, to whom "nothing human is alien", but at the same time they do not turn the world upside down. From time to time (not every year and not in every locality) geniuses appear, they are not always immediately noticeable, because often such individuals are considered simply eccentrics. And, finally, (perhaps not often?) among the various pathological conditions there are mental illnesses that require correction and complex treatment.

bad memory

Hypomnesia- this type is usually expressed in two words: "bad memory."

Forgetfulness, absent-mindedness and poor memory are observed with asthenic syndrome, which, in addition to memory problems, is also characterized by other symptoms:

1. Increased fatigue.
2. Nervousness, irritability with or without it, bad mood.
3. Meteorological dependence.
4. during the day and insomnia at night.
5. BP drops, .
6. Tides and others.
7. , weakness.

Asthenic syndrome, as a rule, forms another pathology, for example:

• Arterial hypertension.
• Postponed traumatic brain injury (TBI).
• atherosclerotic process.
• The initial stage of schizophrenia.

The cause of impaired memory and attention according to the type of hypomnesia can be various depressive conditions (you can’t count everyone), menopausal syndrome that occurs with an adaptation disorder, organic brain damage (severe TBI, epilepsy, tumors). In such situations, as a rule, in addition to hypomnesia, the symptoms listed above are also present.

"I remember here - I don't remember here"

At amnesia not the whole memory falls out, but its individual fragments. As an example of this type of amnesia, one would like to recall the film by Alexander Gray "Gentlemen of Fortune" - "I remember here - I don't remember here."

However, not all amnesias look like in the famous motion picture, there are more serious cases when memory is lost significantly and for a long time or forever, therefore, several types of such memory impairments (amnesia) are distinguished:

A special type of memory loss that cannot be managed is progressive amnesia, representing a sequential loss of memory from the present to the past. The reason for the destruction of memory in such cases is organic atrophy of the brain, which occurs during Alzheimer's disease and . Such patients poorly reproduce traces of memory (speech disorders), for example, they forget the names of household items that they use daily (plate, chair, clock), but at the same time they know what they are intended for (amnestic aphasia). In other cases, the patient simply does not recognize the thing (sensory aphasia) or does not know what it is for (semantic aphasia). However, one should not confuse the habits of “radical” owners to find a use for everything that is in the house, even if it is intended for completely different purposes (you can make a beautiful dish or stand out of a used kitchen clock in the form of a plate).

This is what you need to figure out!

Paramnesia (distortion of memories) also referred to as memory disorders, and among them are the following types:

• Confabulation, in which fragments of one’s own memory disappear, and their place is taken by stories invented by the patient and presented to them “in all seriousness”, since he himself believes in what he is talking about. Patients talk about their exploits, unprecedented achievements in life and work, and even sometimes about crimes.
• pseudo-reminiscence- the replacement of one memory with another event that actually took place in the patient's life, only at a completely different time and under different circumstances (Korsakov's syndrome).
• Cryptomnesia when patients, having received information from various sources (books, movies, stories of other people), pass it off as events they experienced. In a word, patients, due to pathological changes, go to involuntary plagiarism, which is characteristic of delusional ideas found in organic disorders.
• Echomnesia- a person feels (quite sincerely) that this event has already happened to him (or did he see it in a dream?). Of course, such thoughts sometimes visit a healthy person, but the difference is that patients attach special significance to such phenomena (“go in cycles”), while healthy people simply quickly forget about it.
• Polympsest- this symptom exists in two versions: short-term memory lapses associated with pathological alcohol intoxication (episodes of the past day are confused with long-past events), and the combination of two different events of the same period of time, in the end, the patient himself does not know what happened in fact.

As a rule, these symptoms in pathological conditions are accompanied by other clinical manifestations, therefore, having noticed signs of “déjà vu” in oneself, there is no need to rush to make a diagnosis - this also happens in healthy people.

Decreased concentration affects memory

To violations of memory and attention, the loss of the ability to focus on specific objects include the following pathological conditions:

1. Attention instability- a person is constantly distracted, jumping from one subject to another (disinhibition syndrome in children, hypomania, hebephrenia - a mental disorder that develops as a form of schizophrenia in adolescence);
2. Rigidity (slow switching) from one topic to another - this symptom is very typical for epilepsy (those who communicated with such people know that the patient is constantly “stuck”, which makes it difficult to conduct a dialogue);
3. Lack of concentration- they say about such people: “That’s what a distracted one from Basseinaya Street!”, That is, absent-mindedness and poor memory in such cases are often perceived as features of temperament and behavior, which, in principle, often corresponds to reality.

Undoubtedly a decrease in concentration of attention, in particular, will adversely affect the entire process of memorizing and storing information, that is, on the state of memory as a whole.

Children forget faster

As for children, all these gross, permanent memory impairments, characteristic of adults and, especially, the elderly, are very rarely noted in childhood. Memory problems that occur due to congenital features require correction and, with a skillful approach (as far as possible), may recede a little. There are many cases when the efforts of parents and teachers literally worked wonders for Down syndrome and other types of congenital mental retardation, but here the approach is individual and dependent on different circumstances.

Another thing is if the baby was born healthy, and the problems appeared as a result of the troubles suffered. So here a child can expect a slightly different reaction to different situations:

• Amnesia in children in most cases, it manifests itself as memory lapses in relation to individual memories of episodes that took place during the period of clouding of consciousness associated with unpleasant events (poisoning, coma, trauma) - it is not in vain that they say that children quickly forget;
• Alcoholization of adolescence also proceeds differently than in adults - the absence of memories ( polympsests) on events occurring during intoxication, appears already in the first stages of drunkenness, without waiting for a diagnosis (alcoholism);
• retrograde amnesia in children, as a rule, it affects a short period of time before an injury or illness, and its severity is not as clear as in adults, that is, memory loss in a child can not always be noticed.

Most often in children and adolescents there is a memory impairment of the type of dysmnesia, which is manifested by a weakening of the ability to remember, store (retention) and reproduce (reproduction) the information received. Disorders of this type are more noticeable in school-age children, as they affect school performance, adaptation in a team, and behavior in everyday life.

In children attending preschool institutions, symptoms of dysmnesia are problems with memorizing rhymes, songs, children cannot participate in children's matinees and holidays. Despite the fact that the kid attends kindergarten all the time, every time he comes there, he cannot find his locker on his own to change clothes, among other items (toys, clothes, towels) it is difficult for him to find his own. Dysmnestic disorders are also noticeable at home: the child cannot tell what happened in the garden, forgets the names of other children, each time he reads fairy tales he perceives as if he hears them for the first time, he does not remember the names of the main characters.

Transient disturbances of memory and attention, along with fatigue, drowsiness and all sorts of autonomic disorders, are often observed in schoolchildren with various etiologies.

Before treatment

Before treating the symptoms of memory impairment, it is necessary to make a correct diagnosis and find out what causes the patient's problems. To do this, you need to get as much information about his health:

1. What diseases does he suffer from? Perhaps it will be possible to trace the connection between the existing pathology (or transferred in the past) with the deterioration of intellectual abilities;
2. Does he have a pathology that directly leads to memory impairment: dementia, cerebrovascular insufficiency, TBI (history), chronic alcoholism, drug disorders?
3. What medications does the patient take and is memory impairment related to the use of medications? Some groups of pharmaceuticals, for example, benzodiazepines, among the side effects, have such disorders, which, however, are reversible.

In addition, in the process of diagnostic search, it can be very useful to identify metabolic disorders, hormonal imbalance, deficiency of trace elements and vitamins.

In most cases, when looking for the causes of memory impairment, they resort to methods neuroimaging(CT, MRI, EEG, PET, etc.), which help to detect a brain tumor or hydrocephalus and, at the same time, to differentiate a vascular brain lesion from a degenerative one.

The need for neuroimaging methods also arises because memory impairment at first may be the only symptom of a serious pathology. Unfortunately, the greatest difficulties in diagnosis are depressive conditions, forcing in other cases to prescribe a trial antidepressant treatment (to find out if there is depression or not).

Treatment and correction

The normal aging process itself involves some decline in intellectual abilities: forgetfulness appears, memorization is not so easy, concentration of attention drops, especially if the neck is “squeezed” or pressure rises, however, such symptoms do not significantly affect the quality of life and behavior in everyday life. Older people who adequately assess their age learn to remind themselves (and quickly remember) about current affairs.

In addition, many do not neglect pharmaceutical treatment to improve memory.

Now there are a number of drugs that can improve brain function and even help with tasks that require significant intellectual effort. First of all, these are (piracetam, phezam, vinpocetine, cerebrolysin, cinnarizine, etc.).

Nootropics are indicated for elderly people who have certain age-related problems that are not yet noticeable to others. Preparations of this group are suitable for improving memory in violation of cerebral circulation caused by other pathological conditions of the brain and vascular system. By the way, many of these drugs are successfully used in pediatric practice.

However, nootropics are a symptomatic treatment, and in order to obtain the proper effect, one must strive for an etiotropic one.

As for Alzheimer's disease, tumors, mental disorders, here the approach to treatment should be very specific - depending on the pathological changes and the reasons that led to them. There is no single prescription for all cases, so there is nothing to advise patients. You just need to contact a doctor, who, perhaps, before prescribing drugs to improve memory, will send for an additional examination.

Difficult in adults and the correction of disorders of mental activity. Patients with poor memory, under the supervision of an instructor, memorize verses, solve crossword puzzles, practice solving logical problems, however, training, bringing some success (the severity of mnestic disorders seems to have decreased), still do not give particularly significant results.

Correction of memory and attention in children, in addition to treatment with the help of various groups of pharmaceuticals, provides for classes with a psychologist, exercises for the development of memory (poems, drawings, tasks). Of course, the children's psyche is more mobile and better amenable to correction, unlike the adult psyche. Children have the prospect of progressive development, while in older people only the opposite effect progresses.

Video: bad memory - expert opinion

Situations when, for some reason, going from one room to another, we suddenly find that we have forgotten what we were going for, are quite common. And you shouldn't be afraid of it. This is due to the normal work of the human brain and is not considered some kind of negative deviation. But still, why is this happening?

Interweaving of thought processes

Among scientists, this forgetfulness is called the "doorway effect." This effect is due to the fact that our memory is constantly influenced by some distractions that are sometimes difficult for the brain to “sort out”.

For example, you are preparing a dish. If you have to cook this dish quite often, all your processes proceed almost automatically. You can think about something else along the way, hum a song, stamp your foot, etc. But as soon as you get to, say, slicing an onion, you concentrate on this lesson more carefully, since this operation is more laborious and in as a result of an incorrect movement, you can injure yourself with a knife.

This suggests that extraneous factors or excessive brain activity at this moment can adversely affect your actions. The acquired skill can be pushed aside by some memory or an attempt to perform a more difficult moment of a hummed song and as a result a failure will occur, which can lead to undesirable consequences.

The same is true with forgetfulness. Going into the room, say, for a book, we think about something else, and at the moment when we cross the threshold of the room, we already forget what we were going for, because thoughts about something else have already ousted the memory of the necessary for unnecessary.

Roots of the problem

This is due to the fact that in our brain there is a whole network of memory cells, and each cell is responsible for certain memories. For example, information related to complex everyday skills is stored in one cell, from which information is rarely deleted as unnecessary. There are also cells responsible for knowledge about the surrounding world, about relatives and everything connected with them. Such information can be useful to a person at any moment of their life, and it cannot be erased. The brain knows about it, and therefore all of it is placed in the area of ​​\u200b\u200blong-term memory.

But there is also an area of ​​"short-term memory", where memories are placed, which, by performing certain manipulations associated with them, can be erased by the brain. According to scientists, this is a normal process of brain activity. The brain removes unnecessary and insignificant memories so that they do not interfere with its normal functioning later. It also makes it possible to write down the following short-term memorizations on a “blank sheet”.

How it works

Let's continue with an example. You want to sit in the living room armchair and flip through the latest magazine. Since the information about where you put it when you come from the street is in one of the departments of "long-term memory", you know about it exactly and follow it into another room. The fact that you need to go for a journal is recorded in the "short-term memory" department, as the brain understands that after the operation you will no longer need this information.

Along the way, your thoughts are occupied by other, parallel thought processes. And all thought processes, one way or another, are connected with the “short-term memory” department. At some point, the brain simply removes the unnecessary “object” about the journal, and uses this place for current thought processes. The result is that, having automatically entered another room, you have already forgotten why you were heading here.

How to prevent this in the future

As a rule, in order to correct the situation, you can again return to the room and survey it with your eyes. Your vision stumbles upon a cozy armchair and a cup of coffee on a coffee table, and you are reminded of the magazine again.

You can prevent this forgetfulness simply by associating why you are walking with some more meaningful object from "long-term memory." For example, when going to a room for car keys, think about what keychain is hanging on it, what emblem is on it, how the keys ring, hanging on the ring.

The more information about the object will be recorded in the "short-term memory", the more, more meaningful and stronger it will have a connection with the information from the "long-term memory", the less will be the possibility that you will forget about it in such a short time.

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A serious-minded man who dreams of a friendly family and children, isn't this the dream of every representative of the weaker sex?

Wishing your friends to introduce a new acquaintance, you suddenly forgot his name. Or even worse situation. Can't remember where you left your car in the underground car park, spend a lot of time looking for it. There are such cases, and they spoil the mood, complicate the relationship, and sometimes just knock out of a certain rhythm of life. Still, don't worry. This is just forgetfulness, not a serious memory impairment. Scientists believe that it is possible to maintain a good memory even after sixty years. Of course, there are changes, because the processes that regulate our memory change with age. And it is this fear that makes us exaggerate the degree of our forgetfulness, distorts our own idea of ​​our memory.

Memory lapses are sometimes noted by menopausal women. Most likely, this is due to the fact that nighttime hot flashes do not allow you to sleep, and fatigue is the cause of forgetfulness. According to experts at any age, you can develop, significantly improve memory.

How to deal with forgetfulness

Here are some tips that you can follow to improve your mindfulness, thereby getting rid of forgetfulness to some extent.

Try to be attentive

You may not remember anything if you read, listened to, or simply did something distracted, distracted, not focused enough.

Therefore, before starting something, stop, mobilize all the senses, concentrate - look, listen, feel.

Sometimes it is necessary to focus your attention on some action or place: “I am walking down the street. Maple trees grow near the house on the right. In their shade, you can rest on a bench.” If you visually perceive information and verbally express it, then in this case it is stored in memory more firmly and is easier to retrieve.

Do not be distructed

Sometimes it is useful, before you start doing something, to scroll through your head, to say your actions. When you voice what you need to do, it will be easier for you to focus, and you will not be distracted by other objects, even if they meet on your way. This way you won't forget what you need to do.

Create logical links

Think of words, sentences or stories where the words you need are logically connected. For example, you need to remember the house number or area. Morskaya dom 5. The logical connection will be as follows: “My son is 5 years old and he is now resting at the sea. Or, for example, you need to buy a certain list of products on the way home: milk, a dozen eggs, cucumbers and four packs of cookies. Thus, it is possible to compose, for example, such an acronym MYASSSSO (M - milk, I - eggs, four C - four packs of cookies, O - cucumbers).

Creative thinking

Figurative thinking, according to experts, helps to remember new faces and names. For example, the name of your new boss Leskov. Imagine him in the middle of a small forest. This image will remind you of the name of the boss.

Minerals for memory

Scientists and doctors are of the opinion that impaired attention, weakening of memory, etc., leads to a lack of iron, boron and zinc.

To get the required amount of these minerals from food, according to scientists, you need to eat fruits and vegetables at least five times a day (a source of boron) and eat meat three times a week (a source of iron and zinc).

Muscle and memory training

A study was conducted on the effects of physical activity on memory, in which a group of volunteers exercised three times a week for an hour a day. As it turned out during testing, its participants coped with the memory task better than those who did not study. Scientists have proven that movement improves the flow of oxygen to the brain, which improves memory, by accelerating the use of glucose by the brain. As you know, physical activity significantly reduces stress, and memory suffers from nervous strain.

If you still forget

As we have already found out, avoiding memory lapses is quite simple. But if you still forget, we remind you of some tricks.

Wait a little

If you still could not remember the name of a new acquaintance, do not get hung up on this, just continue the conversation. Most likely, it will very quickly pop up in your memory if you are not nervous about it.

Go back mentally

Are you still looking for a car in the parking lot? Stop, mentally go back. As you retrace the chain of events, you will most likely come across details that will help you remember where the car is. Imagine, for example, what exactly you did or saw when you walked away from the car. Any object, building, plant will help your memory.

This technique can be used if you came into the room and can not remember what exactly you wanted to do. Ask yourself the question: “What was I doing before I came here?”

When you need a doctor

It is not easy for a person to find out on his own whether his memory is seriously impaired or whether it is simply not attentiveness. If you have a suspicion that forgetfulness has become too frequent, that lately forgetfulness has become a constant companion, you need to see a doctor.

It is worth contacting a specialist in such cases: you cannot remember the way to a familiar place, if you have begun to forget how the simplest things are done, if you cannot cook a dish according to a recipe.

We wish you good memory and hope that our advice will help you if necessary.