Alzheimer's-like Memory Problems During Childhood

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When I was a child (like before age 12), I had constant memory problems. Namely, forgetting what I ate at breakfast that day, or forgetting what I wanted to say just minutes ago. Which made my parents always angry with me. Being a curious, knowledge-seeking aspie, and wanting to keep earning their love, I got into "World Book" encyclopedias (Wikipedia didn't exist back then, obviously), and read that these were symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. At the same time, I also knew that Alzheimer's was an "old person disease". So I figured I was unlucky enough to get it as a child. After all, if I was afraid of a chandelier in my own home and got bullied constantly by peers far stupider than me (book-stupider), having "Alzheimer's disease" as a child didn't feel like a stretch.

So... one day, when I'm 9, I'm seeing a pediatrician or a pediatric dentist (I can't recall exactly; I'm 38 now). She asks me what's troubling me. Being a stupid, naive aspie kid, thinking she wants an honest answer, I tell her: "I have a mild form of the childhood-onset Alzheimer's Disease. I remember most textbook exercises, but I forget things I did or said earlier the same say or even minutes ago." She smiles and nods, and does the planned procedure. Again, being a stupid, naive aspie kid, I though sounding "scientific" would get her to believe me; I sincerely believed I had "childhood-onset Alzheimer's Disease". She doesn't believe me! Instead, she calls my parents after I leave, and rats me out. They yell at me that evening for "talking nonsense to a busy doctor".

Did anyone else have the same Alzheimer's-like memory problems as a child? That is, they could remember banal things from many years ago, like curtain designs in a house they stayed in when they were 3, but forgot the basic instructions their teacher gave them in that day's morning class.

I had a terrible memory when I was young...well, actually, I still do.

It was a problem in school. Couldn't remember names and dates for geography, history, etc. Couldn't remember short poems for whatever class that was.

It turns out my memory works best for things that interest me (and I don't get to choose what interests me). My Dad was really amused that I got poor grades in Spelling when the words were simple little words, but when the words got harder I got better grades.

I don't think I had memory problems as catastrophic as that, but I did struggle due to attention difficulties and not being good at containing facts that I was supposed to learn and remember for tests.

I always had a good memory….and bad social skills.

At 9, I probably wouldn’t have even spoken to the doctor.

Could be stress related. From what you've told us you didn't grow up in the most relaxed environment.

I have a friend who can't remember large chunks of his childhood. From what he's told me he seems to have disassociated a lot, zoned out, pretended to be someone else.

Another person I know forgot large portions of her childhood after a traumatic experience as a teenager.

So it may have been your body coping as best it could.

You memorized “childhood-onset Alzheimer’s.” In actuality, it might have been a concept in the 80s, but is not a concept now.

My feeling is that you had a “selective” memory…..like I sometimes do. Memory and motivation are closely-related in many people.

Yeah….I was seen as being a smartass, too.

Some of the things we attribute to poor memory may instead be poor processing. I was accused of "not listening" in school and work situations, in face to face interactions, etc. At 68 as part of my autism diagnosis I learned I only had 25th percentile visual processing and 35th percentile audio processing. This means that I can process and commit to memory very little that happens through sight or hearing in "real time". I simply can't take it in, understand it, and file it mentally (memory) for later use if I see or hear it. I remember very little about interactions with others involving spoken word or demonstrations I was supposed to watch. It is not my memory, because the information never made it to my brain to begin with. I can remember almost every detail of pictures, drawings, paintings, or things I saw over and over (pattern of wallpaper in my bedroom growing up) because I did not see them "in action" or have to listen to them and try to understand. I read and write well... and have almost perfect memory of anything that I read or write. You might find that sensory processing struggles (SPD) or similar neurological troubles are at the base of your so called "poor memory". Sending best wishes.

I began to notice something of the kind when I was about 12, and certainly memory problems were a big part of it. It also showed itself as an inability to think straight. When I began a chain of thought, I'd often have forgotten the first thought before I got much further down the chain. I felt very confused. I seemed fully able to function apart from often not being able to follow or make sense of my schoolwork, which was quite a shock after many years of good academic achievement. I also couldn't follow the plots of a many TV programs, movies and theatre plays, and I'd often blank out when I tried to read. I'd turn the writing into words in my head but I kept failing to turn those words into thoughts, so I'd get through a couple of pages and then realise I hadn't comprehended anything. If I ever did try to find out what it was, I didn't get very far, and just thought I might have some kind of brain damage. I didn't tell anybody about it, for some reason. I suppose I couldn't articulate very clearly what the trouble was, and I probably didn't think anybody would understand or believe me.

So I just soldiered on with it as best I could. I noticed that if I carefully took notes while I was reading, paraphrasing every sentence, then I could understand it a lot better, though of course it was slow. And apart from the things I've mentioned, I seemed to be functioning fairly well. I floundered rather at school, but at 16 when I was facing a lot of exams, I sealed myself off and studied the text books to catch up. It worked, and I started to feel more confident about my ability to think straight. After that the schoolwork got more complicated and demanding, but I scraped through a few more exams and vowed I'd never go back to that kind of learning. Then I got a science job and things were rather easier. Schoolwork had been too theoretical for me, and practical tasks were much more suitable for my brain. It was very helpful to have tangible, concrete goals, and I did well. A few years later I made a multi-track tape recorder, putting together circuits from components, and having got that to work, I figured there couldn't be much wrong with my brain if it could achieve something as clever as that. I got better at following books and stories, though there are still many of them I don't do well with. And I expect I'd still make a mess of learning through real-time lectures if I wasn't particularly interested in the subject and if the teacher wasn't very clear.

I don't suppose I'll ever know what it was that I labelled "brain damage." I think ASD played a big part in it. I didn't know anything about that till decades later. I suppose it's very hard for an Aspie to conveniently take an interest in a plethora of random information such as my school was dishing out to me. And the ASD-related trouble with following plots involving lots of characters, remembering names and faces etc. probably explains some of my problems there. Memory problems are also quite common with ASD. Why I had trouble thinking straight, though, I don't know. It might have been down to anxiety. Anyway, I was always capable of independent living, managed to keep the wages coming in and keep myself reasonably healthy and alive, and whatever it was is no longer a practical problem for me. I still have trouble sometimes thinking through some of my special interest projects, but that's probably because they're pretty complicated and ambitious, and I nearly always find that by repeatedly thinking about it and trying experiments, I solve whatever I've set out to solve, or know why I can't solve it.