Memory

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I have a terrible memory. I like to think of it as a bunch of shifting gaps in my memory. I forget words all the time, despite being a writer. And there is just a lot of crap i can't remember. Like for instance, i live in a somewhat small town, and i couldn't remember how to get to a relatively well known location.

Is this normal in aspergers or does it just mean i'm gonna get dementia early. And for that matter, do people with aspergers have a higher likelihood of getting dementia?

I have a horrible sense of direction, and others on WP have mentioned that too, so that may be an Aspie thing.

Forgetting words--well, here's what happens with me: my thoughts on a subject are coming really fast and all of a sudden I can't think of the right word to properly describe what I'm thinking about/saying. I'm not sure if anyone else on this forum has mentioned that, though.

However, I really don't think it's a sign of early dementia. I don't think AS has anything to do with that.

yeah, that's how forgetting words is for me too. It sucks sometimes. especially if i am in any kind of debate, and or argument.

I have short term memory problems that started in my early 20's. It leveled off by my mid-20's, and hasn't gotten worse over the last 15 years. So it's not necessarily a constant downward slide into total dementia. I also tend to forget how to get places, despite having lived in the same place for about 30 years. I've seen people talk about loss of skills, but I don't know if that includes memory problems or not.

I can relate to pretty much everything said so far.

+1

It's funny my parents are use to it by now. So i'll be explaining something to them, and i'll stop midsentence, and they'll just wait for me to pick back up my thoughts again, as i stare at the floor, trying to think.


I wish more people would be so patient.

In the past my (short and long term) memory was near perfect, but in the past few years I've started to develop problems in all of the areas previously mentioned. I can't be sure if it's due to the fact that I'm no longer medicated for ADHD (which almost certainly was a misdiagnosis), or if it is due to Tramatic Brain Injury, PTSD, or possibly Asperger's/PDD-NOS (I'm fairly certain that I have one of the two, but receiving a diagnosis at this point could land me in quite a bit of trouble).

I have no memory problems other than moderate short-term memory ones. (I place a book on the kitchen table; 2 minutes later, I have no idea where it is.)

I don't know of any evidence that Aspies are more likely to get dementia. I've had memory problems all my life, but under the right conditions my entire mind works very well, as far as I can judge it. Most of my memory problems happen when other people try to enslave my mind - e.g. at school or at work in a science job. Having no natural interest in the concepts they try to push onto me, my memory just can't hold onto all the gobbledegook. Stuff that makes no sense is notoriously difficult to retain. And if the teaching environment isn't quiet and orderly, there are so many distractions and holes in the teachers' logic that I don't even hear most of it.

It's hard for me to give examples of my memory problems. My working memory seems to be in trouble - if, while thinking, I fly off at a tangent to explore a detail, then often I'll have forgotten what I was thinking of before. But I've managed to learn to resist the temptation to explore tangents to some extent, and to limit how far I immerse myself in the tangent, so that I can now often retain a glimmer of the original thought that sparked off the tangent, and thus find my way back to the original topic. Strangely, I find this easier when I'm with people, possibly because I'm very aware that going off at tangents too readily and faling to return can harm the friendship.

I get a lot of anxiety from the thought that I may have too many volatile things to hold in my head, that I'm expected to get done. I feel it's just too much for my brain to cope with and that I'm bound to drop the ball.

I think that to really test the brain of an Aspie, you'd need to eliminate all the boredom and distraction from the test scenario, and to make sure the Aspie was calm. If they still keep forgetting stuff that they're really interested in, under those conditions, then there's very likely a memory problem. Otherwise, you're probably just measuring adverse conditions.

I have no real problem with my memory except for locations (I guess I have poor spatial skills when it's not on a written test) or when I don't care about something.
I do forget words, or how to say something in one of the two languages I speak and I forget what I was saying sometimes.
Forgetting words or what one was saying before because you are digressing seems pretty normal to me so I wouldn't call that a problem of memory for example. I've seen a lot of people having this problem.

I do have troubles remember some things like birthdays, names (I called my mentor teacher "Sarah" instead of Sophie during 2 months ) , list of dates or things I have to buy but I wouldn't call that a terrible memory either because I can remember many events and conversation I had in the past that nobody seems to remember, I'm also good at remembering thing I've learnt as long as I'm interested by it though I tend to forget them when my interest disapears.

Still, I can't count as an Aspie because, though I display most of the symptoms, I haven't been diagnosed and the only things I may have according to doctors are dyspraxia (hence the spatial problem), migraines, photophobia, hypersensibility to some sounds, perhaps ADD resulting in mild dyslexia and dyscalculia and a so-called "social phobia because of my lack of social skills".

What I wanted to say is that there are people who can remember shopping list but fail to remember their past while others are the exact opposite. There is also the fact that we have different ways of remembering things. I've never been able to remember things through sentences which had nothing to do with them though most people seems to learn that way.
For example, when I was younger, we learnt the solar system (that was when Pluto was the 9th planet of the system ) and everyone used a sentence with words beginning by the first letter of the planets to remember them. I've never been able to remember these sentences but I did remember the planets.
Some people remember things better when it's written, other need to hear them or to touch them.

By the way, many people have troubles remembering things they aren't interested in and since Aspies tend to have narrow interests, it would seem pretty normal for them to have troubles remembering any other thing while they have incredible skills in their subject. (I'm not sure this sentence makes sense, I'm sorry but English isn't my native language and I tend to misuse the words).


As for the link between AS and Dementia, the question has been quickly debated here :
http://forum.alzheimers.org.uk/showthread.php?t=19479

I don't seem to find any studies about that, yet it seems that other people have noticed a link between the two.

However, in this article we can read researches on both autism and dementia and from what I've understood, they found similarities by looking at some cells. I'll let those who speak English better than I do read this because I may be wrong.
http://blisstree.com/live/vens-frontote ... _migration