Memory problems

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I am always forgetting things! I will read my lessons forschool over ad over about 3 times in one day and by the time I get to the answering questions part of the lesson I have already forgotten all of hat I had just read. I will learn math one day and the very next day I will do the same lesson again and ty tdo it myself but I always need to be retaught my math becaue I had forgotten it all! And some times when I get a good idea I have to repeete it ovr and over agian until I get paper so I can write it down. There has even been ties were I will wake up, go back to bed and foget to go to school. Whats my problem? Why cant I rember any thing?

Try eating spinach?

I seriously don't have anything else to suggest.

My theory is you aren't terribly interested in them. Do you have your own interests that you can remember word for word, or thereabouts?

Math has never stayed in my head unless I keep using it each day. It's very hard to keep trigonometry in your head if you are an unemployed writer with ADHD. It also bores me to tears. I like explosions and the history of the atom bomb. And explosions.

But I know a lot about Star Trek, Stargate, the history of the internet, Area 51, beginning to know a lot about the CIA, and astronomy.
It's no wonder other things slip out of my mind.

Maybe medication? (only if necessary) Do you exercise regularly? What else do you eat, besides spinach? Healthy diet may help.

Depressive state can cause those symptoms, too, even a mild form of it.

Are your medications causing this? Thats always a good place to start

Ginkgo Biloba dressing over oily fish...eggs...vitamin E Omegas....

Brain fog is associated with CFS and a toxic overload in the body.... maybe see a specialist like cellular medicine or a homeopath

Google 'memory exercises'

Try to figure out exactly where the problem is occuring. There are several parts to memory.

First part is sensory memory. This is a very brief 'echo' of what you've just seen or heard. For example, close your eyes and picture what you were just looking at - that's sensory memory. This memory fades very quickly, so if you see something and don't pay attention to it (thereby not sending it on to other memory systems) you'll forget it almost immediately.

Second part is short term memory, also called working memory. This is how you hold something in your mind as you process it. For example, if someone says 'what's 2 + 2?' then you hold the question in mind with short term memory while you answer it. Most people can hold around 7 'chunks' in short term memory - these chunks can be larger if what you're remembering has meaning to you. A lot of memory training programs basically teach you strategies to make bigger chunks. Short term memory fades within a few minutes, although you can refresh it by repeating the information to yourself (this is called the phonological loop, and lasts until you get distracted).

Third part is long-term memory. This kind of memory is permanent. There are three types of long term memory - episodic, semantic and procedural. Episodic memory is memory for events, like your 18th birthday. Semantic memory is memory for facts, like that a cat is an animal. Procedural memory is memory for activities, such as how to ride a bike or drive a car. Barring brain damage, it's impossible to forget a long-term memory, but you can be unable to retrieve it at a given moment. It's like having a messy room where you can't find the specific thing you're looking for.

You could also have trouble not with a specific memory system, but with transferring from one to another. For example, the famous case of HM, an epileptic guy who had his hippocampus and part of his amygdala removed to cure his epilepsy. It worked, but he became unable to transfer from short to long term memory, which means he can no longer create new long term memories. However, he has short-term memory, which means for example that you can ask him a question and he'll answer it (but two minutes later have no memory of the question or his answer). And his existing long term memories are intact, so he can tell you about things that happened before his surgery.