Special Interests & Memory Problems

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My primary life-long special interest is medicinal plants. This interest is all about scientific and historical knowledge e.g. learning about the history of medicine, chemical constituents, taxonomy, ethnobotany etc. It's very academic and text heavy and I haven't immersed myself in it for a good while now which saddens me.

The reason for this is that, much as I enjoy reading texts on this subject, it really frustrates me that so much of it fails to go in. I regularly find that once I'm halfway through a book, I can no longer remember the beginning. I particularly noticed this when I read Anna Pavord's 'Searching for Order' - a fascinating book about the history of botany, taxonomy and nomenclature. I only got half-way through because I was so frustrated at finding all these amazing facts that I would rave about to my partner and then, a short while later, they're seemingly wiped from my brain! The only recollections I have a vague references to Theophrastus and his early attempts at defining the anatomy at plants. I suspect this has stuck because it created some very clear and entertaining images in my mind. However I'm not a purely visual thinker, I seem to be more verbal if anything.

Does anyone else have problems like this? Are there's strategies for dealing with it?

I'm curious about this too because it has annoyed me that I seem to forget too much. I think I have a very good short term memory but I'm not sure how good my long term memory is compared to other people.

The more connections I can make with something, the easier it is to remember. I've noticed that memory tricks like... comparing how words sound, connecting words with words that sound similar and creating a visual image, work well.

Often times, I'll think I forgot something, and then realize it was actually stored in my mind when I remember it some time later. I can remember concepts fairly well and summaries/the general idea of what I read. I guess my biggest problem is with words and how to spell words. You wouldn't know it from how I write here, but I've spent a lot of time writing essays with reasonably large vocabularies. I'll recognize most of the words if I hear them again, but most of the time they are just not in my head. At one point, I decided I'd try to learn a few new words but.. it was a complete fail. I don't remember what those words are and I doubts I'd remember their meaning.

Yeah, life long revision about subjects I read about constantly has just been a way of life to me. Both short and long term memory is horrible.

I do a lot better if I just focus on one thing but then I hardly know anything about anything else. I write noted, favourite websites and just talk about the information.

I've got the same problem. Very little seems to get absorbed. It's frustrating.

I find that I have to use my knowledge to make it stick. I'm a wilderness buff and love edible and useful plants but if I simply identify a plant in the wild I'll never remember it. So to remember it I find it helpful to study the plant, draw it, use/eat it and make a mental note of situations that I could find it useful. I've found that I can only safely add about 2 edible plants a year to my list because it can be dangerous if I'm wrong but over the years I've gotten a good little collection of info going. Every time I go into the woods I reinforce that knowledge.

I have this problem too. I think my short-term memory is not so bad, but my long-term memory is rubbish. I often felt inferior to those people who are like walking dictionaries / lexicons. These people have deep and mostly reliable knowledge in a narrow field, for example classical music, jazz, or soundtracks of films. Now I'm more accepting of my limitations, though.

The strange thing is, that when you are diagnosing someone, you automatically assume this immense deep knowledge in a narrow field, and I don't really have one...

Attention deficit, committing information to long-term memory and recalling it all can be the cause.

So I guess that raises another good question.

Although my life long interest is medicinal plants, the brain sieve issue means that the things I'm good at are in a different field entirely. E.g. I seem to be good at creating/constructing things. My family have always been amazed at the things that I can create with not much experience or only rudimentary materials. E.g., with only very basic knitting skills and no pattern, I managed to 'sculpt' a knitted hat from start to finish on a two hour train journey. The design was in complex spirals and I had no idea what I was about to make. It follows none of the usual knitting conventions. Similarly I recently learned to use Google Sketchup and picked it up really fast and have been designing and exact replica of my childhood home.

These are relatively short-term and highly changeable activities that can last from 1 hour to 3 weeks only. But each one feels like a special interest to me, often more so than the plants because I'm competent enough to achieve the classic level of absorption that should go with a special interest. But when they're so transient and numerous, they could hardly be considered narrow could they?

Do any of you have similar experiences?

Have you tried combining the topic of the special interest with the creation of something related to the topic?

I am thinking that you might retain moar moar moar about the special interest that way to become moar moar moar eggspert on the topic.

It still amazes me how many of the posts on this forum I can completely relate to!

I have the same problems with memory retention. I've been watching a lot of documentaries about space and quantum mechanics. I've watched 4 of them yesterday, and today I can only remember the general theme and a few specifics of each of the documentaies.
On the other hand, there are random memories from years ago that are as vivid as if it just happened.
It sucks!

I feel comforted by the notion that so many of you have this same problem that I do.

I have gone over so many books on my special interests. Only by re-reading and re-reading, and indeed, doing other things, like writing the information down in notebooks, making drawings, lots of field work, etc, can I retain the information on my favourite interests. I've experienced my special interests lose intensity over the past couple years, and that has really hurt my knowledge on them.

Unfortunately, I have no advice on what to do about this.

Oh how I'd love to! My biggest issue of all is names and dates in history. I can't even remember which century constitutes 'medieval' and yet it's central to understanding the history of medicine. For years now I've had this fantasy of creating a frieze around the walls of one room in my house with a timeline on it. Every time I learned a new fact I'd draw a picture a attach it to the frieze. I would have drawings of important historical figures like Plato and Galen, I would have pictures denoting the introduction of important medicines like theriac or opium, I would include different levels for each continent or civilisation. It would be beautifull!! !

Then I'd dedicate another wall to molecules and I'd allow myself to draw them on directly with big marker pens. It would be my heaven. This has been my fantasy for pneumonics for many years now, but I live in rental houses and mustn't damage the paintwork. So frustrating not to have ownership of my own nest!

Other than that, I create small temporary projects all the time all over the place. I do a lot of dyeing wool with medicinal plants so I do combine it in some ways, but those aren't the bits I struggle to remember.

I agree/relate on all you say. However, for me I wonder if my loss of focus with my primary special interest is due to the memory problems rather than the memory problems being exacerbated by the loss of focus. I find pursuing the subject frustrating if I have no objective and I'm not actually gaining or learning anything. To some extent, I've turned my subject into my career and so I deal with plants (digital dead ones) every day. However, there's little or no medicinal aspect now where once that was part of my job too. Consequently the interest has lapsed. I have no reason to research it, no goal to use the information towards before it's lost, no-one to talk to about it. It makes for a pointless exercise. I feel like I can switch it back on at any time if I want to, but I keep holding out for a point in my life when it'll be worth it again. Otherwise it's fragmented, undirected and slightly depressing.

WP solidified my self-diagnosis of ASD solely because of this. I used to post at the Aspie Hangout on delphiforums and could only relate to the other posters so much. Here, with the much larger community at WP, I'm finding out there are others that have my same "weird" patterns, feelings, stims, etc.

Memory is the same for me, I simply don't remember as much as I'd like about everything. My memory consists of some random here and there things, tons of stuff about Classical Music, and memories of people that are largely painful.