Okay my memory/processing is complete CRAP. Is this normal?

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For instance, when I read a book I'll finish a page and then try and recall what I just read. I'm also a slow reader, I read maybe 15 pages an hour. I can actually read pretty fast but I feel like the information isn't really sinking in so I read passages over again.

Same thing with conversation..I'll feel like what people are telling me isn't really sinking into my brain, it just bounces off of it without time to really absorb. It really is a big problem of mine and I'm wondering what the possible causes are so I can explore treatment.

I speculate that it's a problem of attention. Is your mind wandering a lot? Do you have ADHD or similar? I've found that concentration meditation practice has helped me a lot.

My brother is diagnosed with ADHD and I show all of the symptoms as well, but I didn't think it could effect social interaction as badly as it does. My mind goes everywhere to the point where my internal voice in my head sometimes blocks out external sound. Then someone calls my name and can't get my attention unless they yell it, haha.

Also I feel like my short term memory is horrible. If someone says something I'll forget it almost as soon as we continue conversating. Then I feel like a walking contradiction because I'm a big believer in listening to people talk at least as much as I talk. And as much as I listen, I can't remember what they told me 30 seconds ago hahaha. It's like every conversation I start with someone is "fresh" because I'll forget what we talked about last time we talked.

It is extremely frustrating/anxiety provoking.

I came to my problems in the order of Asperger's then ADHD. ADHD can be very detrimental to your ability to be social. If you can't make your mind settle on listening to someone speak, then what are they gonna think? And listening is fine, but if the brain can't do anything with what it's heard, it's pointless.

http://www.wildmind.org/blogs/news/mind ... in-8-weeks

Or you could see if your doctor's got any Ritalin or something for you, I'm sure they can arrange something.

Meditation is wonderful for your brain, but I gave up after a week because I can never completely quiet my mind for more than two minutes. I just felt like progress was not going to happen. That, and sitting still for 30 minutes was extremely difficult. Makes me wonder if I should have started out in smaller increments. Do you meditate?

Yes I meditate, I swear by it. I recommend 10-15 minute sessions for beginners. Don't bite off more than you can chew, small steps that get you there are better than huge steps that you fail to make.

The way I explain it, is to think of your ability to focus as like a muscle. A person with ADHD will have very weak attentional muscles. When you move your attention away from distractions to your meditation object, that's doing the practice.

Exampe: You have mind on the breath... mind on breath... mind on breath... thinking about having a sandwich... thinking about what's on TV later... Now! You recognise that your mind isn't with the breath anymore, bring your mind to the breath, and perhaps empty those thoughts out, or let them stay in the background. If you do that, then that's perfect execution of a purely concentration meditation for the purpose of building concentrative power.

In daily life, you will find you can do this too. But instead of breath, you're paying attention to someone talking... someone talking... someone talking... thinking about the sound of the air conditioner... back to someone talking.

I hope these examples help.

Yeah, short term memory bad, can hardly follow conversations.

Meditation doesn't work for everyone. Those tips seem helpful. But if you have the H in ADHD it's going to be very hard to concentrate on anything for even 5 minutes.

My memory is so bad my co-workers thought I smoked marijuana like fiend when I got home from work. Everytime I forgot something someone would say "Why don't ya smoke somemore weed Cheech?" Its how I got the nickname the Dope at work.

My short-term memory when I was young was ok, but in my 20's it got a lot worse (enough to be a diagnosable problem). The most obvious/noticeable effect was in my ability to read -- by the time I'd read page 2, page 1 was already gone, so it became hard to follow books. At the worst point, I couldn't remember an entire sentence before starting to forget it, and my internal thoughts would tend to slip away before I was done thinking them. And, of course. that made conversation even more 'challenging' than it already was.

There is neuropsych testing that can detect that (and/or other problems), though it can be expensive if your insurance won't cover it.

My short-term memory is bad enough for my mom to have brought it up to my psychiatrist. He says it is because I only pay attention to details involving my interests, and everything else is so boring to me that I don't bother to remember it. That sounds about right.

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If you have petit/absence/TLE/complex partial and so on, ADHD Inattentive, central auditory processing disorder (CAPD), a brain injury, sports concussion, (etc.), it's completely normal. Occasionally (not always), the right medicine can temporarily improve (for several hours or so) small aspects of memory/processing (not a cure). The most likely medicine which will do this is a central nervous system stimulant - alerting agent (examples: coffee, caffeine compounds, Ritalin, Dexedrine, Adderall, and so on)(no cures at all). Meds do not work for everyone. Meds are not cures. Meds have limitations. Words: Paying attention, processing, memory - short term memory/medium term memory/long term memory - sequencing, attention span, letter span, digit span, sustained attention, etc.

I have a similar memory problem as eatingcereal, and after I began smoking weed on a daily basis, my memory and processing was absolutely a wreck. I'm starting to do better, but geez...

This thread has been helpful to me, though, 'cause I wasn't sure what the hell was wrong with me either.

Medication for ADHD can help with memory problems. It worked for me.

I'm not claiming meditation is easy, for anyone. I guess all I can do is point to the benefits, show people how it's done as best as I can, and then it's up to the individual to decide whether they want it enough.

I believe meditation can work for everyone. The problem I see when people say it doesn't work is that they have a faulty instruction, or don't understand the instruction, or a particular instruction doesn't work for that individual, or they give up because it seems too hard, or it's not rewarding quickly enough.

There's always drugs, which are much easier, but they have downsides.

http://www.project-meditation.org/bom/d ... h_add.html

OK let me get this straight. I have attention problems, it makes it hard for me to study if it's not interesting, my mind also wanders when I'm trying to sleep and on other occasions. You're saying that the first thing to do is focusing my mind on something(like in your example, the breath) and do this for 15 mins each day? This is the first step towards getting more concentration? How long should I practice this, what's the next step and in which other ways will this help me?

I'm wondering if I'll be able to see results with this simple method or if I will have to switch to a more special method in the time that comes.

One last thing, I tried doing it by concentrating on my breath, the problem is I can concentrate on my breath and still have other thoughts in my head. Would a visual image help me more?

Last edited by kruger4 on 30 Jan 2011, 5:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Yeah that makes total sense and I will definitely try to begin meditating again. There is numerous evidence that it can change brain function.

Also, I recently started the medication Strattera for my ADHD so hopefully it ends up helping with my ADHD/anxiety problems. I hear it takes a few weeks to kick in, so we will see. Thanks for the suggestions.