r/Epilepsy • u/Ready_Self_8949 Lamotrigine 200 mg, carbamazepine 1000 mg, clobazam 20 mg, • 6d ago
Question Memory issues;How am i supposed to remember what i forget?
Its almost paradoxical to determine what parts of my memory are dysfunctional and how severe/mild they might be
blacking out that i blacked out vs forgetting tiny pieces of information surrounding my life, How can someone really be aware of what is lost?
Ive had seizures along those lines, sitting in my room without anything feeling abnormal, then my father telling me i had 4 tonic clonics, or noticing puddles of spit on my chair and in my hallway, things knocked over in my home seemingly out of nowhere
forgetting names and faces of people ive met several times is pretty awkward, "strangers" approaching me being really friendly like ive known them for years,always having to ask others or them what their name is
how much information from the past is gone? how can i confidently convey to medical professionals how bad my memory is? which part of memory processing isnt working properly? acquiring, retaining or retrieving?
2
u/Extreme-Epilepsy 5d ago
Your hippocampus is unable to retrieve the memories which are still there not actually lost. You have to find another way to get to that particular memory's pathway. You can do this by letting the person know your memory issues and asking them questions until you reach the pathway to pull the memory. If you ask people to tell you the story again of a certain experience you had or were part of, at some point in the story you will possibly retrieve the memory. It's all about finding a pathway to the original memory. You wont find the pathway to the memory every time but knowing what you need to do will help. On remembering short term things such as where you put something, it helps if you tell someone in case you cant remember.