home→Suspensions→ I read the texts, but I don't understand anything. Why and what to do about it? Lost in themselves: people fall victim to a strange amnesia Children forget faster

I read the texts, but I don't understand anything. Why and what to do about it? Lost in themselves: people fall victim to a strange amnesia Children forget faster

Have you ever forgotten something? Couldn't remember someone's name, password, event, or even a word? For sure, yes. But what did you do in such a situation? What they were doing? Let's talk about how to remember what you forgot.

We will offer you several not only simple, but also effective ways to solve this problem, and also tell you why such annoying misunderstandings happen to us. We will also touch on how to develop your memory and even attention.

Why do we forget certain things?

Before we talk about how to remember what we forgot, we will analyze the main reasons for our forgetfulness. There are a lot of options why we now and then forget any information, important or not. We will highlight the main ones.

The first, most common reason is insufficient concentration.

Remember how often you can't remember where you put your keys, phone, notepads, even things. In most cases, you forget where you put the thing if you are in a hurry somewhere or you are distracted, if you are in a hurry and think only about how not to be late, you feel bad, etc. That is, one of the reasons for forgetfulness is absent-mindedness.

The second reason, no less common, is that you consider the information not important or unnecessary. In this case, you do not want to remember it on a subconscious level. The reason may also be the complexity of the information itself.

The third option that we will highlight is poor memory. Agree, not all people can remember large amounts of information for a long time, whatever it may be. So, after some time, it will be erased from memory. It can also be noted here that over time, memory weakens, and a person increasingly begins to forget what he knew.

In order to memorize as much information as possible and not forget it, you need to constantly train your memory. How to do this, we will talk with you later.

In addition, it happens that we ourselves want to forget this or that incident, words, names, knowledge.

Remembering forgotten information

So, before talking about how to remember where you put the thing (and this is the most common of the problems), let's try to figure out how to remember any information that surrounds us.

How to remember forgotten information? For example, you studied the material for a year, then repeated it before passing the exam, but when the time came to answer, you completely forgot everything. What to do in such a situation? Try to remember. To do this, do the following.

First of all, remember exactly how you learned this material - sitting at a book, making notes, listening to the teacher. Try to reproduce this moment in your head as accurately as possible. In most cases, this technique helps to remember the forgotten.

Looking for a missing item

What to do if you forgot where you left the necessary and important thing? How do you remember exactly where you put it? Let's talk about how to remember where you put the thing.

First of all, try to remember where you usually put this item, where you leave it. For example, if they are keys, try to remember what you did after you opened the apartment door and went inside. If it is a phone, remember with whom and what you talked about on it, where exactly, and it is quite possible that soon you will understand where you put it.

Remembering passwords

What to do if you forgot your password? For example, we have had such a misfortune that we do not know how to remember the WiFi password. What to do?

In this case, you also need to properly strain your memory. First of all, remember what exactly you put on passwords - numbers, letters or words. Next, we try to remember which ciphers you often use. Try to sort out the most likely options. Besides, quite effective method- remember what you were thinking at the moment when you registered, what you were doing. If you recall those minutes in your memory, then it is likely that you will remember him.

But what if you forgot and don't know how to remember your login? In this case, you just need to remember what you like, what or who you associate yourself with. Indeed, often the login is our nicknames, nicknames, what we call ourselves.

"Where did we meet?"

It happens that you see a person on the street and you can’t remember where you saw him. How to remember who it is and what is its name? How to remember a person, especially an unfamiliar one?

First of all, you need to strain your memory and try to remember exactly where you saw him. What places are associated with it? This will make it possible to remember exactly where you met him.

Next, we try to determine what associations you have with the name of this person. It happens that it is associated with a particular action, event, color, etc. In addition, you can enumerate all the letters of the alphabet. It is quite possible that in this way you will remember which of them the name of the person begins with, and then remember it completely.

We remember the past

The most necessary, but difficult skill is to remember the past. Quite often it happens that you want to recall some moment in your life - childhood or youth, to resurrect this or that event, celebration, meeting in your memory. How to act in such a case, how to remember the past?

First of all, try to evoke in your head at least distant images related to the event you need. Then start slowly pulling on each of the strings, remembering what happened before or after this episode, what exactly caused these or those actions, words.

It is immediately worth noting that it is far from always possible to recall the past in this way, especially what happened in childhood. In this case, you need to seek the help of a psychologist and undergo a hypnosis session. In this situation, this is the most effective way to reliably reproduce the events that occurred in memory.

Remember the forgotten word

It happens in our life and such that we forget this or that word. Just a couple of minutes ago it was spinning on our tongue, and now we cannot pronounce it. What to do in such a situation? Naturally, try to remember, although there are other options for solving this problem. So, let's talk about how to remember a word.

First of all, it can be replaced with a synonym. Of course, if the given word is a term or a name, then this option will not suit you. In this case, we are trying to collect our thoughts and try to remember at least part of it, the sound associations that this concept evokes in you.

Another option is to simply forget about this word, do not dwell on remembering it, and in a couple of minutes it will definitely appear in your head.

We train memory

So, we figured out how to remember what you forgot. Now let's talk about how we develop our memory.

Of course, the most important thing, so that there are no problems with remembering certain things, you should definitely train your memory. To do this, we recommend to your attention a few simple, but quite effective exercises.

Surely you have heard that nothing trains memory so well as memorizing poems or even passages of text. Be sure to try to memorize at least a couple of lines from a variety of books every day. At the same time, it is desirable to pay attention to large texts, completely memorizing them. So, taking any story, learn a paragraph every day, and do not forget to repeat what you have already learned.

The second simple exercise is to replay the events of the day in your head every night at night. So, going to bed, remember how your day began, then step by step approach the night. Alternatively, you can rewind events in reverse order. It will also be a good exercise for the brain.

And finally, one more exercise for the development of memory and attention. Surely you are often on the street - go to study, work, just walk. With such a pastime, you can also develop some qualities. To do this, it is enough just to memorize the numbers of passing cars and perform various mathematical operations on them. In this case, you will never have a question about how to remember your WiFi password or your login.

conclusions

We all face such a problem as memory lapses. This is quite understandable, because we are far from always focused on obtaining this or that information, not always our brain can quickly remember this or that word, phrase, action, and we don’t want to remember some things at all.

In fact, remembering the forgotten is quite easy and simple, if you follow the recommendations we have given. In addition, if you need to restore rather serious and necessary events in your memory, you can always turn to the help of a specialist. As you can see, answer the question: "How to remember what you forgot?" - not so difficult.

The state when you remember nothing after an immoderate libation of alcohol causes shame and self-loathing. This problem is not uncommon: those who systematically consume alcohol in large doses suffer from memory lapses. Manifestations of sudden amnesia after drinking should cause alertness, since they signal not only the presence of alcoholism, but also its progression.

Features and types of condition

The mechanism of development of amnesia that occurs against the background of the use of alcoholic beverages is the toxic effect of ethanol on nerve cells. Memory loss occurs when the cerebral cortex, which controls behavior, thinking, concentration and the ability to remember past events, is damaged.

There are several types of alcohol amnesia:

narcotic;
lacunar;
total.

Narcotic amnesia is a state of unconsciousness associated with severe intoxication, which occurs due to the intake of large doses of alcohol. Usually, a complete loss of consciousness of an event refers to the final period of intoxication before the onset of narcotic sleep. This type of alcohol amnesia can develop in both addicts and healthy people.

Lacunar amnesia (alcoholic palimpsests) is a partial loss of memory that occurs as a result of excessive drinking. A person cannot remember individual episodes of the period of intoxication, but is able to restore the general course of events in memory. This type of unconsciousness is observed in the 1st and 2nd stages of alcoholism.

Total amnesia is characterized by loss of memory of all or almost all events accompanied by alcohol intake. Moreover, the occurrence of this type of alcoholic oblivion can occur when using both large and small doses of alcoholic beverages. Complete loss of memory during drunkenness is characteristic of the 3rd stage of alcoholism.

Why memory disappears

Alcohol has a bad effect on all organs, tissues and cells of the body. But first of all, neurons suffer from it - brain cells responsible for thinking, memory and intelligence.

The toxic effect of ethanol extends to all parts of the main organ of the nervous system. The hippocampus also experiences it - the part of the brain that controls the consolidation of memory, that is, its transition from short-term to long-term. Memory lapses are formed due to alcohol damage to his tissues.

Thanks to the hippocampus, the perception and memorization of the surrounding space occurs (spatial memory). The need to take into account external reference points determines the behavior of a person at any moment of his life. That is why, with alcohol damage to this part of the brain, palimpsests occur, caused by the physiological impossibility of remembering current events. Long-term memory usually remains unchanged.

With alcohol intoxication, memory loss can occur at a psychological level. This state is explained by the experiences of a person that he experiences in the morning after drinking. Shame for your yesterday's adventures, guilt before the people around you and fear for the consequences of your inadequate actions are so strong that there is a partial loss of memory.

The brain is deprived of memories associated with those events that most traumatize a person. This protective property of the body "turns on" regardless of the will of the patient. Psychological factors that put pressure on the nervous system are excluded from the chain of memories.

The amount of ethanol that can cause different types of amnesia depends on the degree alcohol addiction. A person who is not addicted to alcohol may lose his memory only for the duration of the stun or narcotic sleep. This happens if he drank more than usual. After awakening, the events of the previous day are remembered clearly until the moment when the victim fell into a dream.

Alcoholic palimpsests are the first "bell" signaling that dependence on alcohol is becoming pathological. At first, the causes of palimpsests are a strong excess of the dose, but over time, less and less alcohol is needed for their occurrence.

How to remember what happened

Friends or unwitting witnesses of the drunken adventures of an unlucky drunkard will help to remember the episodes that have fallen out of memory. This is the only efficient way to restore the sequence of events if the memory refuses to return. In those cases when a person has forgotten his yesterday's adventures due to psychotraumatic factors, the picture can be clarified with the help of a hypnosis session performed by a specialist.

Methods of treatment for alcoholic amnesia are reduced to the complete rejection of alcohol and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. It is important to understand that it will no longer be possible to return the memory, but you can prevent its repeated failures by becoming a teetotaler. In the absence of willpower, seeking help from a narcologist is mandatory. Based on the results of the examination, the doctor will prescribe the necessary medications:

B vitamins in injections and tablets;
nootropic drugs;
neuroleptics;
tranquilizers;
antidepressants;

The main measures to prevent memory loss after alcohol are awareness of the problem and the desire to get rid of the painful symptoms of drunken oblivion. The unsuccessful restoration of the events of yesterday is a formidable symptom, indicating the presence or progression of alcoholism. Therefore, the prevention of the state of intoxication should become the norm of life under any circumstances.

Dangerous Consequences

At first, episodes of partial loss of memories after alcohol abuse may not be perceived as symptoms of developing alcoholism. But their progression can lead to unpredictable consequences.

In a drunken stupor, you can do a lot of trouble, causing harm to yourself and others. Serious crimes are often committed in a state of amnesia, and in the morning the offender does not remember the events of the past day and refuses to believe in what he has done.

Being in unconsciousness, it is easy to become a victim of swindlers, robbers, and rapists yourself. Quite often, the victims cannot recognize the perpetrator by sight, because they do not remember any of his characteristic features.

In a state of alcoholic oblivion, it is impossible to control the dose of alcoholic beverages. This can lead to severe toxicity and even death.

When memory disappears when drinking alcohol, it sooner or later affects the reputation. There are problems at work, in the family, in relationships with friends. People shun a person with inappropriate behavior.

Partial memory loss after a friendly feast is not an occasion for jokes, but a serious illness that requires willpower or the help of a narcologist. It is necessary to realize that the state of “I don’t remember anything” should remain in the past, giving way to “I am always in my right mind and memory”. This is the only way to save health, family, work and reputation.

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My clients often complain about the deterioration of thinking, attention and memory, noticing that they have problems with reading: “I can’t concentrate at all. I read and understand that my head is empty - there are no traces of what I read.

People who are prone to anxiety suffer the most from this. They again and again catch themselves thinking: “I read something, but I didn’t understand anything”, “I seem to understand everything, but I didn’t remember anything”, “I found that I couldn’t finish reading an article or book, despite all my efforts.” Secretly, they fear that these are manifestations of some terrible mental illness.

Standard pathopsychological tests, as a rule, do not confirm these fears. Everything is in order with thinking, memory and attention, but for some reason the texts are not assimilated. Then what's the matter?

The trap of "clip thinking"

The American sociologist Alvin Toffler, in his book The Third Wave, suggested the emergence of "clip thinking". Modern man receives much more information than his ancestors. In order to somehow cope with this avalanche, he tries to snatch the essence of information. Such an essence is difficult to analyze - it flickers like frames in a music video, and therefore is absorbed in the form of small fragments.

As a result, a person perceives the world as a kaleidoscope of disparate facts and ideas. This increases the amount of information consumed, but worsens the quality of its processing. The ability to analyze and synthesize gradually decreases.

Clip thinking is associated with a person's need for novelty. Readers want to quickly get to the point and move on in search of interesting information. Search turns from a means into a goal: we scroll and leaf through - sites, social media feeds, instant messengers - somewhere there is “more interesting”. We get distracted by exciting headlines, navigate through links and forget why we opened the laptop.

Almost all modern people are subject to clip thinking and a senseless search for new information.

Reading long texts and books is difficult - it requires effort and focus. So it's not surprising that we prefer exciting quests to quests that give us new pieces of the puzzle that we're unable to put together. The result is wasted time, a feeling of an "empty" head, and the ability to read long texts, like any unused skill, deteriorates.

One way or another, almost all modern people who have access to telecommunications are subject to clip thinking and a senseless search for new information. But there is another point that affects the understanding of the text - its quality.

What are we reading?

Let's remember what people read some thirty years ago. Textbooks, newspapers, books, some translated literature. Publishing houses and newspapers were state-owned, so professional editors and proofreaders worked on each text.

Now we mostly read books from private publishers, articles and blogs on online portals, posts on social networks. Major websites and publishers are making efforts to make the text easy to read, but in social networks, each person received his "five minutes of fame." A heartbreaking Facebook post can be replicated thousands of times along with all the mistakes.

We do the work of editing: discarding "verbal garbage", reading into questionable conclusions

Of course not! We are trying to break through to the meaning through the difficulties that arise when reading texts written by non-professionals. We get stuck in mistakes, we fall into the gaps of logic. In fact, we begin to do the editing work for the author: we “exfoliate” the unnecessary, discard the “verbal garbage”, read the dubious conclusions. No wonder we get so tired. Instead of getting the right information, we re-read the text for a long time, trying to catch its essence. This is very labor intensive.

We make a series of attempts to understand low-grade text and give up, wasting time and effort. We are disappointed and worried about our health.

What to do

Do not rush to blame yourself if you did not understand the text. Remember that your difficulties with the assimilation of the text may arise not only because of the "clip thinking" and the availability of searching for new information, inherent in modern man. This is largely due to the low quality of the texts.
Don't read anything. Filter the feed. Choose resources carefully - try to read articles in major online and print publications that pay editors and proofreaders.
When reading translated literature, remember that there is a translator between you and the author, who can also make mistakes and work poorly with the text.
Read fiction, especially Russian classics. Take from the shelf, for example, the novel "Dubrovsky" by Pushkin to test your reading ability. Good literature is still read easily and with pleasure.

Why don't you remember anything after drinking? This is a question people often ask themselves after an active feast. The question often sounds ironic, but in fact there is little funny here. The problem of alcoholic amnesia is a rather complex tangle of physiological and psychological processes.

The problem of memory loss is not always a symptom of alcoholism. But the question of why you don’t remember anything after drinking should alert you, and you should listen to it to prevent the development of alcoholism. After all, it is not at all because of idle curiosity that high-ranking scientists are looking for the answer to this question.

Features of alcoholic amnesia

If a person is puzzled by the question of why he does not remember anything after drinking, then he has undergone alcoholic amnesia, which is a partial loss of memory about a separate period related to increased alcohol consumption. It is conditionally possible to distinguish three types of such amnesia:

An alcoholic palimpsest is an inability to recall individual episodes of events, while the overall picture remains in memory. This type of forgetfulness is characteristic of almost all people who are prone to alcohol abuse, but can also occur in a person who has consumed excess alcohol for the first time.
Alcoholic drug amnesia is characterized by loss of memory about a sufficiently large period of time that has elapsed after the onset of drug intoxication due to excess alcohol. This kind of amnesia is found in all alcoholics, but it can occur in a beginner with a very large dose of alcohol.
Total type amnesia is defined as the loss of memory of the entire period of drinking. This phenomenon can already be considered as a sign of stage 3 alcoholism, if a memory failure occurs after taking the first portion of alcohol.

Causes of memory loss

For a correct analysis of the causes of memory loss after drinking, one should consider the factors that cause the development of alcoholic amnesia.

One of the main determining factors is the amount of alcohol consumed. Increasing the dose of alcohol causes an increased effect on a person's brain function, which, accordingly, increases the likelihood of memory loss. It should be taken into account that each person has his own threshold of intoxication, and therefore the concept of an excessive dose is individual. In addition, under the influence of this factor, it is necessary to take into account the gender, age, alcohol "experience" of a person.

The strength of the alcoholic drink and its quality have a noticeable effect on the manifestation of forgetfulness after drinking. Naturally, the fortress has a directly proportional effect on amnesia. In addition, it is necessary to take into account the mixing of different types of alcohol. The cumulative nature of incompatible alcoholic beverages has long been known, a cocktail of which leads to rapid intoxication and the risk of alcoholic palimpsest.

The question of why a person does not remember anything after a party can also arise in the case when alcohol began to flow into an empty stomach. If a person has not eaten anything before drinking alcohol and during drinking, then the dose that causes amnesia is significantly reduced due to the fact that alcohol is quickly absorbed into the blood, forming ethanol. The process can be catalyzed by drinking alcoholic beverages after or with other drugs, usually medicines different type. Most of the drug substances are not compatible with alcohol, which causes an appropriate reaction of the body, accelerating the process of memory loss.

Finally, the condition of the body is essential in possible alcoholic amnesia: ill health, trauma (especially of the head), fatigue from large physical activity. A person's susceptibility to lowering the threshold for forgetfulness has also been noted if alcohol is taken after psychological stress.

The mechanism of alcoholic memory loss is still not fully understood, but most researchers recognize the following pathogenesis. Ethanol, produced by the penetration of alcohol-containing substances into the blood, does not destroy cells in the brain areas, but significantly changes their functioning for some time. It has the maximum effect on the area of the limbic system in the cerebral temporal regions - the hippocampus. This region forms instant memory and memories, which, in the process of consolidation, transform memory from a short-term type to a long-term type.

Ethanol, reaching the neurons of such a system, blocks some centers, disrupting signal transmission channels along the synapse chain. The information received from the sense organs does not get into the memory storage. At the same time, neurons stimulate steroids, which block the fixation of information, leading to the cessation of the formation of memories. Such a process manifests itself when certain conditions are reached, and after that further developments are no longer fixed by the cerebral cortex. There is a gap in memory, which, depending on the influencing factors, can last from a few seconds to several hours. Precisely because the events are no longer recorded, they cannot be restored in memory with any treatment.

Psychological factors

The main mechanism of alcoholic amnesia is the physiological processes occurring in the cerebral cortex.

But the psychological impact should also be taken into account. A person who has taken an excessive dose of alcohol the day before experiences fear and guilt during a terrible hangover syndrome. The human body turns on its reflexive functions in order to reduce emotional overload and blocks the zones responsible for negative memories through the psyche, causing a secondary barrier for their formation. Thus, a double obstacle is formed for the emergence of unpleasant memories.

Of course, the psyche of any person is purely individual in nature, and, despite the fact that the nervous system automatically minimizes dangerous factors, and ethanol affects brain cells, memory loss does not always occur. This is understood by many surrounding people, expressing distrust of the forgetfulness of a person after a stormy booze. Therefore, in the case when a sober person really does not remember anything, an increased psychological burden falls on him. In such a situation, memory cannot be restored, but psychological assistance is necessary.

Progression of amnesia

Unfortunately, alcohol amnesia tends to progress with continued alcohol abuse. The first palimpsest may come unexpectedly after the first excess of the norm, cause some remorse, but not stop further sprees.

If the first memory lapses concerned only small episodes, then gradually forgetfulness covers more and more long periods and occurs with the use of a smaller dose of alcohol.

A person is already psychologically ready for such phenomena and perceives them without unnecessary emotional stress, as a small adventure. However, in fact, the frequent manifestations of amnesia and its development into a narcotic form indicate the manifestation of the first signs of alcoholism (stage 1).

A person, at least once faced with alcoholic forgetfulness, should be alert and take measures to prevent such a phenomenon.

Subsequent manifestations of it can lead to a narcological dispensary. Moreover, in the future it will be added psychological factor when witnesses talk about forgotten incidents. Such compulsive memories often lead to new uses of alcohol, and sometimes to binge drinking.

Thanks for the feedback

Comments

Megan92 () 2 weeks ago

Has anyone managed to save her husband from alcoholism? Mine drinks without drying up, I don’t know what to do ((I thought of getting a divorce, but I don’t want to leave the child without a father, and I feel sorry for my husband, he’s a great person when he doesn’t drink

Daria () 2 weeks ago

I have already tried so many things and only after reading this article, I managed to wean my husband from alcohol, now he doesn’t drink at all, even on holidays.

Megan92 () 13 days ago

Daria () 12 days ago

Megan92, so I wrote in my first comment) I will duplicate it just in case - link to article.

Sonya 10 days ago

Isn't this a divorce? Why sell online?

Yulek26 (Tver) 10 days ago

Sonya, what country do you live in? They sell on the Internet, because shops and pharmacies set their markup brutal. In addition, payment is only after receipt, that is, they first looked, checked and only then paid. And now everything is sold on the Internet - from clothes to TVs and furniture.

Editorial response 10 days ago

Sonya, hello. This drug for the treatment of alcohol dependence is indeed not sold through the pharmacy chain and retail stores in order to avoid overpricing. Currently, you can only order official website. Be healthy!

Sonya 10 days ago

Sorry, I didn't notice at first the information about the cash on delivery. Then everything is in order for sure, if the payment is upon receipt.

Margo (Ulyanovsk) 8 days ago

Has anyone tried folk methods to get rid of alcoholism? My father drinks, I can not influence him in any way ((

Andrey () A week ago

What only folk remedies I haven’t tried it, my father-in-law both drank and drinks

Ekaterina a week ago

Memory is an important function of our central nervous system to perceive the information received and store it in some invisible "cells" of the brain in reserve in order to retrieve and use it in the future. Memory is one of the most important abilities of a person’s mental activity, therefore the slightest violation of memory burdens him, he gets out of the usual rhythm of life, suffering himself and annoying those around him.

Memory impairment is most often perceived as one of the many clinical manifestations of some kind of neuropsychic or neurological pathology, although in other cases forgetfulness, absent-mindedness and poor memory are the only signs of a disease that no one pays attention to, believing that a person is such by nature. .

The big mystery is human memory

Memory is a complex process that takes place in the central nervous system and involving the perception, accumulation, retention and reproduction of information received in different periods of time. Most of all, we think about the properties of our memory when we need to learn something new. The result of all the efforts made in the learning process depends on how someone manages to hook, hold, perceive what they see, hear or read, which is important when choosing a profession. From the point of view of biology, memory is short-term and long-term.

Information received in a glimpse or, as they say, “it flew in one ear, flew out of the other” is a short-term memory in which what is seen and heard is postponed for several minutes, but, as a rule, without meaning and content. So, the episode flashed by and disappeared. Short-term memory does not promise anything in advance, which is probably good, because otherwise a person would have to store all the information that he does not need at all.

However, with certain efforts of a person, information that has fallen into the zone of short-term memory, if you keep your eyes on it or listen and delve into it, will go to long-term storage. This also happens against the will of a person, if some episodes are often repeated, have a special emotional significance, or occupy a separate place among other phenomena for various reasons.

Assessing their memory, some people claim that they have a short-term memory, because everything is remembered, assimilated, retold in a couple of days, and then just as quickly forgotten. This often happens when preparing for exams, when information is put aside only for the purpose of reproducing it to decorate a grade book. It should be noted that in such cases, turning back to this topic when it becomes interesting, a person can easily restore seemingly lost knowledge. It is one thing to know and forget, and another to not receive information. And here everything is simple - the acquired knowledge without much human effort was transformed into departments of long-term memory.

Long-term memory analyzes, structures, creates volume and purposefully postpones everything for future use indefinitely. Everything is kept in long-term memory. Memorization mechanisms are very complex, but we are so used to them that we perceive them as natural and simple things. However, we note that for the successful implementation of the learning process, in addition to memory, it is important to have attention, that is, to be able to concentrate on the right subjects.

It is common for a person to forget past events after a while, if they do not periodically extract their knowledge in order to use them, therefore, the inability to remember something is not always to be attributed to memory impairment. Each of us has experienced the feeling when "it is spinning in the head, but does not come to mind", but this does not mean that serious disorders have occurred in the memory.

Why do memory lapses happen?

The causes of impaired memory and attention in adults and children may be different. If a child with congenital mental retardation immediately has learning problems, then he will already come to adulthood with these disorders. Children and adults can react differently to the environment: the child's psyche is more tender, so it takes stress harder. In addition, adults have long studied what the child is still trying to master.

Sadly, the trend towards the use of alcoholic beverages and drugs by adolescents, and even by young children left unattended by their parents, has become frightening: cases of poisoning are not so rarely recorded in the reports of law enforcement agencies and medical institutions. But for the child's brain, alcohol is the strongest poison that has an extremely negative effect on memory.

True, some pathological conditions that often cause absent-mindedness and poor memory in adults are usually excluded in children (Alzheimer's disease, atherosclerosis, osteochondrosis).

Causes of memory impairment in children

Thus, the causes of impaired memory and attention in children can be considered:

Lack of vitamins,;
Asthenia;
Frequent viral infections;
Traumatic brain injury;
Stressful situations (dysfunctional family, despotism of parents, problems in the team that the child attends);
Poor eyesight;
Mental disorder;
Poisoning, alcohol and drug use;
Congenital pathology, in which mental retardation is programmed (Down's syndrome, etc.) or other (whatever) conditions (lack of vitamins or trace elements, the use of certain drugs, changes in metabolic processes that are not for the better) that contribute to the formation of attention deficit disorder, which, As you know, memory does not improve.

Causes of problems in adults

In adults, the cause of poor memory, absent-mindedness and inability to concentrate for a long time are various diseases acquired in the course of life:

Stress, psycho-emotional stress, chronic fatigue both souls and bodies;
Acute and chronic;
Discirculatory;
cervical spine;
Traumatic brain injury;
Metabolic disorders;
Hormonal imbalance;
GM tumors;
Mental disorders (depression, schizophrenia and many others).

Of course, anemia of various origins, lack of trace elements, diabetes and other numerous somatic pathologies lead to impaired memory and attention, contribute to the appearance of forgetfulness and absent-mindedness.

What are the types of memory disorders? Among them are dysmnesia(hypermnesia, hypomnesia, amnesia) - changes in memory itself, and paramnesia- distortion of memories, to which the patient's personal fantasies are added. By the way, some of them, on the contrary, are considered by others to be rather a phenomenal memory than its violation. True, experts may have a slightly different opinion on this matter.

Dysmnesia

Phenomenal memory or mental disorder?

Hypermnesia- with such a violation, people remember and perceive quickly, information set aside many years ago for no reason pops up in memory, “rolls”, returns to the past, which does not always cause positive emotions. A person himself does not know why he needs to keep everything in his head, however, he can reproduce some long-past events to the smallest detail. For example, an elderly person can easily describe in detail (up to the teacher’s clothes) individual lessons at school, retell the lithmontage of the pioneer collection, it is not difficult for him to remember other details related to studying at the institute, professional activity or family events.

Hypermnesia, present in a healthy person in the absence of other clinical manifestations, is not considered a disease, rather, on the contrary, this is exactly the case when they talk about phenomenal memory, although from the point of view of psychology, phenomenal memory is a slightly different phenomenon. People with this phenomenon are able to memorize and reproduce huge amounts of information that is not connected with any special meaning. These can be large numbers, sets of individual words, lists of objects, notes. Such a memory is often possessed by great writers, musicians, mathematicians and people of other professions that require genius abilities. Meanwhile, hypermnesia in a healthy person who does not belong to the cohort of geniuses, but has a high intelligence quotient (IQ), is not such a rare occurrence.

As one of the symptoms of pathological conditions, memory impairment in the form of hypermnesia occurs:

With paroxysmal mental disorders ah (epilepsy);
With intoxication with psychoactive substances (psychotropic drugs, narcotic drugs);
In the case of hypomania - a condition similar to mania, but not up to it in terms of the severity of the course. Patients may experience a surge of energy, increased vitality, and ability to work. With hypomania, a violation of memory and attention is often combined (disinhibition, instability, inability to concentrate).

It is obvious that only a specialist can understand such subtleties, distinguish between the norm and pathology. Most of us are average representatives of the human population, to whom "nothing human is alien", but at the same time they do not turn the world upside down. From time to time (not every year and not in every locality) geniuses appear, they are not always immediately noticeable, because often such individuals are considered simply eccentrics. And, finally, (perhaps not often?) among the various pathological conditions there are mental illnesses that require correction and complex treatment.

bad memory

Hypomnesia- this type is usually expressed in two words: "bad memory."

Forgetfulness, absent-mindedness and poor memory are observed with asthenic syndrome, which, in addition to memory problems, is also characterized by other symptoms:

Increased fatigue.
Nervousness, irritability with or without it, bad mood.
Meteorological dependence.
during the day and insomnia at night.
BP drops, .
Tides and others.
, weakness.

Asthenic syndrome, as a rule, forms another pathology, for example:

Arterial hypertension.
Postponed traumatic brain injury (TBI).
atherosclerotic process.
The initial stage of schizophrenia.

The cause of impaired memory and attention according to the type of hypomnesia can be various depressive states (you can’t count everyone), climacteric syndrome flowing with adjustment disorder, organic lesions brain (severe TBI, epilepsy, tumors). In such situations, as a rule, in addition to hypomnesia, the symptoms listed above are also present.

"I remember here - I don't remember here"

At amnesia not the whole memory falls out, but its individual fragments. As an example of this type of amnesia, one would like to recall the film by Alexander Gray "Gentlemen of Fortune" - "I remember here - I don't remember here."

However, not all amnesias look like in the famous motion picture, there are more serious cases when memory is lost significantly and for a long time or forever, therefore, several types of such memory impairments (amnesia) are distinguished:

A special type of memory loss that cannot be managed is progressive amnesia, representing a sequential loss of memory from the present to the past. The reason for the destruction of memory in such cases is organic atrophy of the brain, which occurs during Alzheimer's disease And . Such patients poorly reproduce traces of memory (speech disorders), for example, they forget the names of household items that they use daily (plate, chair, clock), but at the same time they know what they are intended for (amnestic aphasia). In other cases, the patient simply does not recognize the thing (sensory aphasia) or does not know what it is for (semantic aphasia). However, one should not confuse the habits of “radical” owners to find a use for everything that is in the house, even if it is intended for completely different purposes (you can make a beautiful dish or stand out of a used kitchen clock in the form of a plate).

This is what you need to figure out!

Paramnesia (distortion of memories) also referred to as memory disorders, and among them are the following types:

Confabulation, in which fragments of one’s own memory disappear, and their place is taken by stories invented by the patient and presented to them “in all seriousness”, since he himself believes in what he is talking about. Patients talk about their exploits, unprecedented achievements in life and work, and even sometimes about crimes.
pseudo-reminiscence- the replacement of one memory with another event that actually took place in the patient's life, only at a completely different time and under different circumstances (Korsakov's syndrome).
Cryptomnesia when patients, having received information from various sources (books, movies, stories of other people), pass it off as events they experienced. In a word, sick in effect pathological changes go to involuntary plagiarism, which is characteristic of delusional ideas found in organic disorders.
Echomnesia- a person feels (quite sincerely) that this event has already happened to him (or did he see it in a dream?). Of course, such thoughts sometimes visit a healthy person, but the difference is that patients attach special significance to such phenomena (“go in cycles”), while healthy people simply quickly forget about it.
Polympsest– this symptom exists in two versions: short-term memory lapses associated with pathological alcohol intoxication (episodes of the past day are confused with long-past events), and the combination of two different events of the same period of time, in the end, the patient himself does not know what really happened .

As a rule, these symptoms in pathological conditions are accompanied by other clinical manifestations, therefore, having noticed signs of “déjà vu” in oneself, there is no need to rush to make a diagnosis - this happens in healthy people too.

Decreased concentration affects memory

To violations of memory and attention, the loss of the ability to focus on specific objects include the following pathological conditions:

Attention instability- a person is constantly distracted, jumping from one subject to another (disinhibition syndrome in children, hypomania, hebephrenia - a mental disorder that develops as a form of schizophrenia in adolescence);
Rigidity (slow switching) from one topic to another - this symptom is very typical for epilepsy (those who communicated with such people know that the patient is constantly “stuck”, which makes it difficult to conduct a dialogue);
Lack of concentration- they say about such people: “That’s what a distracted one from Basseinaya Street!”, That is, absent-mindedness and poor memory in such cases are often perceived as features of temperament and behavior, which, in principle, often corresponds to reality.

Undoubtedly a decrease in concentration of attention, in particular, will adversely affect the entire process of memorizing and storing information, that is, on the state of memory as a whole.

Children forget faster

As for children, all these gross, permanent memory impairments, characteristic of adults and, especially, the elderly, are very rarely noted in childhood. Memory problems that occur due to congenital features require correction and, with a skillful approach (as far as possible), may recede a little. There are many cases when the efforts of parents and teachers literally worked wonders for Down syndrome and other types of congenital mental retardation, but here the approach is individual and dependent on different circumstances.

Another thing is if the baby was born healthy, and the problems appeared as a result of the troubles suffered. So here a child can expect a slightly different reaction to different situations:

Amnesia in children in most cases, it manifests itself as memory lapses in relation to individual memories of episodes that took place during the period of clouding of consciousness associated with unpleasant events (poisoning, coma, trauma) - it is not in vain that they say that children quickly forget;
Alcoholization of adolescence also proceeds differently than in adults - the absence of memories ( polympsests) on events occurring during intoxication, appears already in the first stages of drunkenness, without waiting for a diagnosis (alcoholism);
retrograde amnesia in children, as a rule, it affects a short period of time before an injury or illness, and its severity is not as clear as in adults, that is, memory loss in a child can not always be noticed.

Most often in children and adolescents there is a memory impairment of the type of dysmnesia, which is manifested by a weakening of the ability to remember, store (retention) and reproduce (reproduction) the information received. Disorders of this type are more noticeable in school-age children, as they affect school performance, adaptation in a team, and behavior in everyday life.

Toddlers attending nurseries preschool institutions, symptoms of dysmnesia are problems with memorizing rhymes, songs, children cannot participate in children's matinees and holidays. Despite the fact that Kindergarten the kid visits constantly, every time he comes there, he cannot find his own locker to change clothes, among other items (toys, clothes, towels) it is difficult for him to find his own. Dysmnestic disorders are also noticeable at home: the child cannot tell what happened in the garden, forgets the names of other children, each time he reads fairy tales he perceives as if he hears them for the first time, he does not remember the names of the main characters.

Transient disturbances of memory and attention, along with fatigue, drowsiness and all sorts of autonomic disorders, are often observed in schoolchildren with various etiologies.

Before treatment

Before treating the symptoms of memory impairment, it is necessary to make a correct diagnosis and find out what causes the patient's problems. To do this, you need to get as much information about his health:

What diseases does he suffer from? Perhaps it will be possible to trace the connection between the existing pathology (or transferred in the past) with the deterioration of intellectual abilities;
Does he have a pathology that directly leads to memory impairment: dementia, cerebrovascular insufficiency, TBI (history), chronic alcoholism, drug disorders?
What medications does the patient take and is memory impairment related to the use of medications? Certain groups of pharmaceuticals, such as benzodiazepines, including side effects have a similar kind of violations, which, however, are reversible.

In addition, in the process of diagnostic search, it can be very useful to identify metabolic disorders, hormonal imbalance, deficiency of trace elements and vitamins.

In most cases, when looking for the causes of memory impairment, they resort to methods neuroimaging(CT, MRI, EEG, PET, etc.), which help to detect a brain tumor or hydrocephalus and, at the same time, to differentiate a vascular brain lesion from a degenerative one.

The need for neuroimaging methods also arises because memory impairment at first may be the only symptom of a serious pathology. Unfortunately, the greatest difficulties in diagnosis are depressive conditions, forcing in other cases to prescribe a trial antidepressant treatment (to find out if there is depression or not).

Treatment and correction

The normal aging process itself involves some decline in intellectual abilities: forgetfulness appears, memorization is not so easy, concentration of attention drops, especially if the neck is “squeezed” or pressure rises, however, such symptoms do not significantly affect the quality of life and behavior in everyday life. Older people who adequately assess their age learn to remind themselves (and quickly remember) about current affairs.

In addition, many do not neglect pharmaceutical treatment to improve memory.

Now there are a number of drugs that can improve brain function and even help with tasks that require significant intellectual effort. First of all, these are (piracetam, phezam, vinpocetine, cerebrolysin, cinnarizine, etc.).

Nootropics are indicated for elderly people who have certain age-related problems that are not yet noticeable to others. Preparations of this group are suitable for improving memory in case of violation cerebral circulation caused by others pathological conditions brain and vascular system. By the way, many of these drugs are successfully used in pediatric practice.

However, nootropics are a symptomatic treatment, and in order to obtain the proper effect, one must strive for an etiotropic one.

As for Alzheimer's disease, tumors, mental disorders, here the approach to treatment should be very specific - depending on the pathological changes and the reasons that led to them. There is no single prescription for all cases, so there is nothing to advise patients. You just need to contact a doctor, who, perhaps, before prescribing drugs to improve memory, will send for an additional examination.

Difficult in adults and the correction of disorders of mental activity. Patients with poor memory, under the supervision of an instructor, memorize verses, solve crossword puzzles, practice solving logical problems, however, training, bringing some success (the severity of mnestic disorders seems to have decreased), still do not give particularly significant results.

Correction of memory and attention in children, in addition to treatment with the help of various groups of pharmaceuticals, provides for classes with a psychologist, exercises for the development of memory (poems, drawings, tasks). Of course, the children's psyche is more mobile and better amenable to correction, unlike the adult psyche. Children have the prospect of progressive development, while in older people only the opposite effect progresses.