What causes amnesia?
General Causes
General reasons for forgetfulness.
Causes can be many, genetic, or acquired in life.
Certain drugs like antidepressants, muscle relaxants, sleeping medicine, tranquilizers, and pain medication. And alcohol can cause short-term amnesia if used excessively. Smoking harms memory by reducing oxygen that can get to the brain. Insomnia. Depression, anxiety. Head injury. Stroke. Lack of ”B” vitamins. Cancer or cancer treatments. Aging — normal deterioration process.
Amnesia is also known as memory loss or unusual forgetfulness. Difficulty remembering new ideas or events from the past. These are short-term memory loss and long-term memory loss.
Other possible causes.
Laziness, environment, chemicals and toxins and the food we eat, the area we live in, people around us, our interest in knowledge, other bad habits, magnetic fields and radiation, pollution, and many other factors that affect us as human beings, also, affect how we think and how we remember. Even, if we have a low mood, blood pressure can drop and bring less blood to the brain and reduce brain function as a result.
Stress and bad habits or any decline in general health can leave a “footprint” on our memory.
Causes of short-term amnesia.
Can be psychological nature, like stress or a big tragedy, the condition can amplify if psychological trauma is long-lasting.
Also, memory loss has been noticed in some cases of patients with high temperature, during fever. Head injury.
Hypermnesia
Hypermnesia is when people with psychological trauma history remember specific events in greater detail.
Traumas or Concussion
Traumas can cause short-term amnesia as well as long-term amnesia. A memory loss could be a specific period in time, called the ‘’blackout’’. In the case of trauma, a period before the trauma or after trauma could be a ‘’blackout’’. Mostly these memory losses combine and periods could be from a few minutes up to a few weeks.
None serious ‘’blackouts’’ would be forgetting someone’s name or a place in the morning and remembering it later. In such cases, there is no need to be alarmed.
Causes of long-term amnesia.
If an individual has organic central nervous system diseases or genetic factors. Then memory loss is mostly irreversible. At the beginning of long-term amnesia, a person can not make a decision at the time it needs to be made, whereas a person can come up with their answers later. At this stage, it is hard to retain and remember the information.
In old age, people tend to get progressive amnesia or mild aging, which may not necessarily be dementia but the first signs of it.
It could be impossible to learn new things and remember them. And gradually current knowledge disappears. The strongest memories last longer, as less important ones disappear first.
What is dementia?
Due to general deterioration of the body and health. Dementia illness is reducing brain cells and every individual is affected differently depending on brain area damage.
Symptoms.
Symptoms of dementia include memory loss, communication problems, changes in personality, and loss of ability. A healthy person would forget something but would be aware that they have forgotten it. But, a dementia sufferer is not able to register that he had forgotten it. With dementia, it is more than everyday forgetfulness that we all experience. It reflects a genuine loss or confusion, a person is, maybe, not able to recognize their own glasses. The suffering people may not recall anything from a recent event, yet remember small details from the distant past. The sufferer may have difficulty understanding or being understood. Words and word order can become jumbled and incoherent.
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Small memory loss.
Small memory losses are commonly known in middle age people, like forgetting little things. Usually doesn’t affect the ability to work. Functional memory loss or forgetfulness is very often the result of tiredness or depression. Which could be remedied with rest and a good healthy diet and lifestyle. If memory loss has increased it usually is compensated by accuracy and writing things down and putting things in the same place. Thus you remedy your own forgetfulness.
Seizures of Epilepsy.
Seizures of Epilepsy can cause amnesia. It could be linked to psychological trauma. Amnesia could happen after an epileptic seizure over 2 minutes.
Hippocampus.
The area in the brain.
Hippocampus is a part of the brain responsible for memories. Toxins and lack of oxygen can disturb its functionality. Hippocampus is crucial for learning new things and storing information.
Symptoms of amnesia:
Memory loss.
Confusion.
Wierd questioning of known facts.
Unable to recognize familiar faces.
Misplacing the everyday items
Other causes of amnesia.
Thyroid gland issues. Illegal drugs. Some infections.
When to see the doctor?
Usually, it is hard to recognize the problem within the selves, usually, the family is the one who detects the problem
The best time to see the doctor is when memory loss interferes with your daily life routine. The doctor should be able to tell you the causes and the adequate treatment for memory loss.
How to prevent memory loss.
Getting a good night’s sleep, getting a balanced diet, exercise, healthy social life, and cognitive activities for the brain because it is like a muscle it needs to be trained. You can play chess or do crosswords. Use a good helmet when doing sports to prevent head trauma.
Going to church and talking to friends could remedy memory loss related to psychological trauma. Avoid bad habits like smoking, drinking, or watching too much TV and gaming.
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Why do we forget childhood?
We only remember the most significant moments from our childhood. But, the insignificant memories are replaced with the most recent significant ones. For, example, if in early childhood to a couple-month-old baby, someone, shows great love, what was very important to that child, he could remember it throughout his life.
Geniuses.
Why do some people remember all in great detail — geniuses? They are people who have genetically increased neuron activity. It is kind of looking at someone who has more RAM in the computer. They process information and remember quicker all the stored information. It is someone who has extreme intelligence.
What happens with brain cells when we forget?
Brain cells die and new ones are formed it’s a continuous process. The brain eliminates old cells by itself to clear the way for new cells. The brain completes its development at the age of 25.
Cognitive psychologist Oliver Hardt of the McGill University of Montreal, Canada believes that forgetting is designed to be a normal function of the brain, for a brain to function better it needs to forget. Important memory that is constantly remembered could become permanent memory. And can be stored in the cortex for a long time.
Some researchers have conducted experiments that confirmed that dopamine is linked to forgetfulness, the more of it then forgetful someone becomes, the less of it remembering increases.
Elizabeth Loftus's decay theory.
A memory trace of the previous memory is created every time a new memory is formed. Over time, these memory traces begin to fade and later disappear. If the information is not retrieved and rehearsed, it will eventually be lost. So, to keep important memories have pictures that remind you of them and often indulge in the past and that should help to keep them longer.
If you take time and commit to memorizing something then you have a greater chance of remembering it. There are different kinds of memory training techniques and games you can try.
Ways to Boost your brainpower.
Brainstorming. You can think of what you want to achieve with your next goals in life. It doesn’t matter what you are trying to do, big or small jobs. Focus on small increment tasks at the time. The best way to brainstorm your ideas is on the whiteboard, then you can visualize and draw a quick sketch of the vision on the board and ad text and arrows which help to see what sequence follows what. There are good brainstorming tools and installations out there, but the best out of them is your brain. You don’t need any tools or things to brainstorm. Close your eyes and focus.
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Deep breathing and relaxation.
For our minds to work we need to understand that the brain also needs rest. We constantly think of something and researchers say when we sleep our brains are even more active than when we are awake. The only time we rest our minds is through meditation or prayer. Deep diaphragmal breathing will help to increase the oxygen flow to the brain.
Do this relaxing meditational exercise.
Take a comfortable lotus meditational position or you can simply stand or sit. It is advisable, but not mandatory that you do this outside in the early hours of the morning or late at night, basically, when there is less pollution in the air. Close your eyes have a comfortable straight position of your spine and put your shoulders back. Breathe in through the nose and out of the mouth. Take long, slow comfortable breaths, and ventilate the depths of your lungs. Imagine that it is like ocean waves, slow long deep breaths. Do this for 15 minutes. It also has a list of other beneficial effects on your body.
Importance of exercise in brain activity.
The importance of exercise in brain function is very crucial. Exercise increases blood flow and the development of new blood cells it stimulates the growth of the brain. Improves brain activity and mood, and sleep, and reduces stress.
Exercise will slow down cognitive deterioration, which usually comes with old age like dementia.
Improves resistance and prevents diseases.
Walking and running would be recommended in this instance.
Brain games.
Chess is the most popular game, known for thousands of years.
Game of Go and Sudoku are good Chinese mind-stimulating games and Uno, dominoes, and Scrabble could be played with all family, it is good to use a Collins Oxford English dictionary with it and you can learn new words also.
You can check a list of great memory games here: https://human-memory.net/guide/best-memory-board-games/