Cognitive issues-what are yours?

Hope all are keeping warm.

My cognitive problems are very subtle. I have noticed recently that I struggle to remember recent things, like what I was doing last weekend. Its there but it doesn’t come instantly. Bit frustrating! Just wondering what kind of things others get?

It is so tricky, when one is a lady of a certain age, to figure out what it MS cognitive issues as what is the kind of stuff one’s non-MS peer are troubled with too. Personally, I try to put it down to having been 40+ for quite a little while where this is remotely plausible. The thing that alarms me most is that I get more readily fixated on a particular explanation or solution to something, where before I would have been much harder to convince, and more inclined to look for other, perhaps contradictory, evidence before coming to a view. Becoming a rigid-minded old battle-axe, in other words.

Alison

x

Sorry, Eski - I did not mean to imply that you were old too. You might be 18, for all I know! See what I mean about becoming fixated on an idea for no good reason?

A

x

No offence but I am in my 20s so can’t be an age thing for me! You don’t strike me as a rigid-minded battle ax- your message was very reflective.

1 Like

Aw, thanks for that, Eski!

A

x

[quote=“Rebecca85”]
I have various cognitive problems, my GP seems inclined to put it down to depression so I haven’t spoken to my neuro about it. I often forget things that have just happened.
.
.
I know that both the memory and the word finding problems can occur in healthy people, but it’s the number of times it happens that bothers me! For the record, I’m 26. [/quote]

From the sound of it, Rebecca, your GP does not know the difference between a condition and a symptom. My opinion would be that you need a Clinical Psychologist, or a Psychiatrist, to decide if you are clinically depressed - not a GP.
There is some evidence that Depression (as a condition) can influence long-term memory - but the jury is still out on that one.

If, however, you have short-term memory problems, that could lead to a lowering of your general mood - and you could be said to be depressed, rather than having depression.

For the record, I am nearly three time your age, and it is tempting to put my memory problems down to age. However, it is nearly three years since I left a University environment, so it could just as easily be down to the reduction in mental stimulation. Recently, I undertook to prepare a lecture for my local Camera Club. I have months to do this, but it is forcing me to think in terms of the logic and flow of a lecture. The memory has not been so bad since I started. Sounds like the “use it or lose it” thing.

As for forgetting what one is writing in mid-sentence: rattle it all down and edit it afterward. I have to do this anyway, as I make far too many typos - it can be a bit dis-heartening (I nearly said depressing) to watch a finger descend on totally the wrong key - and be unable to stop it.

Geoff

It’s the ‘old story for me’ - I can ‘forget’ what I had for tea last night but I can remember things that I did 45/50 years ago (at school) - DON’T WORRY ABOUT IT (I don’t).

Marcus.

It’s the ‘old story for me’ - I can ‘forget’ what I had for tea last night but I can remember things that I did 45/50 years ago (at school) - DON’T WORRY ABOUT IT (I don’t).

Marcus.

I’m watching BBC 1, I switch over to BBC 2 and I can’t remember what I’ve just been watching. I can remember what I was watching 30 minutes ago but not what I was watching a few seconds ago!

Must add I’m not in the first flush of youth

Problem solving is my problem - I used to have a quick and agile mind but now it’s sloooowwww.

I find that I sit and look at something for a while before the grey cells finally kick in to gear (well kick sounds too dynamic it’s probably more accurate to say slither in )

And as for remembering things - don’t get me started on that one.

Jane

Hmmm,

Mine are quite subtle, and a lot of the time I can’t tell if it’s the MS or fatigue. The latter still caused by MS, of course, but I mean I can’t tell, sometimes, if there’s actual “damage”, or if I’m just getting too exhausted to think straight.

Sometimes I start to spell things phonetically, even when it’s not difficult words, and I am - or should be - well aware of how to spell them.

The same with reading. Sometimes I get a mental block with a common word. For example, reading “curtain” as “curTAIN”, as if it were a verb (like “retain”), and then wondering what does it mean to “curTAIN” something, and why does the sentence not make sense? Then I go: “Oh yeah, of course! It must be CURTain. Duh!”

Exactly the same with my watch. Once or twice, I’ve looked at the face, and it was as if I had no idea how to read a watch, and had never learnt to tell the time at all. Only very briefly - probably for less than a second before it all fell into place. But just for that instant, the face of the watch was completely incomprehensible to me, as if I didn’t know what one was.

Another strange thing I do is forget where the light switches are - in a house I’ve lived for over 20 years! I have more than once caught myself feeling for a light switch in a place there has never, EVER been one. It’s not even that there used to be, and I’ve momentarily forgotten. Whether I’m remembering a different house altogether (the one where I grew up?) I can’t say.

Tina

Tina, you have pretty much summed up my cognitive problems there. Is hard explaining to people that these problems are due to MS as i know they happen to everyone now and again. I think people who don’t know me just think i am quite eccentric which i don’t mind. I do dress like a bit of a nutcase so that probably doesn’t help either.

Had to resign from my day job and am thinking of throwing myself into academia which is a little daunting due to these cognitive problems but as i used to work in a University and have seen how lazy half the students are i think i am gonna kick their asses regardless.

Kate

Tina, you have pretty much summed up my cognitive problems there. Is hard explaining to people that these problems are due to MS as i know they happen to everyone now and again. I think people who don’t know me just think i am quite eccentric which i don’t mind. I do dress like a bit of a nutcase so that probably doesn’t help either.

Had to resign from my day job and am thinking of throwing myself into academia which is a little daunting due to these cognitive problems but as i used to work in a University and have seen how lazy half the students are i think i am gonna kick their asses regardless.

Kate

Hi

Mine is not being able to get the word out mid sentence what I am thinking of.

Also, I have never had a problem with spelling (I was always the person asked when someone was unsure), but now I really have to concentrate and sometimes I just cannot work it out, so frustrating.

Take care

Pam

Hi Eski, I am undiagnosed but some of my symptoms are cognitive issues.

I get some of the same as some of the other posts, especially the reading issues like Anitra wrote about when you read the word with the wrong sounding and cant work out what it means.

I have the usual mis saying of words, saying wrong words, forgetting words, and losing track mid sentence.

Another peculiar cognitive problem I have which doesn’t seem to be apparent in any of the other answers above is that I have trouble with facial recognition. I used to work in a nursery and when the children left to go to their parents and I was ‘on the door’ I would look at the parents, know they were a parent, but just unable to recall their child to match up to them, even if they had been coming a long time. I used to bluff my way through for a time and look down the register until a childs name clicked and then call them. But I did manage to send the wrong child out once and lots of times called the wrong child but the parent corrected me before the child went through the gate. By the way, I called the wrong child back as soon as I realised and no harm was done!

I very often dont recognise people I bump into who obviously know me! There are a couple of women at my slimming group who seem to really ‘know’ me who I just don’t recognise as friends or aquaintances but they look very familiar!

Cathy

Hi there Like skippysprite I can forget a word mid sentence - for some reason it is usually the noun that I miss. No matter how much I wait/ struggle it won’t come until I relax or someone fills it in. Really every day words for me - umbrella, kettle etc. I also can’t rely on my spelling anymore - thank God for spell check. Haven’t discussed with doc as I just have to think it’s not worth stressing about or it might depress me/give me depression - see, I can still read! Rebecca85, my gran used to call me by every other family name before she got to mine and that included the dogs. My mum has started to do the same! I’m sure it gives you character! I’m only 36 and reading this with my face about an inch from the screen as I’m having some form of optical relapse- first one ever. Have got steroids and I think they’re working, Mark

A lot of this sounds like my life tbh! Recall of facts etc has never been good but new things this last 6 months are:

Not finding words I want. Can be incoherent when tired. Typing/spelling mistakes when I have always been perfect. Finding random odd numbers in wrong places when doing sudoko (sounds a silly thing but it is frustrating and confusing knowing I did it without knowing). Same as Rebecca re children’s names at school- wrong name out of mouth despite knowing them for ages.

Who knows what’s age or MS for us post 40s generations but all I know is these have only happened to me recently at same time as worsened physical symptoms and it’s very frustrating and embarrassing.

x

I’ll be 37 this week - serious problem with forgetting words - I know the shape of the word and I know other words that mean the same (can’t remember the word for that, want to say mnemonic, but I don’t think that’s the right word), but the actual word just escapes me entirely until maybe an hour after it was relevant. Also got a problem with remembering people’s names, mostly people on tv, but sometimes people I’ve known for years, I can be looking straight at them and not know their name, it’s a bit embarrassing, but I’m good at being dim when I feel like it, so can cover up the word/name issues with ditzy Luisa, haha

Luisa x

Interesting subject. I frequently have to stop mid sentance as it feels like “my brain needs to catc up” :slight_smile:

catch up… see. lol

Ann x