does anyone here get this?? please help

[rbm]

i have anxiety, on meds, feeling...fine, i guess, but i've had something happen to me lately and it's driving me nuts !


i don't realise i'm making a mistake as soon as i've done it ! like, i said i wouldn't eat bread today.my husband was eating and i took a couple of bites and we went out.it didn't even cross my mind i shouldn't eat it ! later, when we came back, i saw the bread and realised i ate and shouldn't have.i went crazy with panic ! WHY didn't i think about it if all i did today is avoid eating it ....please tell me is it happening to you guys?? is it normal ??

[apm]

That sounds like perfectly normal forgetfulness, we all get that! Don't beat yourself up about it, no big deal. :)

[rbm]

thanks for answering, i'm not over this, i'm out of my mind questioning why i realised only later i did it wrong, not there on the spot??as soon as i stepped in the houjse and saw the bread, i replayed every moment like it happend now and i understood what went wrong...why not then?

[apm]

That's just how our brains work sometimes. We forget something, and there's a trigger from somewhere that just brings it right back. Perfectly normal. I once ate biscuits in a work meeting, having completely forgotten that it was lent, and I had meant to give them up. I only realised when I was looking back at the packet, wondering if I could have another one!

Memory is prone to failure, mine does it all the time. I have to write myself lists to make sure I don't forget anything!

[rbm]

I know it sounds like a cliche, but it has happens before and I'm truly scared I'm loosing it! I understand I can't always be aware of everything but I shoul be able to process some info the right way at the right time

I was looking at a catalogue, thinking I need a 0.5 bottle, I have one at home, I want another.i didn't realise my mistake until I got home and realised my bottle is 0.33 not 0.5! I bearly managed to breath , very bad panic attack...i know my bottle is only 0.33 but why didn.t that occured to me??then I think I have dementia or alzheimers and I'm finished

[MyNameIsTerry]

The issue isn't memory for you, it's your associations to feared psychiatric illnesses and your reaction to these events. You were obviously relaxed enough to "just do it" and it was only when you noticed that you analysed it, made the familiar associations and started to panic. This is why in CBT they work on your reaction to triggers because reacting with negatives, and especially strong negative emotions, is what the part of the brain that looks for feedback from the cognitive mind is actually looking for. Starve it with neutral reactions (or positive if you can do it) and these old thinking patterns get mothballed in favour of new or the previous healthy ones.

Remember what we said last time, Serotonin is important for memory function and anxiety/depression reduce it.

Honestly, I've walked across roads without even caring and half way across wondering what on earth I was doing and why I didn't do what I would have always done in looking both ways.

A couple of weeks ago I was having a rough time with a blip and also as a result of a large meal I found myself a bit spaced out and not with it. What happened? I went shopping, scanned all my items though the self service till & bagged them, got distracted by a lady behind me asking about something I had bought and then I paid and left the shop with my shopping.

Thats sounds normal doesn't it? Well I got across the car park and touched my jacket pocket and my wallet was missing. I checked my other pockets (a little worried as you are when you lose a wallet or purse, or think you have) and found it was in my jeans. So relief there. Then I thought "hang on, I always put it in my jeans when going to the till but when I pay I put it back in my jacket - never my jeans". I checked for a receipt and couldn't find one. So, I'm now standing on the car park trying to recall whether I even paid. Did I just not pick the receipt up though? I couldn't even remember scanning my clubcard, putting my credit card in the machine or punching the PIN in.

I hadn't paid. I had just turned around and walked off!!! There was no alarm when I left so again I had wondered whether I just couldn't remember paying. I literally can't remember at all. Surely I should be able to remember whether I didn't? But I can't, so I assumed I didn't.

That was a real off day as my head was messed up due to lack of sleep, the blip and a large potato meal and potatoes can give me some funny head sensations if I eat too many of them.

Strange eh?

Am I worried about dementia or similiar? No, not at all. Why? Because my anxiety has never been about any form of illness and if you told me I had cancer I would most likely be worrying more about getting to the treatments because of my sleep pattern or how I would be in them as opposed to worrying about death because I don't really care about death, I accepted it as natural many years ago no matter what age it comes at or why, it's just your time when it does.
But if I had HA it would be completely the opposite.

[rbm]

thank you terry, i'm on zoloft for 3 mths , i was expecting to be a little better by now. does it take longer to work or is it not working? i'm talking about serotonin and attention etc..

i'm worried that if i don't pay enough attention to what i'm doing, i'll end up doing something stupid and not realise it ! we've talked about this before, me misplacing things, it's funny how i remember putting my gloves in the kitchen drawer, but i don't understand why i did't realise the mistake then and there !! that's what scares me, i don't understand the difference between common mistakes and cognitive decline, dementia, alzheimers etc...forgetting is normal, i get that, but it doesn't seem normal to me doing thins and not realising

ps : i'm calm, i sleep at night, work is ok, home is ok, jujst can't seem to pull it together

[MyNameIsTerry]

I think the important thing to remember is that you have been accessed by a medical professional and they are well versed in evaluating cognitive decline but explained it is not something you are experiencing.

Anxiety/depression cause some of these symptoms and for that very reason they look for depression anyway.

Another thing to think about is how we are all on here. There are various people saying how they struggling with thinking straight, making decisions, remembering names or words, getting words wrong, etc. Some people worry about those symptoms, some people worry they could mean more severe mental illness and some people (like me) know it's just part of the cycle. I've had it years and if I had something more serious it would have continued to develop.

All SSRI's do is fill the gap with more Serotonin and plug the receptor sites so there are less allowing Serotonin to escape. But what if you don't have enough in the tank? Serotonin in the brain is made from L-Tryptophan. When was the last time you heard a doctor ask about whether you get enough of that? So, SSRI's are not going to be working to their full potential if your diet isn't adequate as SSRI's produce nothing, only stop it being used so quickly.

Getting L-Tryptophan means making sure you don't consumer it will other amino acids likes the Branched Chain Amino Acids (BCAA) because they compete and win hence pulling L-Tryptophan away to other processes outside of the brain. So, either take it on it's own or with carbs. Carbs reverse the direction and prevent those BCAA's winning.

How long it takes is hard to say as it;s very individual. Meds don't make you recover from anxiety anyway, they prop you up whilst you do the rest of the hard work.

I would suggest trying meditation which has a lot of benefits for the mind.

[rbm]

so you are saying i can take ssri and L-Tryptophan somewhat together ? as in food or supplements? can you point me to where i can read about this L-Tryptophan? thank you so much, your help all over the forum means a lot to me !

[MyNameIsTerry]

What I am saying is that your diet could be improved to add in more L-Tryptophan or you diet may be lacking so you are not maximising the benefits of a medication aimed at stopping your brain using it up so quickly.

It is possibly to buy them as supplements but I'm cautious of this as you need to check they don't have negative effects at certain dosages. I would suggest just having a look at L-Tryptophan foods and ensuring you are getting some/enough.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tryptophan
http://nutritiondata.self.com/foods-000079000000000000000.html

Thats ok, helping each other is what we are here so I'm just glad if anything I say can help someone.

[Carnation]

I agree with Terry.

I am always making mistakes like that.
Sometimes I go somewhere that is a regular haunt and when at my destination, think; 'What am I doing here? I didn't want to come here today'.
Or step in the road with not looking both ways.
And only last week, I left my credit card in a shop and I have not done that in my Life!

I also forget to eat what I have planned to have for dinner. I decide in the morning and then I go to the kitchen, thinking what shall I have? :doh:
It applies to nearly everything in my Life at the moment.
I make notes on my phone and forget to look at them!
So, now we have a blackboard in the kitchen; if I remember to look at it.

Although it is the memory, I know my memory is generally good. I either overload my thoughts or go about in a dream state. :ohmy:

Terry, I eat loads of potatoes and I mean loads! Maybe I should try something different to see how it affects my Anxiety. :shrug:

[MyNameIsTerry]

My memory has always been good. In my work I used to be well known for remembering numerical data and the text descriptions for literally hundreds of data items. I did a lot of more obscure work in the industry, and only the very technical stuff, and I could remember things from years back that others couldn't and needed to look to the papers/manuals to understand them. I've always been like that. My brother was even better and used to memorise years of football fixtures...somehow!

Someone will tell me something is for me when there are two identical things and I will often pick up the one I see first without thinking twice.

Something I have quite badly suffered with is something they call the "autopilot" in Mindfulness. I have been like that a long time, existing in routines, because thats a lot of what we do. My weeks were get up, get ready, go to work, come home, get ready for bed, repeat. The weekends became a real struggle when my anxiety hit and I managed to get back to work as I had come to depend on my autopilot which is a form of avoidance. I would need to put my works clothes out the night before because between getting up and leaving the house it was all like I was a robot. I often joked that if I hung a dress on the bedroom door where I would hang my suit, I would have been out of the door and down the road before I even realised. :roflmao:

But my work was the opposite of this, far from robotic and there was no chance of switching off into autopilot with that as it was too technical and varied.

Carnation - I just know when I have certain meals, it can give me strange pressure in my head or make me feel a bit floaty. Potatoes seem to do this as does cheese sometimes.

---------- Post added at 06:04 ---------- Previous post was at 04:49 ----------

I'll add another one on...the amount of times I posted for the word association game on the Games board when it has been the last letter/first letter game. :roflmao:

[rbm]

hi everyone, i've been reading about tryptophan and food etc, but it says i can't take it with ssri, am i wrong? given my attention problem :weep:

forgeting something or letting my mind wonder is something that normal people do too, i understand , but i seem to find it unacceptable to not realise i've done a mistake only later.one time, i found the tv remote in my purse, got no idea how it got there.but i remember eating that bread and not even it crossing my mind that i'm not suppose to eat it !that's my problem .i don't know wether or not i was fully aware of that moment happening and it's killing me little by little to think that it's a sign of .. you know..i can't write it anymore:doh:

[debs71]

I forget things all of the time. Have to retrace my steps, rack my brain to recall something, etc.

This is a symptom of an anxious, tired brain.

I think that the thing about getting frustrated or angry with yourself or finding it unacceptable is also intolerance that comes with the whole anxiety package too.

Many of us do the same thing and feel the same way. It is just another of the joys of an anxiety disorder. :wacko:

[rbm]

hi again...i had a bad day today...the sky fell down on me...couple of days ago i wanted to buy something , made mental math and today i realise i was wrong ! same old problem ! i'm shaking thinking this is the end of me being lucid, i can't understand why i didn't realise my mistake then and there, it's simple mental math...i remember the price and what i calculated is wrong, but i missed it ! please help, i'm going mad !