Posted by IsoM on April 14, 2002, at 19:28:22
In reply to Effexor and memory ... any advice?, posted by doug12 on April 13, 2002, at 13:37:14
Doug, I can't speak about Effexor (it makes me VERY anorexic) but do know that I have the fluidity of thoughts that you've mentioned. My problem is the thoughts are so fluid that they can slip through before I can hold them long enough to explore. As they slip past, they're gone - no amount of concentration will bring them back. In fact, the harder I try, the more thoroughly they're gone. I liken it to trying to hold on to wet, slippery soap - the tighter the grasp, the farther the soap will shoot from your hand.
For me, depression, untreated, makes my thought processes feel like they're occuring in molasses, slow & labored & everything sort of sticks together into one useless mess. I have ADHD & have always said my working RAM is too small. My mental HD is huge & can hold much (when depression's properly treated) but what good does it do me, at times, when I'm trying to reason out something & my mind keeps dumping some of the thoughts as I wrestle with new ones? It's not like older memories are dumped. It's a string of ideas while working out a concept - the first part of the string's dumped as it grows longer. Sometimes, I feel like I can only keep 3-4 ideas going. Makes it very difficult working out concepts, math especially, until I become thoroughly familiar with it.
ADs do not make it worse (for me) but you may have found the reason for your change to "where there used to be a transparent fluid of many thoughts - conscious and semiconscious" is from an AD - I'm not sure. But an AD helps me control the impulsiveness of ADHD (my actions aren't impulsive, but my thoughts definitely are). The control of quick, flashing thoughts may be partly an effect of how ADs work on you.
I've found adrafinil (Olmifon) is helpful for me to keep the fluidity going without losing as much as I did without it. My working RAM isn't increased so much as dropped thoughts are much easier to grab on to before they're gone. Provigil (modafinil) is one metabolite of adrafinil, so is just as effective, if not better, from what I've read.
poster:IsoM
thread:102963
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020408/msgs/103069.html