Posted by Zellie on January 12, 2004, at 13:23:23
In reply to Re: Am I the only one here that likes Effexor?, posted by kattay on January 12, 2004, at 9:07:48
Your question made me laugh right out loud (lol), because I can never remember anything! In addition to GAD and Depression, I have ADHD. My thoughts flit so quickly, that I can't remember things often from one minute to the next. I head downstairs to do the laundry, notice something that needs to be attended to, which then causes me to go off on a tangent, and the laundry never does get my attention.
On Saturday, I was de-cluttering under my kitchen sink, and needed to go downstairs for something. When I was down there, I saw something else I'd meant to bring upstairs, so I brought it up to the living room. To make a long story short, one-and-a-half hours later, I had rearranged all of the furniture in the living room, before returning to the kitchen to see that all the cleaning stuff from under the sink was still all over the counter! Side-tracked, forgetful...I live in a constant state of it.
Because it can get quite embarrassing when I forget what I just said 10 seconds ago, I have learning to just be up front about my bad memory with people. I apologize, ask them what I had just said, and carry on from there. I used to try to hide my bad memory, and the anxiety it caused me sent me into panic attacks. I have learned that I am just not slick. So I don't try to look like I am any more. That way, it's odd, but by acknowledging it to other people, I am no longer anxious about it. The more anxious I had gotten about it before, the less room there was in my brain to remember things!
I utilize a lot of different strategies now, to help keep my bad memory from getting me into too much trouble. I send myself e-mails, I use post-it notes the minute I think of something I'll need to remember later, I always have a pen and paper to write things down, I use Microsoft Outlook to list tasks on the computer that I need to do....all these things help to jog my memory, since it is most unreliable!
If the Effexor has made it worse, I haven't noticed. I did notice that when I started on Wellbutrin which I also take, I would forget things from one second to the next a lot. It stopped happening after about 2 weeks, so now I'm back to my usual 10 second memory!
Hopefully this side-effect will stop for you soon. In the meantime, try not to sweat it, because if you do, you may deplete whatever remaining memory resources you may have because of the anxiety over it.
I was going to add something else, too, but I've forgotten what (just kidding)!
Kindest regards,
Zellie> Zellie,
> I have a horrible short term memory. Did you notice that your short term memory is worse with the effexor? I can't even have a good fight with my hubby because of my memory. I say something smart ass and he says what and i say i can't remember. He thinks i'm being sarcastic but i really can't remember. I hope it gets better.
poster:Zellie
thread:13781
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040109/msgs/299857.html