Posted by gardenergirl on April 8, 2006, at 23:15:10
In reply to Anyone ever seen a neuropsychologist?, posted by River1924 on April 8, 2006, at 14:00:32
I have done neuropsychological testing as part of my training, but I've never seen one as a client. You may already know this, but a neuropsychologist is a psychologist (Ph.D. or Psy.D.) who has specialized training in assessing functions of the brain in a more in-depth approach as compared to psychological testing in general.
I think they are very useful in answering questions about an individual's areas of weakness and strength in brain function when there is some question about what's going on.
That said, processing speed and memory do decline with age. You and I are similar in age, and I can tell you from personal experience and from my studies that there is a certain amount of normal decline in one's ability to quickly recall things. Having to write things down in order to remember them is not necessarily a sign of dysfunction. It's a rather adaptive thing to do, actually.
And if you are falling within normal limits on screening tests, it may not be necessary to see a neuropsychologist. In reading about what your mother said about your memory as a child, I do wonder if it's possible you might have some mild struggles with attention. Given your career interests, you might be someone who tends to be more creative and more likely to daydream or get caught up in your own thoughts, perhaps because they are quite interesting and creative. (I'm not sure this is coming out right, sorry). Most folks who might have mild attention problems for whatever reason can usually function just fine, but if they get more stress going on at any time, may find they are now struggling. The usual way of dealing with it, which they might not even be aware of, can fail under stress.
If you don't initially attend to something, it doesn't get into short-term memory and thus can't be encoded into long-term memory. I know that's a problem in my case. I've always been a bit dreamy and spacey, and sometimes my husband will say something which I seem to respond to, but then it's gone right out of my head and I have to ask him to say it again.
Just some thoughts off the top of my head...Feel free to take what might be helpful and disregard the rest. :)
gg
poster:gardenergirl
thread:630593
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060408/msgs/630758.html