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Poor Memory

Divrom

Divrom

Well-Known Member
V.I.P Member
Is there any correlation between AS and having a poor memory?

I actually have a very impressive memory (can remember hundreds of binary digits, etc), but my short-mid memory can be virtually nonexistent. I can never remember my kids bedtimes, or the days of the week when they go to certain clubs.

It may also be related to a really bad sense of Time. I can be telling people about something that happened a few months ago and my wife will interrupt and say is was 5 years!

Is this stuff just me, or is it an Asperger's thing?
 
It sounds something like my ex husband, he just has no concept of time passing. He is squarely in the NT camp.
 
I have a poor memory for a big part at the moment... actually over the bigger part of a year now. It's also when my asperger's came back more prevalent... it's when I went to the therapist at first for a depression of sorts and went on to get my diagnosis 6 months later, with results 4 months after that.

But yeah... my memory, my skills, everything in daily life is kinda lacking, mostly because of stress and anxiety since I have no clue where my life is going right now.

I don't know if that's actually Aspergers related or just general stress and anxiety, but it pretty much fits together since my situation at the moment, seeking support at social work, filing for disability is moving on, very slowly since february 2011.

I think I can also add that when I was a child, my memory was totally off. They thought I was well below average intelligence, and thus they barely got me in high school with average grades... barely passed that with a lot of stress and all. I got it more "under control" from halfway in my teens I guess, until last year... surely my aspergers was there in between but it just wasn't prevalent, no one was around me, I got my tuition fees for college, I just did whatever I wanted... now I'm at a point where it doesn't work like that anymore, and I'm falling back in old patterns, and as such slight depression and also... rather bad recollective memory issues. Not to mention that I am starting to suffer from slight disassociation issues in the past month or so.

I should also mention that I have ADHD, so a lot of stuff slips my mind, but AD(H)D is comorbid with aspergers sometimes.

So, no... I don't know if it's Aspergers related, but I do seem to have those issues.

I don't try to keep track of the concept of time... I have one clock around, and I rarely watch it. Clocks make me stressed out and I watch them more than actually do something. The most silly thing is that quite often I can guess time at any given moment, and be off... approximately 10 minutes... at any given moment of the day.
 
Bay said:
It sounds something like my ex husband, he just has no concept of time passing. He is squarely in the NT camp.
Click to expand...

Even the good memory bits? I was in the World Memory Championships in 2000, so naturally thought I had a great memory. Then, I gradually noticed that there were some things I just never registered.
 
I think it has a lot to do with whatever is on his mind. He was never a memory champion, but is a lawyer and is able to recall legal minutia with crystal clarity. He has rarely been able to recall conversations with me. I always felt it was a question of priorities, but he always claimed that was not the case.
 
I was just getting ready to post something like this! Hell yeah! I think it is partly Aspie related.

Kind of a hazy example: My boss has been angry with me the last week or so. I'm actually anxious that I'll lose my job. He's an angry guy in general but I can't clearly remember if he's just pissed, or if I did something that pissed him off. He snaps at me during warehouse meetings and throws pointless fits about my schedule (which isn't even a problem. We have both okay'd my schedule multiple times but he still claims that I'm skipping work). Through all of these arguments I can't remember which times were my fault, which times were his fault, and which times were no fault. And to further complicate it, I can't remember if I did something that significantly made him angry with ME or if he's just in one of his "bad move waves". Work is kind of a hazy memory at the end of the day.
 
I can easily be interrupted during a conversation and actually forget what I was talking about when the interruption passes, and then I have to ask "what was I saying?"
So, I have to hope it's related to being on the spectrum or else I have early onset dementia or something similar.

The worst thing is that if it is related, can it be managed or is it gonna be something to work around or find shortcuts for like the rest of our Aspergical tendencies?
 
Gomendosi said:
I can easily be interrupted during a conversation and actually forget what I was talking about when the interruption passes, and then I have to ask "what was I saying?"
So, I have to hope it's related to being on the spectrum or else I have early onset dementia or something similar.

The worst thing is that if it is related, can it be managed or is it gonna be something to work around or find shortcuts for like the rest of our Aspergical tendencies?
Click to expand...

I have that a lot as well... talking to my friend and at some point I'm like... oh, where was I?

That usually happens if he interjects to respond on something I was saying. Well, let's put out the most obvious thing... it's not really nice to interrupt someone who is talking.anyway.

So how to manage it... might be an open door, but one could be around people who are more polite and are aware of social etiquette.

I also found my online conversations go much better, since I can read where I got stuck a few minutes ago... that sounds obvious, but that's pretty much why online this rarely happens. It's also why online conversation has a totally different character than actual face to face conversation in that way.
 
King_Oni said:
I don't try to keep track of the concept of time... I have one clock around, and I rarely watch it. Clocks make me stressed out and I watch them more than actually do something./QUOTE]

I'm the exact opposite, I frequently check the exact time. It doesn't stress me out, though, if anything it keeps me on track as I often daydream. What stresses me out is counting days off the calendar in the lead-up to a long-awaited occasion - it makes the wait unbearable, so I never do it, no matter how excited I am.

Getting back to memory, mine used to be almost flawless, but now I struggle to remember anything numerical much more than the average person. I can still be counted upon to remember someone's exact wording, though.
Click to expand...
 
I have such poor memory of things I should remember
But do not really 'get'
So I don't remember

That I often do badly for tasks which I can do well, but in the end, fail.

I can only try harder, and hopefully, learn a technique eventually to improve my everyday working memory.
 
If I am working on something, say tightening a bolt, then get distracted, when I come back I can't find my wrench. I have to backtrack all the places I've been to locate it. If I started in the garage I might find the wrench in the basement. It wastes a lot of time. I do the same thing with my keys; I am always misplacing them.
 
I am not sure but I do know I have bad memory myself. It takes me long to process information and learn new things. It hard for me to remember people names. Even learning grammar. People can teach me it so many times and still don't get it.
 
Divrom said:
Is there any correlation between AS and having a poor memory?

I actually have a very impressive memory (can remember hundreds of binary digits, etc), but my short-mid memory can be virtually nonexistent. I can never remember my kids bedtimes, or the days of the week when they go to certain clubs.

It may also be related to a really bad sense of Time. I can be telling people about something that happened a few months ago and my wife will interrupt and say is was 5 years!

Is this stuff just me, or is it an Asperger's thing?
Click to expand...

My long term memory is very good, but my short term memory is horrible. At work i'm continually having to look back at the cash due total to remember exactly how much i'm supposed to hand the customer. If i'm copying down or typing in an email address or a long number, that also takes twice as long as it probably should. My mom used to snap at me a lot for it, yelling at me to look at it and then copy it. Guess that's what i'm supposed to be able to go. But, moving on. I'm very schedule-based, so i remember events like when the kid i babysit has choir practice after school, and stuff like that. So i dont have an issue with things like that that you said you do. I'm horrible with peoples names though, and if i'm not 100% - or i'm distracted - it takes me longer to process things than others.

My supervisors learned early on that they can't tell me my next register assignment while i'm checking out a customer for this reason. Because, while i'll reply to them in the affirmative i can't process it and remember it because i'm so busy focusing on the customer. Or trying to hyperfocus on my customer so i dont hear all the other noise in the store until they come along, break my focus, and push new information in my head. They now know to just turn out my light and i know to just come find them when i'm done with my line. It works much better and without the embarrasment.
 
I have very poor short term memory. It seems like it has something to do with my AS. My head gets so full of stuff that I just can't remember everything that is going on. While working, I'll be thinking about the problem I'm working on. I'll need something from my truck, walk all the way out to the truck and don't have any idea what I came to get. It drives me crazy(crazier?) when I do that and I do it a lot. It seems like it gets worse as I get older. However, my long term memory seems to be fine.
 
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