Thinking problems

[Gillyflower18]

How do you all deal with the memory and thinking difficulties that some with anxiety and depression? It really makes work and communicating difficult sometimes.

[Lulu02]

YES YES and yes. I have a great long term memory but God help me with short term. I thought it may have been my adhd but I guess it could also be the anxiety and depression (I do notice it gets extra worse during a depression period). It’s really hard when trying to talk to my psychologist about stuff when I can’t remember anything although I’ve learnt to write notes in between sessions.

[hypercat54]

Oh this takes me back to my working days when I had endless problems with this. I hated my job so tried to make myself numb (not always good). But problems arose when I had to learn or memorise something. If I was 'forced' out of my numbness by being put on the spot I would end up feeling dreadful and would occasionally cry.

At my last job there was endless retraining but instead of the tutor going through just the changes, they would go through the whole thing and it's like playing 'spot the changes'. I would try and make myself relax hoping that something would stick in my memory and it always did though not a lot of it. I tried to bluff my way out of it. x

[Racheezy]

Same. I work with high school students and I am constantly forgetting a ton of small things. I'm at work now and have been feeling down-ish. It's weird because I want to stop thinking about stuff but I just can't. I know I'm going to feel withdrawn today. I had started working out and now I don't feel motivated at all. For me, it comes like a tiredness then progresses to more. In regards to the memories/overthinking, giving myself busy work seems to help me a lot.

[Dreamie]

I don’t deal very well with it. I just try and fake it and move on. I envy people who are well organized and write things down and then look at what they write down to remind them. If I could/would be better at writing stuff down and reading it regularly I would do better. But brain “fog” is a struggle for me too. Got to be something to help us I hope! 💗

[Michdau1]

I can relate to you so clearly!!! ❤️ I try to write stuff down when I can as reminders or aids and I generally just tell ppl I'm feeling a little under the weather when I am finding it hard to concentrate. Ppl don't tend to ask questions to be fair but probably assume (or I could tell them a white lie) and say I have a headache or didn't sleep well the night before. That said, I am quite comfortable talking about my mental health so I have chosen to tell the relevant ppl in work and it took a massive weight off my shoulders. Worrying about it less helped me too but obviously that's easier said than done X

[Hidden]

I love Dreamie's sentence, " I envy people who are well organized and write things down and then look at what they write down to remind them." I feel the same way. I might be so organized that I put an event in my calendar, but if I don't look at the calendar? I finally added "Check calendar" to the very top of my morning routine, but if I don't look at my routine?

I just checked now. I have to be somewhere at 2 pm today. What?

[Gillyflower18 in reply to Hidden]

Love this reply! Cheered me up! I hate it when I stumble over words I know very well and only remember them after the fact. Makes you feel like an idiot! Only have had this problem since anxiety hit hard at Christmas. I’m just trying to deal with the anxiety and depression day by day. I was just looking for little things other people might do. I do write stuff down always have but doesn’t help much when you’re talking to someone!