My short-term memory s*** the bed a long time ago. I can tell you about the time my seat-mate peed her pants 50 years ago when we were in kindergarten, but not what I had for dinner two hours ago or even whether I took my meds two minutes ago. (Thank God for med minders.)

It's even worse when I'm manic. I get these blackouts, almost like the ones I had way back in my drinking days. I've heard they're not the least bit unusual though, so I don't feel as bad about them as I used to. I even asked my pdoc once if I could be developing Alzheimer's or some other type of dementia, but he didn't think so---he told me that 'brain fog' is common in BP, especially when the patient takes a slew of medications (well, 'slew' is my term for it anyway). I didn't know whether to be happy that I'm apparently NOT demented, or upset because bipolar brain-fade makes me LOOK like I'm demented!