I also found that stress blocks retention. I have seemed to observe this in myself. Throughout school & my degree & had a hard time retaining what I read & I had no MH issues until 42. Breakdown from too much stress. Meds, bad reactioms, I didn't bother trying to read or retain.

Fast forward 13 years & I left that environment (& my marriage) & moved to a farm I bought 2100 miles away. For some reason I thought joining the library monthly book club would be a good thing. I actually SHOCKED myself. I read the book & retained what I read....& continued to do this & have continued to be able to read & retain since then.

I had problems retaining with or without meds so that wasn't a cause...11 years later, I am in a stressful situation (finally financially able to get a divorce from the H) I am finding it more difficult to focus again. The common denominator is stress in my life seems to be key in my concentration.

This was an eye opener because I had this problem growing up, indicating just how mych stress I felt with my parents & went right into a marriage with a H who just continued actually very similar stress as my parents. Freedom from major stress & fighting for everything seems for me to be a huge key in my memory ability. I hate reading the same paragraph over & over & not remembering what I read. I still excelled because I wrote down the important things or highlighted in my computer engineering career so I could only focus on those things but it was so much more work...determination to succeed was the driving force during those years.