I put this thread here, because it could fit in a few forums, as it discusses substance abuse, psych meds, and physical injury.

I've been worried about my memory for about a month now, along with being concerned that I couldn't concentrate as well. But I didn't do anything about it, until a few months ago, I told my pdoc that I wanted to taper off my clonazepam, since it can cause memory problems and I didn't want to make it worse.

Then in March I fell very badly and sustained a concussion, which I'm still recovering from.


Yesterday I had a followup appointment with the brain injury clinic at the hospital I'm being treated at. First off I met with a psychologist for half an hour of psych testing. Then I met with a neurologist for an hour for more tests, questions, and discussion of my injury.

She said I'd shown memory and cognitive impairment on the psych test. On that particular score, "normal" is consider 26 or higher out of 30, I scored 23. That freaked me out a little, as it was confirmation of what I suspected.

Where I'm stuck is the cause(s). I am an alcoholic currently 7 months sober. So it's possible the impairment is a result of years pickling my brain. It's possible it's a result of Post Acute Withdrawal Syndrome from the alcohol since memory is affected by that. It could be a result of the clonazepam, or it could be the result of the fall.

The Dr. was going to write my family GP about it, and she was me to follow up with more testing. They'll also retest me at the hospital in 3 months at my next appointment to see if there's improvement.

I'm really a bit scared about this, that I may have permanently damaged my brain because my brain has always been my biggest asset, and my work has always demanded a high level of cognitive functioning.

I'm going to start researching things I can do to improve brain health.

splitimage