[mzunderstood79]

Does being bipolar mess with your memory?? I am very forgetful and sometimes I do things that I can't remember doing...Is this normal??

Unfortunately yes

Is it bipolar itself or the meds though? That is the real question.

That Im not sure on, it depends who you ask.

[mzunderstood79]

Originally Posted by Supanova

That Im not sure on, it depends who you ask.

I haven't started my meds yet. I will start them today.....

[mzunderstood79]

Originally Posted by h33th3n

Is it bipolar itself or the meds though? That is the real question.

I start my meds today.....

[A Red Panda]

If you have anything else going on besides bipolar then they could also be the culprit.

Who knows - it could even be age

What sorts of things do you forget doing? Depending on the severity and length of time or stuff, it could just be boredom with a little task or it could always be a bit of dissassoiation. There's really no way to tell what's causing your forgetfulness with just knowing that you have bipolar! Do you see a T? If so, it'd probably be a great topic to bring up with them!

[dubblemonkey]

yeah it's got nuthin' mate... to do with mental illness...

not directly of course...so

lets examine the possibilities ?...hmmm

the things that require remembering?
typical daily stuff

or the things we need to emotionally capture to keep ourselves together...

to reach out to our inside

to comfort the discomfort in the absence of emotional safety

we all have a reason for our intensity

being comfortable with it?

that's an opportunity...a new expression a different life

[wildflowerchild25]

I dunno. I was always super forgetful. Never remembered homework, school supplies etcetera. But I do know that in deep depressions I "lose time" for weeks at a time. It's like one day I "wake up" and think wtf have I been doing the past couple if months. It happened last year and I couldn't remember doing lessons in school or what I had the students learn. I could only remember reading the hunger games, no specifics. And now I feel like I lost the whole summer. I remember going to my PHP but it was like I blinked and suddenly it's September.

[Thorn Bird]

I don't believe the memory should be impaired but if you are anxious, depressed or even hyper then this could interfere with your memory and obviously age can have an impact too. Hope the meds help.

[avlady]

It could be age like someone else said, i often forget what i'm saying as i'm talking. It is so embarrassing it don't even talk anymore unless i completely trust the person who know me and know my situation, i may have some type of mental condition other than what i've been diagnosid with which is almost everything!!

[bumble2u]

Hmm periods of depression f with my memory and I dissociate. Do you take seroquel? Cause Ever since I was on that my memory is pants. When I was on a really high dose I was like a goldfish. I have a few years of my life where things are super sketchy. Forget movies I never remember anything I can watch the same one over and not really remember. It's a lot of fun when I have clients come in and I have to guess the artwork pertaining to the client. Now I just have to write everything down well- if I don't forget to do that.

My memory has definitely been affected by bipolar. I used to have a wonderful memory, but now it is so so so bad its almost unbelievable. I cant say for sure if it is the meds or the illness, my pdocs have never mentioned anything about dissociation so I dont think that is what is happening. But I am missing whole chuncks of my life, I couldnt tell you what the highlight of last year was because I cant remember last year and I was stable then. Its just in one ear and out the other most of the time.

[Andysmom]

I have been having trouble with my memory for several years. It never occurred to me that it could be the bipolar. It drives me up a wall when I can't remember something someone has told me!

memory is something you could google and find so much information on all by itself. short term, working and long term memory are all affected by so many different factors. the one most likely for us is when we are anxious, depressed or manic (hypo), our attention is not at its best so when we don't attend to something, it doesn't get stored well in our working memory or short term memory and if it doesn't get there, it will most definitely not go into our long term memory.

There are other things of course like meds, age, menopause, hormone deficiencies, stuff like that. One of the things I did read in my amateur research on cognitive impairment in bipolar because I've had problems too with stuff like executive function, is that our information processing speed is slower even when not in an episode. Information processing speed is related to working memory and long term memory.

Basically we compensate. I make lists and lists for my lists and have to have everything I do in writing or it won't get done.

[BipolaRNurse]

What were we talking about again??

yes.... totally!

[dragonfly2]

The Summer 2012 issue of Bipolar magazine (Bipolar Disorder Magazine | Bipolar Symptoms | bphope) did a feature on this topic. Yes, it can definitely be related to the bipolar and typically gets worse as our illnesses progress. My pdoc has me on an amino acid called N-acetylcysteine (abbreviated as NAC) specifically for the cognitive issues and it seems to help. The meds can certainly contribute to it, but I'm afraid that it is also the nature of the illness itself.

[catsrhelm]

mzunderstood79, So far I haven't had memory issues, except for the weeks when I am super busy. That is when I get absent-minded. However, I seem to have a harder time learning things when I am in the depressive phase of my illness.