so sick of losing things/forgetting things all the time

Anyone else constantly lose or forget stuff? Every day, it happens to me. Sometimes, I find a lost object, sometimes not, even if I know it has to be in the house because I didn't leave home between the time I first used it and losing it. Today, I lost a vacuum cleaner attachment. God knows where it is.

I lost my doctor's letter of disability but did eventually locate it and put it in a labelled folder in the filing cabinet in the folder with my medical info.

Once, I lost my cell phone, called it and didn't hear it. Later, I found it in the refrigerator. After that, I downloaded a free app with super loud ring tones. It still doesn't always help me, but if my daughter is home, she can hear it. I have constant tinnitus, plus there is the issue of me listening to music loudly while jogging/walking.

Another time, I lost my keys, but it was crazy. I had just parked and turned off the car and gotten out, took my daughter out (she was a toddler) and couldn't find the keys. Dumped out my purse. Not there. After about 20 minutes of searching (I'm serious here), I decided to look at the top of the car; I can't see most of the top. It's not tall, but a Subaru Forester is tall enough, I don't see much of the car top. I saw my melted frappucino up there, felt along behind it, and there were my keys. After that, we started keeping a hidden spare key.

When we had better financial circumstances, I lost my cell phone multiple times at the gym. Luckily, it was a small gym, and the people there were honest. I don't know, after it happened over 5 times, I started leaving the phone in the locker with my purse in the dressing room while working out.

Yesterday, I gassed up the car, and then I realized I had left the car running while getting gas.

OMG, I am getting beyond tired of this!

Im constantly double checking things because this is me too. But then it gets over the top. Feels like myshort term memory is just gone. I blame it on the meds.

My short-term memory is crap. Long-term isn't too bad, but for goodness' sake don't ask me what I ate for lunch, or if I even ate lunch. I was afraid I was developing dementia. But I've had two psychiatrists tell me that it's not dementia, but cognitive dysfunction from a combination of repeated severe bipolar episodes and the meds used to treat them. That sounds logical to me, and as a person who is in an age bracket where Alzheimer's isn't unheard-of, I'm glad to know I'm not totally losing my marbles.

Same here. I just organized everything to the max so I can find things and decided that I would just slow down. Putting less pressure on myself really helps.

Thanks for bringing up this topic... especially because this is exactly what I go through! Today/this week has been really bad in that regard. Lately, it is difficult to cook, because I forget to time things, I walk away while cooking, leave things messy (then realize I didn't clean up), etc. Sometimes I get really down on myself, because of my poor attention span and how I forget things easily, like directions and even my surroundings, because I am lost in thought all the time. This is an ongoing theme. Unfortunately, I was in a relationship where my ex-partner became really frustrated with me over these things, would yell at me, tell me to "be an adult," and this makes me especially hard on myself and feel powerless at times over this. I left that relationship, but still, it's a major insecurity of mine.

I used to have more significant issues with losing/forgetting things, but they eased after certain medications were discontinued, I adjusted to them (like Seroquel sedation), and my illness fog cleared. If I recall correctly, Lamictal and Lithium were the main culprits for me. I've been off Lithium for some years now. I do still take some Lamictal, but a small enough dose that it gives me no discernable side effects.

When I'm under stress, like doing multiple things quickly with deadlines, I sometimes forget things. My most notable issue lately has been leaving a gas stove burner on, especially if on low flame. I've also left the oven on. I try to make a habit of checking these...off, off, off, off, off.

has anyone found any meds that have helped them with forgetfulness and losing things and short term memory?

I have issues with this also as well as difficulty remembering/retaining instructions that were given to me by my boss or supervisor. Processing difficulties as well.

I have tried almost every stimulant to no avail.

Yes, this is me too. It's gotten much worse since I started ECT as well. I have to write everything down. I have a white board in my room on my wall where I have all my appointments, classes, work hours, etc written on it. Today I had to ask someone where my dermatologist is located. Sucks, but I'm getting by.

This makes me giggle. Please, no offense intended. But...just a word to the women (and men because you guys will go thru your own version), menopause and BP will try to drive you into the abyss. I lose stuff constantly. My short term memory is Swiss cheese as well.

The hubs is going thru his own thing now, too. He is, like me, ADD but more left brained. He is retired and restores European and Japanese vintage/antique motorcycles for fun and profit now. He is currently in search of a Goldwing key. It’s to one of our personal bikes we use for traveling sometimes so he has until early spring to find it before I start legal proceedings to trade him in on a more reliable model.

Just saying I get the frustration and salute a fellow refrigerator as storage for more than food, comrade. You gotta have a sense of humor with this or you really will lose more than stuff. I’m of a mind that when things disappear it’s just a glitch in the matrix and the IT guys will right it sooner or later.

I was reading this just the other day on that topic.

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Thanks for posting. That's an interesting article. How weird that there may be a link between cognition & herpes simplex virus I in bipolar patients. I've had HSV-I since I was a child. I got the worst cold sores & fever blisters, and I didn't even ever need braces. Sometimes, as an adult, it got so bad, my PCP would call in Valtrex for me. Lately, it seems to be lying low. I surprisingly have not had issues with it in a few years, which is odd now that I think about it. Of course, now I'll probably wake up with a cold sore tomorrow

Thanks. Sometimes if you don't laugh about something, you just want to cry.

I really thought I'd hit my low during pregnancy, but apparently not. I only wish I could go back to pregnancy forgetfulness; that would probably be a 100 times improvement in my general cognition and memory. And when pregnant, you definitely can blame the hormones, and people are very quick to sympathize with pregnancy-related ditziness as opposed to forgetfulness & ditziness other times in your life.

I have really come to rely on my iPhone to be the keeper to my kingdom and will use the note function to make a quick note when I put something away for safe keeping in a weird place after losing our passport wallet for almost a year only to find it in a sadly, very little used, skimpy pjs, drawer. Why in the hell I put it there is beyond me. I guess I had a good reason at the time. I also put a giant four month dry erase board in our breakfast room you can’t help but see every time you walk in from the garage. Add sticky notes, date minder books and notebooks with endless, colorful, stick on tabs, SIRI and Alexa and we make it through the week with only a handful of missed appointments and lost items.

You just gotta do what works for you. Boxes on the floor by your door, hooks, hiring ninjas with foam katanas to follow you around and smack you every time you start to put something in a strange place ( this has been discussed in our house). Make your life fit you. Not the other way around.

I have had to adopt very strict habits for my phone, keys and wallet; where I keep them (specific pockets in nearly everything I wear with a few necessary exceptions) and how often I check for them (basically made this become a nervous habit). Whenever something is out of my wallet - credit card, ID, insurance card, etc - I keep my wallet in my hand until I get whatever I took out back and put it away. I always immediately put appointments in calendar and have multiple reminders turned on by default. I am not this detail oriented or **** by nature; it was very difficult to get these habits established, but the consequences of my absent mindedness were occurring far too frequently. I didn't establish the habits until a few years ago as it was/is getting worse. Most of my life I lost stuff and missed appointments all the time.

I have done this after repeatedly losing my cell phone so many times. Now, I only keep it on the charger or in my purse. Always checking for keys to be in my purse because if I come in carrying things like the mail, I'm apt to toss the keys into the trash with the junk mail. I have done that 3 or 4 times now. Same thing with my wallet and cards. I went through the drive-thru ATM line at the bank, and I left without my debit card. Thank God the person behind me was honest and turned it into the bank. Have left behind a credit card too; thankfully, at a super small grocery store, and the checkout clerk realized it before I made it to my car. Checking I have this stuff with me when I'm not home is like you said, a nervous habit. Sometimes, even when I'm home. If I lose my keys, I can't get to where I need to be in time even if I know my keys have to be in the house somewhere because I haven't left. I downloaded a super loud ringtone for my cell phone to help find it should I lose it in the house. My daughter says it's embarrassing any time my phone rings when we're out, like at the store or something, but I need all the help I can get!

Valtrex is quite effective; yet, has its drawbacks.

If you'd like to try preventative treatment for HSV, simply google lysine herpes treatment. L-lysine use can prevent outbreaks. My H has had almost constant outbreaks until I did some research. I put him on L-lysine tabs and he does very well, with almost no outbreaks.

Diet can play a factor. When the L-Arginine level gets too high, people are more apt to have outbreaks. We offset the Arginine with Lysine.
He also uses topical L-Lysine cream/ointment on his lips, esp if under stress and/or in the sun.

A couple of sources of Arginine, which when too high can cause outbreaks, are colas, chocolate. Other foods raise Arginine levels, too.

You may already know this; yet, thought I'd share in hopes you may have fewer outbreaks.


WC

I tried the L-Lysine, and it did not help me. But like I said, it's weird, too, the past few years, I haven't had any outbreaks. Though I know I'm always prone to one if I bite my cheek or tongue while eating or just eat food that is rough or too salty and starts making my mouth hurt. I haven't needed Valtrex in some years, maybe 7, 8 years? I think I may have once or twice used Abreva (and God, does one little tube of that cost a fortune!), but it's been a lot better the last 10 years or so.

Unfortunately, I've found my daughter has this too, and she is not yet ready for braces, which I know worsens it. My youngest sister has HSV-1 also, and she was often in tears with the outbreaks combined with braces combined with playing the clarinet in band.

It's crazy the things that may be linked to mental illness. I think there is also some thought or evidence that yeast infections may link to mental illness. Which, yes, I have chronic yeast infections unless I eat yogurt daily. And the crazy thing is I even had them as a child, as young as 6 or 7. I didn't know it at the time, and for some reason, my infections are never accompanied by the discharge, just the itching (which caused me to never bring it up to my mother); I just happened to get a pap smear in my early 20s, and when they called with the results, they said I'd had a yeast infection, was I over it or did I need medication? And I realized I'd had the crazy itching during the result waiting period. Someone once posted about auto-immune issues linked to mental illness and some believe these chronic yeast infections have connections to the immune system, I think even the autoimmune system. So much of the body links together, it's crazy.