Memory loss / spacing out

Hey everyone. I'm used to the idea that when very depressed I have almost no short to medium term memory (in general i haven't got much long term memory to speak of either) and at times I don't even know what's going on around me. I'll think I'm listening to someone but if they ask me for an opinion on what they've said i'll realise i've already forgotten the whole conversation. i also would forget what i was talking about mid-sentence or where i was walking to quite frequently.
Now, my depression is a lot better and my mind was feeling a lot more 'together', too, but in the last few weeks I've noticed my memory is awful, whether it's got worse again or never really got better i'ts hard to say. However, when people have asked how was last night or my weekend, i have to say that I can't remember. sometimes, an hour or so later, it'll come back to me. it's happened twice in the last week. also, when i'm watching tv with my boyfriend and he points something out / asks a question, i realise that i have no idea what i've been watching for the last ten minutes / half hour / hour. It's a little worrying.
I'm on 225mg venlafaxine - I've been on it since last christmas. I was wondering if this could be affecting memory (even though i've had problems with it dating to before that - i assumed it was the depression which is now a lot better)? Or maybe the depression is coming back . I do feel pretty awful at the moment but I've been sick with a head-cold the last two weeks - maybe it could just be the cold doing it? i don't know. any advice / explanations / tips welcome!

Well if you are distracted and your mind is drifting off somewhere else so that you are not paying attention to the conversation or tv then there would be no memory to forget. Maybe???

At that dose of Effexor I had what they call cognitive blunting. It was even dangerous for me to drive. I was always forgetting where I was going. It was my very very short term working memory that was affected. At that time it was considered a high dose. I think they go higher now. At 150 i was fine and had to go to that.

I think it's a moderate dose now, i think i've seen that they can administer up to 375? I think my brain is working better in general than when i was taking nothing but maybe taking the dose down or even up a notch could improve things. my doctor doesn't want to change anything until i get through christmas though :/ did you notice it working less on a dose that allowed you to think clearer? and do you think the damage was permanent?

it's true about the memory not forming thing...but it's what i often call 'blanking'...because i have no memory of where my mind went during that time haha.

I've just had a thought - I took vitex for a week or so, and stopped a few days ago. it was a low dose but when i stopped taking it i had head-zaps like when i forget my meds...maybe that's why i'm a bit more derranged and in the dumps atm?

No it wasn't permanent. It went away as soon as I went back to 150. 225 didn't make the depression any better. I must have increased for some reason, I can't remember it was years ago. I remember the cognitive blunting very well though and my pdoc knew right away when I told him what was going on. That is what he called it.

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this happened to me too for a longer period of time but I wasn't on any meds. I think it was a symptom. I didn't drive for a while because I was dizzy and sleepy and missed traffic signs all the time. and during talking to someone I forgot repeatedly what we were talking about. I was also very clumsy and dropped stuff a lot.

I could not take Effexor because it made me so sleepy I could not function, even at a 75mg dose. I have had some of this same memory loss symptoms recently. I don't know if it was the depression or side effects of the Topamax the doctors were giving me for migraines. Thank goodness they changed the Topamax to amitriptyline. I really felt like I was loosing my intelligence. I was in a situation where I could not remember what I was doing five minutes before. Not a good feeling. I would copy this post, talk to your doctor and see what the doc thinks. Best wishes.