It is possible to be forgetful when you are too overwhelmed. It could be that your anxiety makes you forget things from your childhood as a coping mechanism to avoid experiencing that stress again. Going into treatment for anxiety can be a useful tool for keeping your memories alive.
What Causes Memory Loss During Anxiety
Anxiety is a mental illness that causes uncomfortable symptoms. Our memory is trying to protect us from feeling that way. When we feel anxious, our body produces a fight or flight response. This increases adrenaline and cortisol. If we are always feeling this way, our brain becomes tired which is when we start to experience memory loss. If you have severe anxiety, these chemical processes can occur all the time, increasing your chances of losing your memory a lot.
The Impact of Memory Loss
Working memory helps us solve problems and manage the information that we received in the present. When our worries cause that working memory to experience difficulties, this means that we start making mistakes, trouble completing tasks the way we want to, and forget important tasks and appointments. Memory loss from anxiety can affect our work life and home life. For example, we may have trouble remembering where we parked, frequently lose things, repeating things that you previously mentioned, trouble remembering directions, etc.
The Recovery of Memories
We may worry that when we forget these memories that they will never come back. Fortunately, that is not the case. Years later once you are far along in your treatment, that negative memory that you are trying to block out may seem less extreme than originally remembered. If these negative memories have still not resurfaced after a long time, therapy can help recover them. It may be painful to recover them, but this will show you can finally feel and remember your life before that memory you are trying to block.
When to Seek Help
If you notice that your high levels of anxiety are making you more forgetful than usual and it is eating you up inside, it is important to seek a therapist. Therapists can talk you through your anxiety and memory loss, develop coping skills to deal with these issues head-on, and even prescribe medication to avoid a greater impact of memory loss on a daily basis. Having control of your anxiety will help you be in control of your memories.
Located in Georgetown, Texas, Alma Loma is a transformative living center to help those struggling in early recovery to transition out of our Psychiatric and Substance Abuse residential center. Alma Loma believes that addiction is born from an untreated mental illness in which our facility is here to help you. Our facility offers residency, medication management education, individualized treatment, life skills education, 12-step support, and more tools to bring patients the confidence to be able to live an independent life. For more information, please call us at 866-457-3843.
