is it possible to go senile in your 30s?

[brianmanahan]

yesterday i was talking to my mom on the phone and checking facebook when some friend request came in

i didn't recognize the name or the picture, so i read the name to her and said "that's weird, i have no idea who that is"

my mom was silent for a while and finally said "umm, grandma's sister?"

it kept staring at her picture and name and nothing was coming to me, but after about 10 seconds BOOM i remember everything about my great aunt - and the fact that i've seen and talked to her probably 100 times before

ever since this happened, it has made me concerned.

is it possible to go senile and lose all your memory by the time you are 40? because i think that might be a real possibility if this stuff keeps happening :\

 

[Jaskalas]

Imperfect memory is called being... human. Our brains are analog, not digital.

Aging? We all age differently. First we all start off at a different peak performance. Then we all fall from our respective peaks at different rates. If you develop startling cognitive impairments ask yourself about your general state of health. Sleep, stress, foods, and drugs. How are your energy levels, good? Blood sugar? Blood pressure? Oxygen and heart rate?

If your health is not obviously suspect for simple reasons... see a doctor. Maybe get a scan to see if there's a brain tumor or other medical reason such as a stroke.

While impairments are often a sign of advanced aging... they can strike anyone at anytime for any reason. Aging is like a life long disease. Some days are better than others. And every day is a new adventure at how it tackles you. Today it's your memory. Tomorrow it's that cramp in your leg. No one is perfect.

 

[sandorski]

You are losing your mind. Send me your stuff before it's too late, safe keeping, and things!

 

[Newbian]

Make sure you delete your browser history before you forget how and it's discovered.

 

[SagaLore]

yesterday i was talking to my mom on the phone and checking facebook when some friend request came in

i didn't recognize the name or the picture, so i read the name to her and said "that's weird, i have no idea who that is"

my mom was silent for a while and finally said "umm, grandma's sister?"

it kept staring at her picture and name and nothing was coming to me, but after about 10 seconds BOOM i remember everything about my great aunt - and the fact that i've seen and talked to her probably 100 times before

ever since this happened, it has made me concerned.

is it possible to go senile and lose all your memory by the time you are 40? because i think that might be a real possibility if this stuff keeps happening :\

I don't think its senility, but you could be having long term memory issues due to nutritional deficiency. If you are genuinely concerned about this and want to try and fix it, try taking these:

Vitamin D3, high dose
Selenium
DHA/EPA/ALA complex

 

[fiberst]

As one ages, the chances also increases that one is becoming increasingly forgettable. Before you forget something, delete those sings in your memory (especially those bad) occasionally, then there is no so-called memory lost.

 

[renz20003]

yesterday i was talking to my mom on the phone and checking facebook when some friend request came in

i didn't recognize the name or the picture, so i read the name to her and said "that's weird, i have no idea who that is"

my mom was silent for a while and finally said "umm, grandma's sister?"

it kept staring at her picture and name and nothing was coming to me, but after about 10 seconds BOOM i remember everything about my great aunt - and the fact that i've seen and talked to her probably 100 times before

ever since this happened, it has made me concerned.

is it possible to go senile and lose all your memory by the time you are 40? because i think that might be a real possibility if this stuff keeps happening :\

It could be that your mind is focused on day to day activities like work, bills, life in general ect... Maybe try some crosswords or other puzzles to sharpen up.

Edit: Having a conversation on the phone and doing another task like checking Facebook won't give you the most efficient results in trying to think/remember.

 

[AndreM]

It could be that your mind is focused on day to day activities like work, bills, life in general ect... Maybe try some crosswords or other puzzles to sharpen up.

Maybe a good solution if this "problem" continues, keeping your mind sharp if an underestimated thing.

 

[kranky]

It's easy to draw a blank when you encounter a name or face out of the typical context. That's all it was. Your brain didn't have any context for associating your great-aunt with a FB friend request. And I'll bet the picture wasn't all that great.

 

[sdifox]

Early onset Alzaimer's is a possibility, though distant.

 

[vi edit]

Are you a big guy? There's data coming out that obesity can have a significant affect on cognitive functioning and memory.

 

[vi edit]

Also, I was at my 20th reunion last month. I graduated from a small high school (graduating class of around 50 students). Better than 2/3 of my class still lives within 30 miles of my home town. I've been through 5 different moves, 4 different states, and 4 different companies with anywhere from from 1300-15,000 or more employees.

I literally did not know who half the people at that reunion were any more, but yet most knew me. My Mom thinks it's crazy that I can't remember so-and-so. But she's never moved. They go to church with some every week. See others at a town festival every summer, ect. Some people I haven't seen in decades. And I've been around 10's of thousands of other people since then. Can't remember people from 20 years ago any more.

But I can walk into a room of 400 coworkers and know all of them by name and the jobs they do.

*shrug*

Your brain purges stuff that isn't current. At least mine does.

 

[Blue_Max]

SLEEP! Memory is badly affected by lack of sleep.

(It's different for everyone, of course, but it could be a factor.)

 

[PliotronX]

Oh yeah? Well I sometimes forget why I entered a room.

 

[Homerboy]

senile? No.
Just plain stupid? Yes.

 

[cbrunny]

dibs on OP's stereo.

 

[brianmanahan]

SLEEP! Memory is badly affected by lack of sleep.

(It's different for everyone, of course, but it could be a factor.)

shoot, i only get like 5 hours a night during the week D:

if i didn't have to drive an hour to work it would make things easier...

but i got too much neffing to do and only so much time to do it :whiste:

 

[Muse]

Of course it is. I've known many people who essentially lose their minds at about age 22.

 

[Jeff7]

Your brain got lazy and had one primary neuron linking that memory. It unexpectedly died.

It's easy to draw a blank when you encounter a name or face out of the typical context. That's all it was. Your brain didn't have any context for associating your great-aunt with a FB friend request. And I'll bet the picture wasn't all that great.

Or suckage at recognizing faces.
There was an album over on Imgur, a mildly interesting mockup of famous people photos versus a Facebook-quality replica of the scene. I went through something like 15 photos and never recognized that it was the same person in each photo. The comments clued me in.

I'm on par with facial recognition software: Different hair, different hat, different clothes = different person.

SLEEP! Memory is badly affected by lack of sleep.

(It's different for everyone, of course, but it could be a factor.)

For sure.

Alas, the medical and scientific communities don't seem to have a clue as to how to cure this ancient malady of sleep.
Going all the way back to the first life forms that developed close enough to the ocean's surface to feel the effects of sunlight, circadian rhythms would have been worked into very basic DNA, and then integrated into other life processes over time. It's woven in all over the place.

Though I would like to see an experiment where the day:night ratio is increased gradually over many generations, maybe by a few minutes every hundred generations. (Out-of-my-ass estimate there. Very gradual.) See how far it can be pushed, and see how the thing adapts.

...
But I can walk into a room of 400 coworkers and know all of them by name and the jobs they do.

*shrug*

Your brain purges stuff that isn't current. At least mine does.

Erratically lossy compression, like a JPEG converter where the quality level is set arbitrarily.

I've got <50 people here. I still don't know some names. Some people also look vaguely like people I knew in middle school (similar body type or similar hairstyle), so I first think of that person's name, rather than theirs.
Serial numbers though? At one time I had memorized keys for Win 95, Win98SE, and WinXP. Also some credit card numbers.
Brain's a PITA.

 

[balloonshark]

Aren't you the one that had a brain injury? If so that may explain some of the problems you constantly have.

 

[BurnItDwn]

Once you start balding, its a sign that what's inside has room out of room to grow, and is no longer pushing out the hairs.

 

[lxskllr]

I've been forgetting stupid shit lately. One thing recently was the overthrown leader of Iraq. It crossed my mind, and I couldn't pull up the name. A couple hours later, it came to me. I've had that happen with other things I should know. I blame lead poisoning from sanding my friend's house a few years ago...

 

[GagHalfrunt]

senile? No.
Just plain stupid? Yes.

That. Occam's Razor, the simplest solution is probably true.

 

[Ken g6]

My senior year of high school a guy said hi to me. He said he was a guy I'd spent a lot of time with a year before. I remembered his name but I totally didn't recognize the guy. Nothing ever clicked for me either. That was over a decade ago and I'm not senile.

 

[Charmonium]

yesterday i was talking to my mom on the phone and checking facebook when some friend request came in

i didn't recognize the name or the picture, so i read the name to her and said "that's weird, i have no idea who that is"

my mom was silent for a while and finally said "umm, grandma's sister?"

it kept staring at her picture and name and nothing was coming to me, but after about 10 seconds BOOM i remember everything about my great aunt - and the fact that i've seen and talked to her probably 100 times before

ever since this happened, it has made me concerned.

is it possible to go senile and lose all your memory by the time you are 40? because i think that might be a real possibility if this stuff keeps happening :\

There's early onset Alzheimer's but I think even 40 is a little early for that.

I've had these problems all of my life if that makes you feel any better. I have moderate case of prosopagnosia or face blindness. I can generally recognize famous people whose picture I've seen multiple times but for most people I only know in passing, I rely on environmental clues. For example I once met the property manager for my apt in a supermarket parking lot and I didn't recognize here since I wasn't used to seeing her in that context.

I also have aphantasia which means that I don't have a "mind's eye". If I close my eyes, I don't see an image of a person or place, I only have a vague sense of it. It's hard to explain.

A lot of problems can be drug induced. For example there is the anti-seizure med topomax which in the mental health community is often called dopomax because it turns you into a fucking vegetable. Well, for a lot of people. I never had a problem with it. And there are a lot of other drugs that can have the same or similar effects.