Forgotten moments

This is the first installment of a series of blog-posts into some of the common effects of dyspraxia, although as you'll read, I've led most of my life assuming many of these were perfectly normal. We start off with short-term memory.

Lots of people may say they have a bad memory, and it was largely due to this that I didn't pay much attention to my own memory failings until I recently read about the nature of dyspraxic short term memory (or the lack of one) that struck a chord with me. Many people have absent-minded moments, but it was when I began to think about one of my average days that I realised my short-term memory wasn't average.

This evening for example I decided to do some laundry. I set the washing machine going, and only remembered that I needed to empty the machine and put my clothes in the dryer some hours later when my flatmate got back, who'd be wanting dinner, which made me remember the washing up I'd left to soak earlier and also forgotten. (Both are in the kitchen, so remembering one triggered off remembering the other). I was making some headway to go bed just now when I went into the kichen to turn the light off, and realised that I'd completely forgotten about the clothes in the dryer.

At work I can have even more accute moments of short-term memory lapse, where I can take a caller's name, put them on hold, and instantaneously forget who they are. I then wrack my brain before the person who I need to transfer the call to becomes available. Frustrating doesn't even come close.

Yet, the fact that I've not paid much attention to my memory in the past, goes to show that I've learned to live with it. I think I default to a style of searching each cupboard or shelf for an item, that I've now become obviously accustomed to, as opposed to instinctively know where I've put something. Although at work I have got into the habit or writing down most notes of any importance, it's not something I do at home, or in other parts of life, and I seem to manage my way through ok. Perhaps not as efficiently as could be, but I've yet to have any disasters caused by forgetting something crucial.

Curiously though, I seem to have an oddly sharp long-term memory for all manner for things, from song lyrics to small details of children's TV programmes I used to watch twenty years ago. The human brain is an odd thing.

(P.S. I'm writing this post now, at near midnight, as I might otherwise forget if I leave it till tomorrow!)