Brain Fritz or Dementia

The Brain Fritz

To-Do Lists

Let’s say that I skipped last week’s blog because of the holidays. The truth, however, is that it went completely out of mind. I never thought of it until Tuesday night. I’ve heard that as long as you remember the thing you’ve forgotten within a reasonable length of time, you don’t have dementia or Alzheimer’s. I hope so. Still, it is wholeheartedly disconcerting when you realize that something you needed or wanted to do just vacated your brain until it felt like returning.

I can no longer survive without to-do lists. I usually remember to check the tasks and cross off completed ones. Groceries? Even if only three items, I require a list these days. The one problem with this approach is forgetting to add a task to the list, or as with the blog, thinking I don’t’ need to, but I think I can say that doesn’t happen frequently. Money being tight this year, I didn’t bother with my usual list of what I’d bought for whom. Big mistake—I’m still checking bags and corners for any item I may have forgotten to put in a stocking or under the tree.

Loss of Words

I hate it even more when I recognize that I’m forgetting something and it won’t come back to me. Typical for everyone: What did I come in here for? I especially hate writing or talking and being abruptly halted because a word I need or know would be perfect in the sentence won’t materialize. I remember its meaning, can look up synonyms in the dictionary and sometimes find the exact word I want when writing, though it certainly takes more time. Doesn’t work of course when speaking. I feel like an idiot when the word I require to make a request on the phone disappears on me and I stammer, rooting around for a comparable word.

Maybe, for those of us with family histories of brain-function loss, the brain fritz is scarier. Are we getting it? I think for next week I’ll do some research on symptoms of serious disease versus every-day-life business overloading our brains. I should probably add it to my list.