Is it just old age ....

POGS I think your DH is very forgiving, mine would be outraged if the promised bacon sarnie didn't show up.

Apparently, if you know you forget things, you're OK. If you don't know you forget things, you don't know you don't know...err...I think that's right...If I'm confused and I know I'm confused....

Seriously, (I don't want my last post to sound flippant if you're seriously worried) if you know you're forgetting things you can use strategies to address the problem. Make lists, leave yourself plug-in notes etc. Stress is often to blame and we don't always realise we're stressed. I try to go through a mental checklist before leaving the house so I don't forget my purse and phone. My house keys are on the same ring as my car keys so I can't lock myself out.

Damn that auto correct! Post-it notes!

My DD is always ribbing me for telling her a joke or story that I may have told her before - she says that it's an irritating habit that older people suffer from. I could accept her remarks with equanimity if she didn't do exactly the same thing herself - and she's only 28!

I am going to read the whole of this thread tomorrow. Fortunately I used to forget people's names (even when I was seeing them one a week in a professional capacity) since I was in my 30s, so I don't worry about everything I can't remember.. But when I stopped HRT in my early 50s I noticed an immediate change. I could describe certain things (it didn't happen too often thankfully) but not name them. An example would be that I would try to say something and part of the info wouldn't come to mind. I'd say the president of Iraq, the one they found in the hole and killed. Couldn't get Sadam Hussein. I was really upset.

Now if that happens I either go through the alphabet to jog my memory or think sod it it's not that important. I think it's just a normal part of getting older, something the hrt was delaying.

I've done most of the things described on this thread and lost count of the number of burnt pans!!

I have car keys and house keys on separate rings with a spare house key hidden in the (unlocked) garage and a spare car key in the house. Should be foolproof except when DS left the key in the door and I couldn't use the spare!

tiredoldwoman My 8 year old DGS was greatly impressed at the number of questions I could answer on University Challenge last week. "Nana answered the questions and I didn't even know what they were talking about!"

His Dad answers more questions on "The Chase" so I told him that only involves watching lots of TV, Films, Sport or listening to pop music. University Challenge is about what you have learned in literature, music, Science etc and is for really clever people! #smug !

I have really enjoyed reading about others having all the same problems as me! Although I have to confess that when my parents met my teacher after I started school at 5 yrs old my teacher was very positive and said I had a very good forgettery! I am even better at forgetting nowadays. Left the keys in the front door all over the Christmas holiday one year and the postman put a note through my door to tell me he had given them to my neighbour across the road. I was at home the whole time and so lucky no-one else noticed.

Forgetting things is normal - if you were 20, you would just say it was because you: were hungover, studying too hard, stressed in your new job, doe-eyed and in love with the new person in your life, etc, etc... Because you are 'of a certain age' you have: dementia/Alzheimer's, suffering from the menopause, 'losing it', or any of a number of other stereotypical 'reasons' for forgetting something. As I said, forgetting is normal.

What is not normal is forgetting what you use the teapot for, putting the dishes in the airing cupboard, being unable to name familiar household items, seeing small animals or children that other people tell you are not there, hearing music/voices that no one else can hear or being unable to draw a clock face and place all the numbers in the right parts of the clock.

There are a number of tests on-line which should reassure you or inform you that further investigations might be warranted.

Sometimes it's just the hard-drive that is so over-full it's difficult to process everything that needs to be done/thought about!

PS - I'm a nurse, btw, hence how I have a little insight into memory/cognitive-related conditions.

Grandma2213, well done you , but remember no-one loves a show off ! ha ha !
Your wee dgs will be proudly bragging about his clever Granny !

Good to hear its not just me I can't live without my diary now whereas before I could remember all the dates.
I lose things all the time too.
I think we all tend to be thinking of a lot of things at once so we forget some. We could get away with it when we were younger, but sadly our brain cells do die off as we age.
I have a friend with dementia and its so sad to see her this way. So like Tizwiz I do worry .

Just before Christmas, I bought a diary. Now I can't find it anywhere. I have two calendars, plus calendars that 'talk' to each other on my laptop and phone. But I still like to have one that I can write memos in. It must be somewhere in the chaos that surrounds me! I can find many years' diaries in drawers, but not the new one.

I am 93 .find it best to always put everything in the same place,double check that I have turned the taps off and the cooker rings.never use candles although often get them as gifts,pass them on to DD.could be a lot worse.

littlegran. You sound very sorted !

TerriS - Thank you! Thank you! I feel reasonably normal again - although I do forget the names of things with great regularity, I always have so I guess it's ok.

I too have had one of those weeks. I make coffee every morning for myself and oh. This week I forgot to put the water in the coffee filter machine , the next day I forgot to put the filter in. I put some little mini quiches in the oven and forgot them until they were a tad over cooked. Just managed to catch the boiled eggs as the pan burnt dry. My oh calls me memory woman (sarcastic beggar). Not that he's much better. I think stress and having too much to do plays a major part.

I surpassed myself this evening and somehow ( how) ? put a teatowel in the oven along with the dish of gratin potatoes that I was cooking.Luckily I returned to the kitchen about ten mins later and spotted it in there through the glass door.It was red hot, but ok.

Today my DGC had cheese and ham wraps for lunch. As the pack was still half full but ripped I carefully put it in a sandwich bag to prevent them from going stale. I later found them placed in the drawer where I keep the sandwich bags, bin liners, cling film etc!

tiredoldwoman DGS would never brag about me!! Daddy is still 'Superdad' no matter what I do! I don't play football as well as him!

This thread has calmed some of my worries about losing it, as there has been plenty of good advice.

I find I am standing by the wrong cupboard to put things away in the kitchen when I know full well where things go. I went to put milk in my tea when I found I had already done this that sort if thing.

It helped when someone said the more stressed you are the worse it is.

So I have taken myself in hand, calmed down. Keep adding things to my To Do List as I think of them. Have a note pad by my bed. Concentrate when putting things away in the kitchen.

The last couple of days I have felt much better and have been less forgetful. Long may it last.

With me it's names and facts. I often have to go through the alphabet to give myself a clue to a very familiar or a very famous name. And then go through it again. Yesterday I was trying to think of songs by Stevie Wonder and came up with two. What a relief that he's had so few hits

Well all of that makes me feel a lot better. My main problem is doing something and half way through task noticing something else that needs doing so diverting onto that task. I think I do it because I know I won't recall task 2 after I go back to task 1. In this way I can get in a right muddle with several half done tasks that I have to work backwards through. Writing it down just makes it sound even more loopy!

Tizliz You have probably hit the nail on the head by "being a bit stressed" I get like that.

Sourcerer48 I have done similar things with a wrong tube of cream."