Amnesia

[Kobold-Bard]

Does anyone in the Playground have any experience with amnesia, either themselves or someone they know? Does it ever get better etc.

The reason I ask is one of my best friends has lost 99% of her memories from before 2 weeks ago. She has no idea who anyone is, can't remember anything from uni and is generally a blank slate.

I know it's selfish but I'm afraid I'm going to lose her. She lives in another part of the country so I can't just go round, and talking with her through texts its clear she is talking to a stranger. I'm a bit freaked out in case she just stops replying one day.

Any advice anyone can give about memory loss in general? I always thought amnesia was exaggerated for tv, but she literally doesn't remember a thing (not even her stalkerish love of Alan Rickman).

Thanks in advance,
K-B

[Erloas]

I don't know much, but I think it has a lot to do with the type of amnesia.

I lost about 4-6 hours worth of a ski trip. I don't remember anything about it and even years later there isn't a single bit that came back. All I know is I skied with my mom and my brother for a bit of the day and went off on my own after an early stop at the lodge and then I woke up on the side of the hill a bit after all the runs had closed.
From what I've heard a lot of that short term amnesia is pretty much permanent and none of it will ever come back.

With long term I think it depends a lot on how it happened. I think most long term versions have a pretty good chance of coming back but some times never do. Of course thats hardly a professionally backed statement. Your best bet is to look up actual medical papers about the subject and see what you can find. Even personal experience isn't going to tell you much unless it is the exact same form and cause of the amnesia.

[Yora]

I'm only experienced with dementia, which probably doesn't apply in this case.
With amnesia, it really depends a lot on the causes and the individual case. I think usually such massive gaps come back slowly over some weeks or months, but there's never a guarantee for it.

[Fifty-Eyed Fred]

Does anyone in the Playground have any experience with amnesia, either themselves or someone they know?

I forget. :smalltongue:

My serious answer is no. My only experience comes from television, and I have reasons to believe that such sources are not often reliable.

[Kobold-Bard]

I forget. :smalltongue:

My serious answer is no. My only experience comes from television, and I have reasons to believe that such sources are not often reliable.

I genuinely thought stuff like this didn't happen in real life, only on tv. The idea that someone could lose 19 years worth of memories and have nothing but a couple of songs they like left just seems unreal.

[ForzaFiori]

I can't tell you much about huge amounts of amnesia like that. I have a few gaps in my memory from head trauma (10 concussions), and they haven't come back at all, even after almost 10 years. I've heard that long term amnesia has a better chance of coming back, especially with people telling you what happened and stuff like that. It even (kinda) works with short term. I lost a day of school when I had my worst concussion, but I know basically what happened, and can remember snips of it (nothing from 30 min. before or after the injury though) though people telling me over and over again. So keep working with her.

[Totally Guy]

Before we'd even met him my mum's partner had brain surgery that resulted in him forgetting everyone but his mother.

It seems the memories pieced themselves back together once everyone had spoken with him and interacted for a while. I'm not sure how long it took, or how upsetting it was. He doesn't share him emotions as freely as I do.

[Dogmantra]

You are only speaking with her over texts?
It seems like it would only happen on TV?

Okay, this may sound like a stupid question, but are you absolutely sure she's not having you on? Just to me it seems like it could be a stupid prank.

[Kobold-Bard]

You are only speaking with her over texts?
It seems like it would only happen on TV?

Okay, this may sound like a stupid question, but are you absolutely sure she's not having you on? Just to me it seems like it could be a stupid prank.

If what she's saying is true she's been kicked out of her boyfriend's family's house (where she was living) because they think she is faking as an excuse to dump her boyfriend. She's now sleeping on her friend's couch.

It's been two weeks, I can't believe she's been putting this on. Not only is she not the type (she can't lie to save her life), but if it is it's frankly evil.

Texts and stuff only really because she hates talking over the phone, always has.

Sorry if I seem tetchy, I'm just at a loss as how to help her.

[The Rose Dragon]

You're lucky she remembers so much, such as language skills, how to use texting, etc. The cases of amnesia I know are often accompanied by regression into an infant mindset, where you forget how to talk, how to feed yourself and such. Admittedly, it might be relatively rare, but since my aunt works with mentally handicapped children, I hear of those cases often.

I mean, not to discourage you or anything, but it might not get better. And if she does not recover from amnesia, she might become a different person than she used to be, due to the effects of nurture on personality. If you want to keep your friendship with her, I suggest working hard to reconnect with her.

[Toastkart]

If what she's saying is true she's been kicked out of her boyfriend's family's house (where she was living) because they think she is faking as an excuse to dump her boyfriend. She's now sleeping on her friend's couch.

It's been two weeks, I can't believe she's been putting this on. Not only is she not the type (she can't lie to save her life), but if it is it's frankly evil.


You saying this makes me have serious doubts about it. I'm no expert, I'm still just a psychology grad student, but if she suffered some kind of physical trauma that made her lose that much of her memory she'd likely be in a hospital. If it were some kind of mental trauma, she'd still likely be in a hospital.



The reason I ask is one of my best friends has lost 99% of her memories from before 2 weeks ago. She has no idea who anyone is, can't remember anything from uni and is generally a blank slate.

Most physical trauma amnesia that's the result of actual brain damage and not the acute kind like Erloas's ski trip is temporally graded. That means that the further in the past away from when the damage occurred, the better the memory is.

Whether amnesia improves or not largely depends on what kind and how severe the trauma was. And what kind of treatment she's getting.

If you want to read up more on amnesia in general look up the cases of HM and The Last Hippie (case study by Oliver Sacks in Anthropologist on Mars). Both of these cases exhibit anterograde (can't make new memories) and retrograde (can't remember past memories) amnesia.

[Jack Squat]

You saying this makes me have serious doubts about it. I'm no expert, I'm still just a psychology grad student, but if she suffered some kind of physical trauma that made her lose that much of her memory she'd likely be in a hospital. If it were some kind of mental trauma, she'd still likely be in a hospital.

Only if someone had thought to take her there.

There's a chance that this is a prank, but two weeks is pretty long to carry something on. Are you in contact with other people that know her and would know more about the situation? If so, I'd really suggest contacting them to see what's up.

[Mauve Shirt]

Not exactly the same thing, at all really, but I can't remember much of anything from my brain surgery, when I was heavily dosed on morphine. Apparently, I refused to eat food until my sister told me to. And some guy gave me $50 to participate in a pain test and the machine broke down. And I complained about being in pain, so they upped my meds, but I was actually complaining about the IV in my arm, and when they took me off the meds I was just fine and could go home. I don't remember any of that.
Nowhere near as dramatic as the TV sort of amnesia.

[Dogmantra]

Sorry if I seem tetchy, I'm just at a loss as how to help her.

No, no problem. I didn't know that much about the situation. From what I'd heard it seemed like it could be a silly prank. Now, not so much.

[thubby]

has she seen a doctor?

[Ubercaledor]

there are two major types of amnesia, retroactive (memories of before trauma; as in this case) and proactive (memories from just before to after the incident). The variability is large in how much recovery can be made, though it is a lot more likely that retroactive amnesia will be recovered than proactive.

In short, it's a waiting game.

[The Extinguisher]

My only experience with memory loss is through alcohol, but this whole thing seems really weird. Doesn't seem right.

[Quincunx]

If she wasn't the type, Kobold-Bard, your first reaction wouldn't have been "ha-ha, very funny. now quit it". This girl had to be at least somewhat a jerk.

Now I am interested though. She can only know she doesn't like talking over the phone because someone (you?) told her. Why not start over and say "nah, you like talking on the phone to people, just not to me, I don't know why"? It's an unlikely opportunity for this lady to become less of a jerk than she was. :smallcool:

[Erloas]

Yeah, I don't really think this could be a prank. For one, if it was just to break up with her boyfriend she would only have to pretend when around her boyfriend and people that know and talk to him all the time. If you aren't anywhere near them then there would be no reason for her to act out the prank towards you.

What about her family? You said she was staying with a friend. Though in this case a friend would be just as much a stranger as everyone else, including family.

And really this is the sort of stuff that should be brought to the attention of a doctor right away, even if there isn't any obvious physical sign of the cause.

[Kobold-Bard]

Yeah, I don't really think this could be a prank. For one, if it was just to break up with her boyfriend she would only have to pretend when around her boyfriend and people that know and talk to him all the time. If you aren't anywhere near them then there would be no reason for her to act out the prank towards you.

What about her family? You said she was staying with a friend. Though in this case a friend would be just as much a stranger as everyone else, including family.

And really this is the sort of stuff that should be brought to the attention of a doctor right away, even if there isn't any obvious physical sign of the cause.

She's in hospital for tests basically every day, as well as counselling which apparently isn't going very well since she can't remember anything she'd want to talk about. She has no family; mum's dead, dad's long gone, no siblings or any family she knew of before, hence why she was living with the boyfriend's family.

I've seen other friends of hers from uni and they all have basically the same response as me, she coudn't point them out of a line up.

@Rose Dragon: Yes I suppose she is relatively lucky.

@Quincux: Thanks for the lovely sentiment. She has no memory of her entire life, so this is a perfect opportunity to turn her into someone better. Just wonderful.

[golentan]

If she wasn't the type, Kobold-Bard, your first reaction wouldn't have been "ha-ha, very funny. now quit it". This girl had to be at least somewhat a jerk.

Now I am interested though. She can only know she doesn't like talking over the phone because someone (you?) told her. Why not start over and say "nah, you like talking on the phone to people, just not to me, I don't know why"? It's an unlikely opportunity for this lady to become less of a jerk than she was. :smallcool:

:smallfurious:

Seriously not appropriate, Q.

[arguskos]

:smallfurious:

Seriously not appropriate, Q.
Quin's statement was almost certainly tongue-in-cheek, and though probably in poor taste, there are worse things that could have been said here. I'd advocate taking a step back, reading it as well-intentioned if poorly timed humor, and moving on. This goes for both you and K-B. :smallwink:

K-B, I have no serious advice for you, as I have never dealt with this personally.

However, you know where to find me if you need to talk about things. Always feel free to contact me for anything.

[golentan]

Quin's statement was almost certainly tongue-in-cheek, and though probably in poor taste, there are worse things that could have been said here. I'd advocate taking a step back, reading it as well-intentioned if poorly timed humor, and moving on. This goes for both you and K-B. :smallwink:

K-B, I have no serious advice for you, as I have never dealt with this personally.

However, you know where to find me if you need to talk about things. Always feel free to contact me for anything.

As humor, it would still be too soon.

[Quincunx]

Thank you for the championship, arguskos, but I was being completely serious--if tactless.

Kobold-Bard, you've been given a reset button in a human relationship, without bearing the burden of guilt for things done ill behind most wishes for such a button. What holds you to the old and bad restrictions of the relationship that was? It's not disloyal to the memory to hope things may work out more smoothly the second go 'round; it's not disloyal to your friend to not hold her past habits as a current expectation, to give her a chance to become a person more socially at ease, even if she doesn't realize it's a change. Most important, if you have no guilt of your own to work through, this urging can in no way be said to be for your benefit. Your hands are clean.

Would it put you more at ease if I said I wouldn't've recommended this if it hadn't been a complete erasure of retrograde memory? I'm drawing from a National Geographic article of some years ago (sorry, I can't even give you a decade to target to look it up, except that it was not the most recent article on the topic, published within the last few years) and its mini-interview with someone with a similar head trauma and scrambled hippocampus. Her personality changed also--a type A became a type B, objects of hate became likes. There's more written on the slate of memory than just experiences and they could have been equally wiped clean.

[arguskos]

As humor, it would still be too soon.
Given that humor exists to lighten situations, and to help us remember that everything can be handled, I don't believe in such a situation. Tact, perhaps, but too soon for a friendly josh? Never. Believe differently as you will, but I'll be laughing all the way to my grave, while you're dour and depressed over srsbizniz. :smalltongue:


Thank you for the championship, arguskos, but I was being completely serious--if tactless.
Well, uh, I tried. You're on your own now, since I can't honestly say I fully agree with your reasoning, though it's clearly well-intentioned. :smallwink:

[Asta Kask]

Does anyone in the Playground have any experience with amnesia, either themselves or someone they know? Does it ever get better etc.

The reason I ask is one of my best friends has lost 99% of her memories from before 2 weeks ago. She has no idea who anyone is, can't remember anything from uni and is generally a blank slate.

Thanks in advance,
K-B

Is there any indication as to why this happened? Skull trauma? Epileptic attack? Anything? Or did she just wake up one morning and didn't know anything or anyone?

In memory research one makes the difference between episodic and semantic memory. It's the difference between knowing that Paris is the capital of France ("semantic" or factual knowledge) and remembering the time you were there ("episodic" or event knowledge). Are both affected? Can she remember stuff she learned in school?

[mucat]

KB --
Something isn't making sense here. The only way someone can get complete, sudden-onset retrograde amnesia like this is if they've suffered severe brain damage, possibly from a stroke, accident, or tumor. Do her doctors really have no idea what happened to her? And they're letting a brain-damaged patient crash on a friend's couch instead of keeping her in the hospital?

I'm not saying that she's lying; I'm just really confused by the story. It doesn't make sense. It's possible that she's confused too, and is leaving out important facts when she gives you the story...but if it's really happening as she describes, then she needs to get to a competent doctor, now.

[Asta Kask]

KB --
Something isn't making sense here. The only way someone can get complete, sudden-onset retrograde amnesia like this is if they've suffered severe brain damage, possibly from a stroke, accident, or tumor. Do her doctors really have no idea what happened to her? And they're letting a brain-damaged patient crash on a friend's couch instead of keeping her in the hospital?

It could also be hysterical (which is not the same as saying she's faking it!).

[Kobold-Bard]

Thank you for the championship, arguskos, but I was being completely serious--if tactless.

Kobold-Bard, you've been given a reset button in a human relationship, without bearing the burden of guilt for things done ill behind most wishes for such a button. What holds you to the old and bad restrictions of the relationship that was? It's not disloyal to the memory to hope things may work out more smoothly the second go 'round; it's not disloyal to your friend to not hold her past habits as a current expectation, to give her a chance to become a person more socially at ease, even if she doesn't realize it's a change. Most important, if you have no guilt of your own to work through, this urging can in no way be said to be for your benefit. Your hands are clean.

...

I understand what you mean, it was just the way I read it that riled me up I guess.


Is there any indication as to why this happened? Skull trauma? Epileptic attack? Anything? Or did she just wake up one morning and didn't know anything or anyone?

In memory research one makes the difference between episodic and semantic memory. It's the difference between knowing that Paris is the capital of France ("semantic" or factual knowledge) and remembering the time you were there ("episodic" or event knowledge). Are both affected? Can she remember stuff she learned in school?

First thing she remembers is head pains and waking up in hospital. No head injuries though. All I know of amnesia is from Wikipedia is this thread. One thing that stood out in the article was that it can be brought on by severe emotional stress. The boyfriend situation had been escalating recently so it could have been a big argument that triggered it or something.

I guess she lost episodic knowledge, she still has all her information based memories, at least those from before this year at uni. They're a gonner.

On the plus side we've found a slight silver lining. Since she can't remember them she gets to watch the entire run of Friends for the "first time" (=when they're still funny) again :smallbiggrin:

[Kobold-Bard]

KB --
Something isn't making sense here. The only way someone can get complete, sudden-onset retrograde amnesia like this is if they've suffered severe brain damage, possibly from a stroke, accident, or tumor. Do her doctors really have no idea what happened to her? And they're letting a brain-damaged patient crash on a friend's couch instead of keeping her in the hospital?

I'm not saying that she's lying; I'm just really confused by the story. It doesn't make sense. It's possible that she's confused too, and is leaving out important facts when she gives you the story...but if it's really happening as she describes, then she needs to get to a competent doctor, now.

All I can tell you is what I know. I do keep checking about the hospital stuff, if something seems off I'll try and make sure something's done about it.


It could also be hysterical (which is not the same as saying she's faking it!).

I understand that. Don't worry, I'm not a monster who freaks out over everything. Just some things apparently :smallredface:

[Asta Kask]

First thing she remembers is head pains and waking up in hospital. No head injuries though. All I know of amnesia is from Wikipedia is this thread. One thing that stood out in the article was that it can be brought on by severe emotional stress. The boyfriend situation had been escalating recently so it could have been a big argument that triggered it or something.

Have they done a CT scan? I can think of a stroke or an epilepic attack from emotional stress. Barring that, it could be a hysteric episode. But I'm not a neurologist, so trust them first.

Edit: Who brought her to the hospital? Did someone find her lying unconscious, or wandering aimlessly around in the streets?

[Seffbasilisk]

I'd try to reintroduce her to things she was passionate about. That might spark some connections.

Don't shove Brahms lullabye in front of her and force her to play it, but perhaps get her to sit in front of a piano and have her mess around with it a bit.

That is, if Pianos are her thing.

From a distance, I suppose songs she likes are a good start, but don't try anything as complicated as inside jokes just yet.

Let her know that you're a friend, give her logs of conversations if you can, and tell her you'll be there for her.

[Kobold-Bard]

Have they done a CT scan? I can think of a stroke or an epilepic attack from emotional stress. Barring that, it could be a hysteric episode. But I'm not a neurologist, so trust them first.

Edit: Who brought her to the hospital? Did someone find her lying unconscious, or wandering aimlessly around in the streets?

It was the boyfriend's family. They saw her lying in the front garden apparently.

They have done, but I don't know the results.


I'd try to reintroduce her to things she was passionate about. That might spark some connections.

Don't shove Brahms lullabye in front of her and force her to play it, but perhaps get her to sit in front of a piano and have her mess around with it a bit.

That is, if Pianos are her thing.

From a distance, I suppose songs she likes are a good start, but don't try anything as complicated as inside jokes just yet.

Let her know that you're a friend, give her logs of conversations if you can, and tell her you'll be there for her.

Not pianos, but she seems to be thoroughly enjoying perusing her deviantart account. Doesn't remember them, but definitely likes them.