I Don’t Even Remember What I Wanted to Call This Article

I can’t remember anything. I don’t know what degree of forgetfulness you just envisioned, but believe me, it’s worse than that. I know this because the people in my life who experience it every day can’t even wrap their minds around it.

It’s not age-related. I am in my early 40s now, but I’ve been this way forever. I don’t have a medical condition that I’m aware of; I’m just very forgetful.

I feel like I have tried everything to remedy it or even to compensate for it, but nothing has worked. A number of people close to me have suggested that I simply pay more attention to things — that it’s a matter of focus or prioritization. No one believes me, but I really have tried. It was a miserable failure.

I make lists for myself. I love lists. I even make them on my phone so that I’ll have them with me. Then I forget where I put my phone and/or forget to even look at the lists.

I’ve tried setting alarms and planner notifications for myself, but then I get so many notifications that I begin to just ignore them, and I’ve still not even scratched the surface of all the things I would need to set notifications for. It gets even worse that that. I sometimes get a notification, look at it, put my phone away, and then immediately completely forget about the notification THAT I JUST READ.

It’s amazingly instantaneous. I can forget about something within seconds of being aware of it. I know this because acting on things more immediately is something else I’ve tried. I simply can’t act fast enough to stay ahead of the forgetfulness.

You haven’t even heard the worst part yet. The real kick in the teeth is that I KNOW that I’m going to forget. I can’t tell you how many times a day I try to preemptively warn people, “I’m sorry, but there’s no way I’m going to remember that.” I know that sounds like a lack of effort on my part, but I assure you that my forgetfulness is much more of a burden for me than for anyone else who may be affected by it. I would absolutely change it if I could.

Maybe you know someone with a similar affliction. If you do, I’m asking you to try to be as patient and understanding with them as you can. Try to consider that it may not be that they don’t care enough to remember but instead that they can’t find a way.