Have been inculcated from a wee baby I have very little time reference. Since reading the posts regarding hypnosis I understand it a lot more. Doesn't make it better. As a JW you live life on hold.
I'm back... and OFF of Paxil. But memory loss??
by Confucious 17 Replies latest jw friends
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bigmouth
Hi confucious, nice to see you back.
I think those that have indicated that stress and depression have caused the 'memory loss' are correct. I used paroxetine hydrochloride (Paxil) for 4 or 5 years and during therapy was able to put some of the bad things in the right stream of time. I don't think it will be the meds.
Paxil is the next SSRI generation of anti-depressants after fluoxetine (Prozac) and some people respond well to it and some have a disastrous time. And vice-versa. -
Confucious
Thanks everybody and thanks for the welcome back.
At one time, I thought that I would never be off Paxil.
I'll be honest... it did work well for me.
But now off it, I have to "try" a little harder now and have to concentrate on NOT getting depressed.
I do feel depression creeping up on me, but I do know how to deal with it now.
Not to over simplify depression, but sometimes you just need to take a deep breath and just relax and put things in perspective.
I know Paxil has a lot of side effects, but I also consider it a "medicine" and not a "drug" per se.
Not here to debate the difference.
But I do know that I had to take it for the stress and depression I was under because of the borg.
Con
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Billy the Ex-Bethelite
Con, Thanks for sharing.
I'm also on an SSRI, now for 3 years. I look forward to not needing it someday.
Besides the effects of medication, stress, and trauma, as mentioned, depression itself can cause spotty or slow memory recall. I had noticed it early on as a consequence of unipolar depression itself. Depression would also cause me to become anxious because of memory problems. In actuality, I often found that when talking to other people without depression, their memories were even worse than mine. So, I just stopped worrying about it and have found that the memories seem to come back as needed.
I know my description of it must sound weird, but hey, I'm an old, single fart in a weird religion...
Billy
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Namaste
I'm another with huge chunks of memory missing. It's interesting that my sister who never really bought into it and didn't get baptized doesn't have the same experience. I attribute some of it to the mind numbing boredom that occurs and life passes by without any highlights, events or celebrations. A previous poster mentioned the hypnosis threads, I'm going to go back and reread those as they made me go hmmmm the first time I read them. Might be something there.
Even more frustrating is my husband has a pretty good memory and let's just say that he must have started out with A LOT more brain cells than the average person as he has managed to kill quite a few of them off by partaking in a few substances not currently recognized as "legal" in the USA. I still have to rely on him to "remember" things for me. I too have been using different medications for depression over the past 10+ years. So I imagine my problem is a combination of several factors.
Realizing that this is my past, I am determined that my son has a different experience. We celebrate the holidays with much joy and remembering, I record and photograph every possible event, and I even journal with him even though he is just 4 years old. I want him to be able to look back on a full and interesting life. In the process, I find myself being able to recall our history together better than I have any other time in my life. It's something I actually focus on now so that in my very old age I'll have good memories.
Welcome back!
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Sparkplug
Wrong post...oops
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Confucious
Namaste...
That hypnosis thread is the reason I decided to post this thread.
For those who are not familiar...
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/12/149601/1.ashx
That thread talks about depression and fatigue related illness and this concept of hypnosis.
Con
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Awakened07
Looking back, and it's kind of scary... but from age 23 to about age 29 or so - I've seemed to have loss all memory.
I'll remember some events, but I can't recall dates and when they happened.
And I can't structure it and put dates and events in order.
It's very bizzare. It's almost like I didn't exist for a time period.
I have a fantasic memory and can recall things way into my youth before the WT. I remember when I took vacations, where I went. Things that happened.
But while pioneering - it seems that everything runs together or is not there. I can't place one event to the next.
I'm sure it has something to do with the daily grind of being a JW.
I never took a pill in my life except for pain killers from time to time, and I too have similar memory loss problems to what you describe.
Some things come back to me now, and I get a better understanding of myself and my life and upbringing, but some things seem to have been repressed.
I think perhaps that when you go through the same things every day every day every day, there's really nothing for the brain to "hang on to". I watched a 60 Minutes episode some time ago, where a researcher had found that the brain would remember things much more easily if there was a 'jolt' of adrenaline at the time of the event. When nothing much out of the ordinary happens, I guess the brain "shuts off" in a way.
That, and the constant need to shut out all the conflicting thoughts you usually have as a Witness. At least if you're "inflicted" with "independent thinking"...