Impact on memory

I have become aware my memory is not as good since I lost my husband, not memories, just something I’ve done or have to do and it’s completely blank. I started to wonder if there was a connection to grief and it appears there is so. I will paste some of the text and hope you find some reassurance if you too are finding recall a problem. I’m pretty sure the fact that we may not rest/sleep as well is a factor too.

Memory loss, confusion, an inability to concentrate or focus – these things are all normal inside grief. They do tend to be temporary, but they last a lot longer than you would think.
For a lot of people, it’s a few years before their entire cognitive capacity comes back to any recognizable form. There are losses in that too. Some of those losses are temporary and some of them mean your mind is just different as you move forward. The thing to remember is that physiologically, your body has experienced a trauma. Your brain is working hard to make sense of something that can’t ever make sense. All of those mental circuits that used to fire so clearly are trying their best to relate to this entirely changed world.

Thank you for posting this. Can you tell us the source of it please ?

Tried to paste link and it didn’t work but if you google ‘does grief affect memory’ you will find the full article and a few more x

Hi Sanw
I know exactly how you feel about memory. I feel that it has a lot to do with concentration. At the moment I cannot follow weekly dramas, I forget what I am talking about and I have to ask the person I am talking to to back track do I can pick up the thread again. I feel that this is all part of grief. I held a full time job as a primary school teacher and as you can imagine it has been a shock to discover my memory is not as good as it was. We are not mad, just bruised. We need time to heal.

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This is interesting SanW. I’ve just googled it. I have to make lists now and I never used to. My husband always used to make lists and I would make fun of him. Guess he’s having the last laugh ;))

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