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Memory problems

Hi all,

I’m a 23 year old guy and I’m a little concerned about my memory.

I smashed my GCSEs (10 A*s) but I did worse in my A-levels, and I graduated with a 2.1 in my degree (which is still good I know! But I feel like I was capable of a first).

It’s just that ever since my GCSEs I feel like my memory has deteriorated. I’ve been able do well in exams but it takes 5x as much study time.

If I need to retain information it just seems to take a lot more effort nowadays to get it to stick! Throughout my degree I ended up preferring coursework to exams, because I really struggled with keeping all the information in my brain.

I also sometimes struggle to find words, for example I’ll be saying a sentence like “and he was just so - what’s the word... ... ... pretentious!”. Little things like that. It just seems like my brain has slowed down a bit.

I want to work in medicine in the future so this worrying me slightly as I don’t know if I’ll cope with remembering things.

Is this normal to be concerned about? Has anyone experienced something similar? Who should I see about it if it’s a concern?

I was trying to find a correlation and I could only think of me starting to drink around GCSEs (at parties etc) as most people do! Then obviously the drinking continued at uni. Is it alcohol?

Thanks for the help 😊

Reply 1

ddsizebra

hmm I would see a doctor just to make sure it isn't something serious. It would be a little strange for someone of your age to have something serious like Alzheimer's or some kind of prion related disease. Get it checked first and as soon as possible just to be sure.

Have you been going through alot of things outside your studies? perhaps they've disrupted your concentration or effort to memorise or some sort of trauma (no need to describe what it is).

Reply 2

Anonymous #1

Not at all! Not that I can think of anyway? I do tend to get quite stressed and I suffer from mild anxiety but I haven’t experienced anything traumatic.

I think maybe the doctors is the best way to be sure, but I don’t know how they’d even test me?