Forgetfulness starting to impact work

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I have been a lot more forgetful lately. There was a time when my dad asked me to take care of something as I was leaving the house, which was very clear and easy to do and would have taken at most 30 seconds and I was eager to do, but by the time I went by the task on the path out, I had already forgotten to do it.

Now I'm having a similar problem at work, which could impact my job. There's a task that needs doing before I leave, which takes like 5 to 10 minutes. It's easy, and in fact I usually do the task quite well, as remarked upon by coworkers. Unfortunately, I've been forgetting to do that task lately and it was remarked upon by my team lead that I had forgotten. I was really afraid and resolved not to forget and that worked, but then I've started forgetting again, which is disturbing again. Now it's been remarked upon by team lead again, and she noted I didn't respond to the last email. What should I say? I plan to set up reminders in Outlook, because this is unacceptable.

Should I call and let my doctor know about my memory lapses?

You can try B12 (someone recommended that here).

I simply write stuff down. I'm stuck remembering stuff for me and my boss as he is hopelessly disorganized. Of course, we have an understanding. I don't remember stuff 5 seconds after I'm told something, so if he doesn't get it to me in writing or e-mail, he needs to make sure I've written it down before walking off. If he blathers something at me and keeps on going, he has no business expecting that I will remember to do it...or that I even got all that he said.

I have this a lot lately, too. I have had it intermittently for years, but it seems worse lately.

I am relying very heavily on checklists with checkmarks for intermediate and final actions to complete a task... I have done some idiotic and self destructive things this year like complete a difficult project in record time, then write a careful email to send with the files--only to discover two days later that I never hit the "send" button on the email, and I only realize this when I get a worried email from the client.., It is so frustrating.

I have also been reading the burnout, regression and breakdown threads, and they are worrying. I hope this is just a longer stretch of the usual cycle of over-stimulation followed by a crash and recovery.

The problem with the lists and checklists is that I have to remember to use them. I am now making a master list with simple procedures for everything else including typical subtasks. It seems like the kind of thing I should not need, but I am just not functioning without instructions, even when I am doing things I know very well and have been doing for years. I was starting to worry about early onset alzheimers until I read up on executive dysfunction.

Good luck!

Beneficii, memory lapses can be a sign of some serious health issues, but I'm coming to think it's also part and parcel of having AS. I know this is the case with me. In some cases, I have the capacity to hold enormous quantities of information in my memory. Yet, in other cases, I forget the simplest, and sometimes most important, things. Nor does there seem to be any rhyme or reason for what I remember and what I don't.

I think I am different from most aspies in that I have very poor attention to detail; I am very good at seeing the big picture. So, since I am the boss at work, my assistant takes care of the details for me--something she is very good at, while I concentrate on the bigger picture.

It may have something to do with poor executive function. But if you get it figured out, I hope you let the rest of us know.

What should I tell my team lead? She wants an answer for why I'm starting to forget this.

If I may ask, How old are you guys? I'm 29, so I think I'm a little too early for Alzheimer's or anything like that. I've been having some low-key psychotic symptoms off and on over the past few months with some problems with emotions, sleeping, and anxiety, so perhaps the memory problems are related to a developing psychotic episode? Hopefully, we can resolve it without it coming to that.

I think all you likely can do is to apologize, make amends as possible, and then offer assurances that it won't happen again.

I think one of the other posters has an excellent idea about writing things down. I'm remiss at doing that myself, but I've found that when I do write down what I need to remember does help--provided I remember to look at what I wrote. Oh well....

I'm fifty.

Again, your memory episodes could be indicative of something more serious. It is also the case that drugs can cause memory impairment, both of the legal and illegal variety, particularly cannabis.

Two things that do help me with my memory are good quality ginseng and eating oily fish, such as tuna and catfish. One theory of autism is that it is an inflammation of the brain, and the omega 3 fatty acids tend to inhibit inflammation. I don't know if this is true, but eating fish in particular seems to help me some.

Stress and lack of sleep can certainly negatively impact your cognitive functioning.

Ahhh!

So: little hope of making it go away any time soon, then!

Alas, I cannot say. ::sigh::

My forgetfulness has gotten so bad that I pick up a paper to write a reminder down but by the time I find the paper I forget what I was supposed to remind myself of.

I print something out at the printer and then it sits there for 3 hours and my boss asks me where was that document he asked me to print. It is getting harder to explain.

I fall asleep in presentations. I've gotten a terrible reputation. I really tried to keep myself awake at the last presentation but I fell asleep despite pinching myself and telling myself to stay awake. I don't think I was tired. Luckily my supervisor who was there didn't catch me. I had already been warned for falling asleep at my desk(!) So now I only stand at my desk, not sit. It makes it easier to stay awake.

I'm not sure if it's all about lack of sleep as I've been getting more lately. My shrink is going to prescribe me some ADHD meds to take for the next time I have to sit in on a presentation so I don't get fired. I'll see how that works.

I heard lithium may cause it, but I've been on lithium for a while. These memory problems have been there since before being put on the antipsychotics. I don't do illegal drugs or alcohol or tobacco.

Should I call my psychiatrist and let her know what's going on with my memory? Perhaps I should go to another psychiatrist for a second opinion of the diagnosis and treatment plan? How should I go about that? (I guess I can go back to my old psychiatrist for a session.) Should I contact an early psychosis center?

Well, I had no problem coming up with that list of questions.

I had an issue like this and I made a sign and taped it to the door of where I work to remind myself before I left. You could stick it on your locker, if you have one, or set an alarm on your watch? Some reminder will help you make this into a routine.

I've been having some issues with staying awake at work and in the last week or so, I've generally been tired and have been sleeping more often. Prior to that, I was having issues hardly being able to sleep at all.

Beneficii, first, I would caution you not to jump to any conclusions and unnecessarily worry yourself. I would let my doctor know though, and seek a second opinion if you find their answer unsatisfactory.

One of the other posters reminded me of something I read a while back. When we are busy and have to walk into another room for something, for some reason going into another room tends to make people forget what they went into that room for. It's happened to me more times than I can count. So, what I do now--at least when I can remember to--is to keep what I'm doing in the front of my mind when I go to do it.

Also, my AS tends to get better and worse, and tends to go in cycles. It may be the same with you, and you may be in some kind of down cycle right now.

I would certainly let my doctor know what is going on, but I would try not to worry about it too much.

I set the calendar on my phone and also my yahoo account to remind me. I tend to lose paper notes or they become invisible after the first couple days.
(I actually wrote a program for this type of issue because I can forget I'm making toast, and how long is that? 2 minutes? Unfortunately, I seem to have some issues when running it alongside other programs. I think I have to convert it to a different programming language for it to be more stable. It was a project for a visual basic class so it's in VB despite my better judgement.)

I do notice my symptoms fluctuate from day to day even, but generally I think I've been more Aspie lately. I'm under a good deal of mental exertion and probably not getting enough sleep so that could be a factor.