By: MILO BOYD
Memory loss can happen to anyone, and the reasons for it can differ. However, health care professionals have been hearing more complaints from people about memory loss during the pandemic.
Why is this happening? Well, according to multiple sources like Psychology Today and AllinaHealth, it’s due to multiple stressors and isolation brought in by the pandemic that has impacted our brains and ability to remember. The disturbing thing is, the symptoms are not just seen in young and old adults, but also teens and kids.
An article created by Donna Stein and published on NextAvenue depicts Stein’s experience with Transient Global Amnesia, which was caused by stress due to the pandemic and Covid-19. She tells of how, during a span of 8 hours, she forgot crucial parts of her life and other information, and it took several hours for her to recover. “During those eight hours, I forgot that Trump was president, that there was a global pandemic and that my parents had died (my father in June 2016 and my mother in August 2019),” says Stein, who has since then stopped being fixated over the news pertaining to the pandemic.
While Stein’s case was more on the severe end, studies done by PsychologyToday show that memory decline is becoming more prevalent in people of all ages, as of the start pandemic. “It’s the nature of the pandemic slowing everything down. It’s the stress that creates this focus on other things and focus on other pieces that we’re not really setting new memories right,” says therapist Liz Kittleson from Wildtree psychotherapy. On the bright side, however, Kittleson believes that most people will get better once the world goes back to normalcy, and advises to talk to a care physician if you worry that you’re experiencing significant memory loss.
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