Amnesia, Symptoms, and treatment

Amnesia

Amnesia is a form of the psychological-neurological disorder where a person is rendered incapable of forming new memories or remembering the old ones. It is not about forgetting a few things in our daily routine, Amnesia is about forgetting about major life events, life details, places or facts that are prominent in one’s life. Due to the inability to recollect the past information, one is often left incapable of building up new memories or imagining their future – as the process of future imagination is related to the past information already stored in the brain.

People with Amnesia find it hard to remember their family members, the place they live, their career or even their house. There are varieties of brain complexes involved when one tries to recollect their memories. While the people with Amnesia are mostly lucid and have a sense of their self, their mental health suffers because of prolonged periods of memory loss.

Symptoms of Amnesia

Failing to recall someone’s name or certain things isn’t attributed to the condition, Amnesia symptoms include:

1.Confused or disoriented mind and behavior

2. Short term, partial or total memory loss

3. Failure to process or remember new information

4. Inability to recollect important life events, memories or people

5. Uncoordinated movements or neurological problems when stressing on memory

6. Confusion and agitation when talking about experiences

7. No lasting memories

Causes and Types 

There are different types of Amnesia known to occur for different reasons. Here are some of the types that are triggered by some of the other causes.

Anterograde Amnesia: Anterograde Amnesia is one where a person has difficulties remembering new events that are mostly stored in the short term memory of the brain. Things that have happened in the recent past are forgotten. This happens due to a severe blow in the head, some trauma attack or brain damage. One remembers the past data but not the current past i.e. one month, 6 months or a year.

Retrograde Amnesia: Much like the opposite of Anterograde Amnesia, here the person forgets everything that happened before the trauma and only remembers the events that occurred in the recent past. A person cannot remember anything that happened before the trauma.

Transient Global Amnesia: Temporary loss of all memory, past and present while having difficulties to process the new information that comes with time. This condition is a lot rare and often occurs with age.

Traumatic Amnesia: Due to a severe accident or blow in the head, the person experiences a complete loss of memory, consciousness or coma. It can last for days or sometimes even years, depending upon how severe the accident was.

Wernicke- Korsakoff’s psychosis: Habits like alcohol consumption or even malnutrition can cause people to have progressive memory loss. This condition builds up with time and even leads to disorientation between body movements and neurological problems.

Psychological Amnesia: If a person has experienced an emotional shock like violent crime, sexual abuse, terrorist act, shocking news, etc, they get dissociative and forgetful of certain movements. They may fail to recognize themselves, forget their childhood, blackout between moments and more.

Therapies and treatments

In most of the cases, amnesia gets recovered on its own. But if it has happened due to a severe shock or accident, Amnesia treatments become necessary.

Amnesia Therapists help patients through hypnosis and conversations to make them remember things from their past. The therapists teach the patients how to connect their present information with their past data to easily organize their information and remember them. Techniques and strategies to store the new information are applied to keep one’s memory updated.

Currently, there are no medicines that can help restore the memories lost due to amnesia. However, a well balanced nutritive diet, healthy habits, and active lifestyle are recommended for the best functioning of the brains.

Keep your heart happy: Read here

Take Away!

It is a psychological disorder that gets triggered by some shocking news or accident where a person forgets their past or recent memories. It can take days, months and years for a person to return to normal. While time is construed as the best medicine, therapies from psychologists and doctors do help in addressing the situation!

© Ruchi Verma

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Disclaimer – This article is an informative piece. Before manipulating any health-related issue kindly consult a concern doctor, medical practitioner or nutritionist.

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Ruchi Verma

Certified parenting teen practitioner, multiple Award winner, mother of two active kids believes in sharing the right source of information to readers which could help them in every possible way!!

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110 Comments

  1. Well researched article on the many forms of amnesia and symptoms. Some of them are so similar to dementia and Alzheimer’s! Scary.

  2. You haven given a detailed description about Amnesia, very well researched and east to understand.

  3. I am suprised that there are different types of amnesia and different causes as welL. My initial thought about the cause of amnesia is accident. Now your post has given me a new perspective of amnesia,

  4. Ye bahut hi mushkil hota hai, maine personally to kisi ko nahi dekha bas suna hi hai,
    Chaliye inke kuch treatment to hain ,mere khyal se family support sabse jaruri hai

  5. Very well researched and explained in a good way for the layperson to understand. Thank you for these health awareness articles… sharing this.

  6. I would be terrified if I had amnesia! What an insane out of body experience not to remember things from the past yet everyone else tells you they happened!

  7. Such an informative post about Amnesia and you had covered all aspect of Amnesia so well in the post. will help a lot to readers in understand this disease condition better, for sure. #Myfriendalexa #Surbhireads

  8. Such a well researched and detailed post. I definitely encountered a lot of new information after reading your article.

  9. Well research post Ruchie.
    I never knew so many types and causes of amnesia.

  10. Useful and detailed post about Amnesia. It is sound scary, forgetting about the important life events and places.

  11. This is a very insightful post on amnesia. Thanks for sharing.
    #myepicareads #MyFriendAlexa

  12. This was really interesting. I didn’t realise there were so many different types of amnesia.

  13. Very well written post, you have covered all the points and made it easy to understand.

  14. Wow what an informative post! You have done your research well, Ruchi.

  15. Somehow this frightening ailment has been made a mockery of through the medium of films. I cannot imagine how traumatizing the condition would be for the person and his loved ones. Thanks for shedding light on this condition. Happy Alexa blogging Ruchi!

  16. A well-researched article, Ruchi! I am of the opinion that everyone should know the common ailments and this article helps in understanding about amnesia in depth.

  17. Amnesia is scary. Super scary. Imagine, not remembering the life you build for yourself. This post is pretty informative. Thanks for sharing.

  18. I found a lot of stuff which is new to me, especially the types of Amnesia. You have explained everything so nicely in easy words for everyone to understand.

  19. A very well-researched article on Amnesia. People will surely benefit from this write-up.

    An informative post on Montessori schools. I’m following your series to equip myself with the necessary knowledge.

  20. A great post and a great topic. A lot of researh has been done about Alzheimer’s disease, where a person gradually lose his memory of everything. We do not have a drug that can restore memory. Best Alzheimer drug, most probably in experimental stage, only stops further loss of memory. It reminds me of the famous series on American agent Jason Bourne, who knows everything but not about himself. It is a terrible feeling.

  21. An excellent and exhaustive write-up on Amnesia. I used to broadly categorize it as memory loss and did not know about its finer points. You article clarified many doubts.

  22. you have brought up an important ailment, I was honestly unaware about most of the things you mentioned. great read.

  23. Very well explained & researched. Amnesia is indeed a scary disease. I wasn’t not aware of its forms . You are doing good work by spreading the awareness about the disease.

  24. Your article is very informative. You have covered almost every point needed to understand Amnesia.

  25. That’s a very detailed post on amnesia many people would be benefitted by the post. Great share

  26. Amnesia can be really scary, honestly I didn’t know much about it buddy but now I am thanks to you

  27. Simple and lucid article on a very difficult topic. Wish you had discussed a little about Alzheimers and its differences with Amnesia

    1. I will try to cover that in next article !!

  28. A very comprehensive article about Amnesia. It was a new learning for me. Thanks

    1. Thanks for visiting

  29. Such an informative post Ruchi. So often we casually land up commenting that we have amnesia not realising how severe the condition actually is. Thanks for sharing.

    1. Ya actually it’s very tough and scary for one who deal with it …Thanks for visiting here

  30. A thoroughly researched article. The reason why I liked your post is that you explained everything in simple terms

    1. Thanks a lot …I am glad you liked it

  31. This is a beautiful article Ruchi. You have explained about Amnesia , its types and symptoms very well. Thanks for sharing the information.

    1. Thanks for hopping here …Happy that you liked this!!

  32. Your post is so informative and all the details are explained in clear manner. I have seen my relative having amnesia after a major road accident.

    1. Even in my family one close relative have and it gives pain to entire family!

  33. A well-researched article. It is perhaps the most abused of disorders by series and movie writers. But is harrowing for both the patient and his/her loved ones.

    1. Yes it is horrifying but we need to understand what exactly it is and learn about it!!

  34. Interesting article, and very well-researched. This is quite similar to Alzheimer’s. Thank you for this interesting information and blog post.

    1. Thanks for stopping by !!

  35. Hi Ruchi, its a very well articulated post. Never have i been more enlightened about the topic than now. The topic has been described very well, in a lucid manner, with no frills and/or jargon. The distinction among the different types is explained well, in a manner that every lay person would be able to understand. Frankly speaking, after reading your post, i feel much more confident to talk about the topic now 🙂

    1. I am glad you found this informative!!

  36. Thanks for writing about Amnesia. It happens quite often that people can’t diagnose Amnesia and term it as forgetfulness.

  37. Very interesting post about the different kinds of amnesia and the ways to recover from them! Isn’t it amazing that time is the best medicine for this and most other illnesses?

  38. This sound me like a Ghajini Movie, very scary diseases.

  39. Informative and to the point. Thanks for sharing these points. Sometimes we don’t fully understand this disease and become impatient with people for forgetting things- not understanding that they could have another reality.

  40. Very well explained Ruchi, the simple language and facts you stated have cleared many doubts I had in my mind.

  41. Thank you for this beautiful and informative article Ruchi. You have explained about Amnesia , its types and symptoms very well. Had heard of amnesia but did not know such details.

  42. Very knowledgeful post.. I knew about amnesia only as much told in the movie 50 first dates but that was like knowing the term.. Knowing it etter is good i guess so we can may be identify it from the early symptoms itself

  43. This was such a detailed post and yet done with so much ease. An informative read!

  44. QUite a detailed information presented in the post….. Didnt really know about this…

  45. What an interesting topic, learned so much from this article. It’s crazy to how similar it is to dementia

  46. This is a very well researched and well-written article. Many times amnesia is confused with a casual approach. It needs timely attention and treatment.

    1. Yes it needs to be understood properly

  47. Well researched and informative, you have a varied blog

  48. I was not aware about these important details of Amnesia. Really informative. Will look forward to your next post!

  49. Thanks for the great introduction about amnesia. Very informative post!!

    I usually unable to understand the medical terms, but this is so simply descriptive that I immediately catch all the points;)

    1. I am happy that I can make you aware of this a bit!!

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