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Visual Anchors


lydiacevedo

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So, life, the past coule of weeks, had been interesting. My yungest son, Logan, moved back home. The same weekend, a friend of mine, who used to work for the same copany I did, moved back to Tampa, from New York. He is sharing the apartment with Logan and me, splitting the bills 3 ways, which makes things easier. Paul, however, having not seen me since the strokes, noticed some things are different about me.

 

Mainly, he's noticed that my mind is not the "steel trap" that it used to be. I get flustred easily because I forget things, can't find things, or have no memory of things being said or happening. So, he asked me what that was al about. I explained that I "live life 1 room at a time." Whatever happens or is said in one room of the house, or any particular place, cannot be accessed as a memory until I come bck to that location. Everything has a visual anchor for me. Without them, I am totally lost.

 

That is when I realized exactly how true that was for me. We bought new livingroom furniture in Septmber of last year. Thinking back, very hard, I can't remember anything that happened at home before last September. I haven't been to the old office in almost a year. I don't remember anyting of what I used to do there now. Perhaps, if I walked back into my old office, I might remember something, but I can't even remember the names of people I used to work with, even those I worked with for years, except Paul, my now roommate and Tim, whom I see socially almost every other week. Everything else is just gone. There is a big hole where that entire part of my life used to be.

 

Which makes me understand why, when it came down to days before I was supposed to give up my apartment and move in with a friend, I was in a blind panic not to do it. Had I moved in with her, all of my things would have been placed in storage. That means all of my visual anchors to my memories would have been gone and I would have been totally lost. I've even come to realize that I wear the exact same jewlery on the same hands/wrists as visual anchors. I can remember things that happened while I was out and about when I look at my ring, watch or bracelet. Without them, I'm at a loss.

 

Without the big, red leather sofa, my chins cabnet, the chineese lantern over my bed, the microwave/pizza oven, or the artwork my grandmother made, I would have no way of sparking a memory of the things that go on in my life. That is frightening. What happens the day those things are not there?

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Lydia: you are using those visual anchors to help rewire your brain. Good decision to stay put for now. And you don't give up. You work every day at triggering those memories you want to recover.

 

Time in all things stroke. Good news and thank you for sharing. Debbie

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I just wrote my blog and was thinking of all the many things all of you have said so life is good all the time! I'm so glad for you that things are improving and your son is back!

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Guest hostwill

Posted

LYDIA,

THANK YOU FOR SHARING HOW YOU COPE WITH MEMORY PROBLEMS. WHAT EVER WORKS; THAT IS THE KEY. NEVER GIVE UP!

- WILL

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Lydi, This is huge! Use it, don't be worried or scared of it! Train your brain to remember, using a room-specific "anchor". Look at your anchors, and try to remember...last night,yesterday...last month. When you feel pretty confident,try to transfer that ability to something on you, such as a mole.freckle, or scar That way, you're taking the memory with you.When you feel confident,try remembering without an )anchor. Just an ide I had. What I think is so significant, is that you can remember with a prompt(anchor), and that shows that your brain is trying.

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A related event of "brain retraining" just happened to me. I just got a bridge for a missing front tooth. To floss under it requires me to put my finger with floss on it inside my mouth behind the front row of teeth, Try as I might, at first I could not make my hand go inside the upper mouth with the floss while looking in the mirror. The hand just refused to move the proper way, no matter how I focused. I had to turn away from the mirror to do it. Now, a few weeks later I can easily do it looking into the mirror. My brain has retrained itself to allow the new reverse looking hand movement in the mirror. Just goes to show that the mind never stops trying to do what we want, never give up!

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