Some forgetfulness, or a little memory loss, in people middle-aged and older, is actually normal and not a cause for concern. There are natural aging processes that explain minor lapses in memory, more popularly called “senior moments.”
As we age, our ability to divide our attention among two or more activities starts to diminish slightly—it may be harder to do “two things at once”! The holiday season is an especially busy and hectic time, full of many tasks that we feel we have to accomplish before the festivities begin. We may find it more efficient to do one thing at a time, from start to finish, as typical interruptions may lead us to forget momentarily what we were doing or saying.
After about 55 years of age, both our physical and mental responses naturally start to slow down. Humans have millions of impressions, recollections, words, dates and other items stored in our memory bank. Withdrawing information—such as remembering appointments, errands to run, people’s names and phone numbers—might take a little longer as we get older, so it’s always a good idea to mark a calendar and write things down. The more we have on our mind, the more we should use simple reminders such as “to-do” lists, wrist-watch or cell-phone alarms, and pill boxes sorted by day of week.
So, while the occasional forgetting where we placed our car keys or the pen we were just writing with is typical of normal aging, there are other memory changes that are not normal. Benign senescent forgetfulness is a disorder characterized by continual repetition of accounts of events, questions and requests; generally, the person’s short-term memory loss does not worsen or interfere with everyday life. Dementia is a far more serious and progressive decline in mental functions, including not remembering your name and address, how to dress yourself or balance your checkbook, and clearly requires an evaluation by a physician.
For more information on normal and abnormal behavior as we age, please visit http://www.merckmanuals.com/professional/geriatrics.html or the Beth Israel Senior Health web site at http://www.wehealny.org/services/bi_seniorhealth/index.html.