# Are Late Stage Pandemic Restrictions Messing With Our Brains?



## OneEyedDiva (Mar 9, 2021)

This was one of the articles in Pocket that I received by emailed today. I have some of these brain "symptoms" and frankly I had started to worry. In a way it's good to know it's not because I'm in the early stages of dementia! This article blames all types of forgetfulness on the lockdowns. Do you find your brain isn't as sharp as it used to be pre-pandemic?
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/...cket&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=pockethits


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## Becky1951 (Mar 9, 2021)

Thank you for posting this article. I've been so forgetful lately and not being able to remember the name of some everyday items it's been scary.


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## officerripley (Mar 9, 2021)

Yes, thanks for posting; I've been worrying about my memory lately too. And the fact that the neighborhood we live in is lonely anyway--we're on 1 acre lots--was getting to me even before the Lockdown and of course once that started, no way of finding other ways to socialize in person. Thank goodness for the internet (espec. SF) and Zoom meetings but I miss in-person contact with others _*so much*_ I feel like I can't stand another minute of this sometimes.


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## MarciKS (Mar 9, 2021)

I've been forgetting things more as well. What bothered me the most was one evening I was about to leave work and I was looking forward to doing something when I got home and then I remembered the event was cancelled. I was so disappointed. 

I will lay down a set of potholders at work and a few minutes later I can't find them and I look where I swear I laid them and they're not there. They're in front of me and my brain isn't even registering them. It's as if my brain is recalling the place I left them before instead of last. I get sidetracked or distracted super easy and forget what I'm doing. I get some strange looks sometimes from co-workers.


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## Keesha (Mar 9, 2021)

Yes but I’ve been blaming it on the medication I’m on.  One thing I have noticed lately is that I actually really enjoy meeting others on my walks with the dogs and others seem to be much more receptive to me. Before I’d try and avoid people where I don’t that much any more.

Another difference I’ve noticed is that people seem to want to talk to me more. When I take my girls to the groomers, she’ll talk for a long time when I go to pick them up. People on my walks are stopping and striking up conversations about our dogs , the weather or some other small talk type topics. Normally I’d shy away from this but lately I haven’t been. Oops! I said that already. 
I forgot ! 

I think maybe it’s a combination of others being cooped up and me being on medication that is actually working for me. Plus I stopped using cannabis, which has changed my perception quite a bit. .... lol! Yep! Duh! Of course it has. 
I’m glad I stopped.


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## Sunny (Mar 10, 2021)

My memory and concept of what date it is have definitely been affected. Every day feels pretty much the same, in the absence of regularly scheduled events.  Last night I almost forgot to get on our family's Tuesday night Zoom meeting, something I always look forward to. I just forgot that it was Tuesday!  I did get there late, and they were all worried about me.  Felt pretty dumb, just saying, "I forgot it's Tuesday."

I can't wait for this to be over.


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## MarciKS (Mar 10, 2021)

*I think because we are just vegging out all day with no set purpose our minds are on vacation without us. I have to work at remembering which Saturday it is to recall if I need to sign off on my time card so I can get pd. the following week.

We're bound to be forgetful with nothing to do but hang around.*


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## Pinky (Mar 10, 2021)

Every day is like the next .. Groundhog Day


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## Aunt Bea (Mar 10, 2021)




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## MarciKS (Mar 10, 2021)

*I like how he's in his jammies. LOL*


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## ProTruckDriver (Mar 10, 2021)

MarciKS said:


> I will lay down a set of potholders at work and a few minutes later I can't find them and I look where I swear I laid them and they're not there. They're in front of me and my brain isn't even registering them. It's as if my brain is recalling the place I left them before instead of last.


I have had the same happen to me a few times. I would be looking for my coffee cup or something and I can't see it and it's right in front of me on my desk. I would ask my wife if she seen my coffee cup or something  and she would say it's right here on your desk. This has happen to me with other things too. It gets kind of scary.


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## SetWave (Mar 10, 2021)

Thankfully, I do not have Covid but I am definitely suffering pandemic fatigue.


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## Don M. (Mar 10, 2021)

Between this pandemic, and the Winter weather, the last few months have been somewhat trying.  I got my 2nd Covid vaccine this morning, and my wife is scheduled for hers next week.  By early April we intend to start leading a more normal lifestyle....mask included.


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## JonDouglas (Mar 10, 2021)

Maybe people are waking up to the idea that the brain needs sensory and tactile stimulation to keep healthy.


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## Don M. (Mar 10, 2021)

JonDouglas said:


> Maybe people are waking up to the idea that the brain needs sensory and tactile stimulation to keep healthy.



The Brain is much like a Muscle....If you don't use it, you lose it.


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## SetWave (Mar 10, 2021)

JonDouglas said:


> Maybe people are waking up to the idea that the brain needs sensory and tactile stimulation to keep healthy.


Agree. Conference calls and Zoom doom lack so little. I much rather prefer face-to-face in-person contact. But, will patiently wait until it's okay to crawl out from under the bed.


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## Aneeda72 (Mar 10, 2021)

I see no difference, but then I have always been rather scattered brained, and was diagnosed in my late fifties, with a type of dementia usual to adults who had been abused children, according to the neurologist and research, our brains don’t grow correctly.

But, @Don M. I thought you already kept yourself rather isolated before the lockdowns so if you are having increased other age memory issues I would talk to your doctor.  This question should really be answered by those that self isolated before the lockdowns to be accurate.  IMO.

I rarely remember the actual date, because I don’t really need to remember it, and with our reliance on digital watches, cell phones, radios in the car, etc, those aides all add to this not needing to remember the date that is constantly in front of us.

However, I ALWAYS know when the pay checks are due to come.  It’s a special talent people who have been poor have.


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## StarSong (Mar 10, 2021)

I haven't noticed being more forgetful.

My occasional difficulty tracking days and dates came about when I retired, and became really terrible early in the stay-at-home period.

Improvement came in leaps and bounds when we formed a pod with our daughter's family and started getting together every weekend, and I scheduled a Zoom session with friends every Wednesday. Regularly scheduled weekly activities moor people to the calendar. Otherwise, as @Pinky said, everyday is Groundhog Day.

@Sunny, half an hour before my Zoom session, Alexa is programmed to call out: "Get ready to Zoom."

Generally speaking, I find Alexa to be invaluable for little reminders around the house, whether for cooking, moving laundry from one machine to the other and then folding it, taking meds at the same time every day, keeping doctor and other appointments, or even performing chores that I keep forgetting putting off. She's a gentle nag that doesn't get irritated if I ignore her.


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## Aneeda72 (Mar 10, 2021)

StarSong said:


> I haven't noticed being more forgetful.
> 
> My occasional difficulty tracking days and dates came about when I retired, and became really terrible early in the stay-at-home period.
> 
> ...


Alexa does my spelling and occasionally corrects my pronunciation, I find her very rude at times.


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## StarSong (Mar 10, 2021)

Aneeda72 said:


> Alexa does my spelling and occasionally corrects my pronunciation, I find her very rude at times.


When you tell her to set a timer for a minute and a half and she'll say, "Timer set for one minute and thirty seconds, starting now!"  

I reply back, "Stop correcting me." Sometimes, just to be a bi***, I'll cancel a timer 3 seconds before it goes off. I make her do all that work tracking the time, then swoop in and deny her the joy of showing off her skills.


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## SetWave (Mar 10, 2021)

"lack so little"??? That should be lack so much! See? It has gotten to my poor little peabrain.


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## Don M. (Mar 10, 2021)

Aneeda72 said:


> I see no difference, but then I have always been rather scattered brained, and was diagnosed in my late fifties, with a type of dementia usual to adults who had been abused children, according to the neurologist and research, our brains don’t grow correctly.



At least you recognize your issues....the Next step is to try to do something about it.  

But, @Don M. I thought you already kept yourself rather isolated before the lockdowns so if you are having increased other age memory issues I would talk to your doctor.  

Yes, we are a bit "isolated"...living in a very rural area.  However, due to this pandemic, our visits and interactions with the kids/grandkids have been substantially reduced.  We like to go to the casinos at least once a month, but that, too, has been reduced.  Other than these lacks of personal interaction, our lives haven't changed much over the past year.  If that translated into "memory issues", in your mind, I would suggest that you review the first sentence in your post.  


Aneeda72 said:


> I rarely remember the actual date, because I don’t really need to remember it, and with our reliance on digital watches, cell phones, radios in the car, etc, those aides all add to this not needing to remember the date that is constantly in front of us.
> 
> However, I ALWAYS know when the pay checks are due to come.  It’s a special talent people who have been poor have.


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## Gaer (Mar 10, 2021)

Glad you said"late stage pandemic"!  Hope so!


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## officerripley (Mar 10, 2021)

I got one of these perpetual calendars & put it next to my sink:


I hope it'll help me to stop missing appointments (as long as I can remember to change it each morning, sigh).


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## Aneeda72 (Mar 10, 2021)

Don M. said:


> At least you recognize your issues....the Next step is to try to do something about it.
> 
> But, @Don M. I thought you already kept yourself rather isolated before the lockdowns so if you are having increased other age memory issues I would talk to your doctor.
> 
> Yes, we are a bit "isolated"...living in a very rural area.  However, due to this pandemic, our visits and interactions with the kids/grandkids have been substantially reduced.  We like to go to the casinos at least once a month, but that, too, has been reduced.  Other than these lacks of personal interaction, our lives haven't changed much over the past year.  If that translated into "memory issues", in your mind, I would suggest that you review the first sentence in your post.


 Well, when you said in post 13 that the last months had been trying, I thought you were referring to the subject of the thread “trying” in terms of memory, silly me, thinking you would be talking about the subject of the thread.

In your next thread you mentioned exercising your brain, thought you meant YOUR brain.  Apparently you think it’s everyone else’s brain that needs help.  . In any event, glad you have decided to mask up, but your using a mask does surprise me.


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## Aneeda72 (Mar 10, 2021)

StarSong said:


> When you tell her to set a timer for a minute and a half and she'll say, "Timer set for one minute and thirty seconds, starting now!"
> 
> I reply back, "Stop correcting me." Sometimes, just to be a bi***, I'll cancel a timer 3 seconds before it goes off. I make her do all that work tracking the time, then swoop in and deny her the joy of showing off her skills.


@StarSong thanks for the suggestion.  I underuse my Alexa.  I am so busy in the afternoon I frequently forget to take my afternoon meds till 3 and I like to take them at noon.  Never occurred to me to tell Alexa to remind me.  . You don't know what you don’t know.

Now I know, I set Alexa, and now I have to remember why Alexa is bugging me at noon.


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## Sunny (Mar 10, 2021)

Starsong, that's a good idea about Alexa. I know how to set a regular alarm, I just say, "Alexa, set an alarm for 30 minutes (or whatever)."  Can you tell me how to set it for a weekly reminder?


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## DaveA (Mar 10, 2021)

At my age I'm normally forgetful and haven't noticed any increase in my forgetfulness since the pandemic.  Most likely because there's 6 of us, from 3 generations living in this old house and the kids/grandkids keep us on our toes.  It would be a much sadder situation if we lived alone.


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## StarSong (Mar 10, 2021)

Sunny said:


> Starsong, that's a good idea about Alexa. I know how to set a regular alarm, I just say, "Alexa, set an alarm for 30 minutes (or whatever)."  Can you tell me how to set it for a weekly reminder?


Absolutely, I say to her, Alexa set a reminder every Tuesday at 5:00 pm to get ready to Zoom Darling.  Then every Tues at 5:00 she'll say, I'm reminding you to get ready to Zoom Darling.  (I have her call me all kinds of pet names: Your Highness, Darling, Gorgeous, etc.)   

To cancel it, just ask her to cancel your Tuesday at 5:00 pm zoom reminder. She'll tell you what the reminder is and ask if you want to cancel it. You say, "Yes, please cancel." That's it.

For timers, most people don't know this, but you can add or subtract time.  So if you set a 10 minute timer and it looks like you'll need more time, just say, "Alexa, please add 3 minutes to my 10 minute timer."  Then she confirms it back.  To reduce it, same thing.  "Alexa, please reduce my 10 minute timer by 3 minutes."  

Since I use it almost exclusively for reminders and timers I'm pretty well versed in what it can do.


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## StarSong (Mar 10, 2021)

Aneeda72 said:


> @StarSong thanks for the suggestion.  I underuse my Alexa.  I am so busy in the afternoon I frequently forget to take my afternoon meds till 3 and I like to take them at noon.  Never occurred to me to tell Alexa to remind me.  . You don't know what you don’t know.
> 
> Now I know, I set Alexa, and now I have to remember why Alexa is bugging me at noon.


When you set a reminder (rather than a timer) she'll tell you what the reminder is for.


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## Aneeda72 (Mar 10, 2021)

StarSong said:


> When you set a reminder (rather than a timer) she'll tell you what the reminder is for.


Ok, I did that and will see if it works tomorrow, thanks


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## Sunny (Mar 10, 2021)

OK, thanks so much. I just set it (I am Your Highness), and she added, "By the way, you can now set monthly or yearly reminders also. For instance, I can remind you to pay bills on the 1st of every month."

A little too much helpfulness, but it always cracks me up. Sometimes she'll say, "By the way, you have a package that was just delivered to your front door."  And I go and open the door, and there it is, on the floor. Kind of creepy.  But my favorite fun thing to do with her is to say, "Thank you, Alexa."  She replies, "Of course, (my first name)" or sometimes, "You're welcome."  I wonder if she's got "No problem" programmed in there also.


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## Aneeda72 (Mar 10, 2021)

Sunny said:


> OK, thanks so much. I just set it (I am Your Highness), and she added, "By the way, you can now set monthly or yearly reminders also. For instance, I can remind you to pay bills on the 1st of every month."
> 
> A little too much helpfulness, but it always cracks me up. Sometimes she'll say, "By the way, you have a package that was just delivered to your front door."  And I go and open the door, and there it is, on the floor. Kind of creepy.  But my favorite fun thing to do with her is to say, "Thank you, Alexa."  She replies, "Of course, (my first name)" or sometimes, "You're welcome."  I wonder if she's got "No problem" programmed in there also.


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## OneEyedDiva (Mar 10, 2021)

@Becky1951 & @officerripley  I'm glad you found the article to be helpful.

@MarciKS & @ProTruckDriver  Not seeing something that's right in front of me has happened a lot, long before COVID. Sometimes it happens that I'm looking for something, don't see it in the original spot I looked, look all over then go back to the original spot and it's there. I'm sure there's a explanation for the phenomenon, I just haven't found it yet.


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## Aneeda72 (Mar 10, 2021)

OneEyedDiva said:


> @Becky1951 & @officerripley  I'm glad you found the article to be helpful.
> 
> @MarciKS & @ProTruckDriver  Not seeing something that's right in front of me has happened a lot, long before COVID. Sometimes it happens that I'm looking for something, don't see it in the original spot I looked, look all over then go back to the original spot and it's there. I'm sure there's a reason for the phenomenon, I just haven't researched it yet.


This happens to me sometimes and before Covid.  I have also had issue with sound recognition at times as in what’s that sound, oh, my toothbrush.  So annoying


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## Aneeda72 (Mar 10, 2021)

StarSong said:


> When you tell her to set a timer for a minute and a half and she'll say, "Timer set for one minute and thirty seconds, starting now!"
> 
> I reply back, "Stop correcting me." Sometimes, just to be a bi***, I'll cancel a timer 3 seconds before it goes off. I make her do all that work tracking the time, then swoop in and deny her the joy of showing off her skills.


I once told her thank you, she said your welcome.


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## Sunny (Mar 11, 2021)

Programming that gadget must have been fun.


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## StarSong (Mar 11, 2021)

Sunny said:


> Programming that gadget must have been fun.


It is.


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## gennie (Mar 11, 2021)

As MarciKS said ....."they're in front of me and my brain isn't even registering them."

This is something new for me and is happening frequently.  Very scary.


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## Sunny (Mar 12, 2021)

The main effect the pandemic is having on my thinking is that I often don't know what day of the week it is. Every day feels like a weekend. I never realized how much I rely on regularly scheduled events to keep this kind of stuff straight. Sometimes I even have to think for a minute to remember what month it is!  If I didn't have my cell phone to glance at, I'd be floating around in limbo.


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## Packerjohn (Mar 12, 2021)

JonDouglas said:


> Maybe people are waking up to the idea that the brain needs sensory and tactile stimulation to keep healthy.


That's right, JonDouglas.  I don't know what these people are talking about because my mind is fine.  I do a lot of reading every morning.  Actually, 3 hours each day.  Right now, I'm reading a book written by Edward Snowden.  I also sing & play the guitar which is suppose to do wonders to keep your mind sharp.  I also walk outside in the sunshine & fresh air 5 days/week.  I limit my time on the computer, do not own a not-so-smart-phone & limit my evening TV to 2.5 - 3 hrs.  I don't have cable so my brain isn't fryed watching endless commercials.  Instead I buy DVDs & watch shows that make me think & that I enjoy.  Don't mean to put anyone's lifestyle down, but to my way of thinking sitting all day in front of the TV or looking at your smartphone 150 times/day doesn't seem like your doing your brain a lot of good.  Your brain needs to be exercised & challenged.  That's what the people who do crossword puzzles do.   Life is what you make it.  Blaming a pandemic, your parents, god or the devil, the government or medicare doesn't cut it for me!


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## officerripley (Mar 12, 2021)

"Life is what you make it." Not always, especially not those in a concentration camp. Or in a circling-the-drain, cancer ward of a hospital (with a cancer that they got not because of "poor lifestyle choices" but because of heredity or being exposed to toxins in the environment). I could go on, of course.


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## Don M. (Mar 12, 2021)

Here's a fine example of how some people are going nuts during this pandemic........

https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/uber-attacker-arrested-san-francisco-las-vegas-125705696.html


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## StarSong (Mar 12, 2021)

Don M. said:


> Here's a fine example of how some people are going nuts during this pandemic........
> 
> https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/uber-attacker-arrested-san-francisco-las-vegas-125705696.html


I don't think the pandemic had anything whatsoever to do with this truly dreadful behavior.


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## ProTruckDriver (Mar 12, 2021)

StarSong said:


> I don't think the pandemic had anything whatsoever to do with this truly dreadful behavior.


I don't either. This is the way some of the younger generation acted even before the pandemic IMHO.


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## Sunny (Mar 12, 2021)

So, ProTruckDriver, you are saying that before this generation came along, there was no violence, vicious attacks never existed, everyone was just nice to each other all the time?

I agree that the pandemic probably has little or nothing to do with this behavior. But why blame it on one particular generation? Stupid jerks have been around for a long time.


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## Furryanimal (Mar 12, 2021)

Yes...a year of nothing will do that to you.


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## StarSong (Mar 13, 2021)

Sunny said:


> I agree that the pandemic probably has little or nothing to do with this behavior. But why blame it on one particular generation? *Stupid jerks have been around for a long time*


Amen.


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## MarciKS (Mar 13, 2021)

StarSong said:


> I don't think the pandemic had anything whatsoever to do with this truly dreadful behavior.


I agree.

A few months back I had looked into seeing a psychologist. Just this month I found out he went nuts & beat his father to death who was on hospice & put his mother in the hospital after beating her. I don't know why for sure. Perhaps his practice was suffering due to the pandemic.


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## ProTruckDriver (Mar 13, 2021)

Sunny said:


> But why blame it on one particular generation? *Stupid jerks have been around for a long time.*


Yes they have and the number is rapidly growing in amount, most young from what I have seen.


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