As a serious lover of home (local) movies, I have watched a couple of scenes where someone would have an accident and would have what we call amnesia, being unable to remember anything at all from his or her past, while I know that amnesia is real and it affects people, I have never had contact with someone who has it physically, but in a group that I am, some days ago, a lady had an accident and she went into a coma after she recovered, she had amnesia, it was so serious that she couldn't remember her parents and her siblings anymore, but what made me so concerned about it, is that Amnesia is not only caused from accidents and we could get amnesia through other occurrences, which you will find out as you read on.
Amnesia happens when the person involved is no longer able to remember the information stored in the memory. Remember that, the symptoms of amnesia can actually overlap and then make it possible for one man to have different types of amnesia. People who often forget things in their day-to-day life cannot be said to have amnesia, amnesia is a large-scale long-term loss of memory usually as a result of illness, psychological trauma, or brain injury. Amnesia is a person's inability to recall experiences and events involving a variety of complex brain processes, in this case, there is a loss in the thoughts of key events, important milestones, important things that have been learned, and even important people. In most cases, people with amnesia are lucid and have a sense of self, in a few cases they remember things up to a particular point and from there nothing more.
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Let's talk about how mysterious the brain is;
How the brain codes and stores information has remained a mystery, existing conflicting stories are; localized memory areas existing in the brain alone, memory storage existing in the brain molecules, and widespread distribution of memories that exist across the outermost layer of the brain. With the structure, it often appears that the brain has several forms like the short term where new information is stored for a brief time, and if the information is not appropriately processed, it will be forgotten soon. The long-term is when information from short-term memory is shifted to long-term memory. Declarative memory is a conscious memory of information and events and for non-declarative memory, once it is learned, habits like driving a car are automatic and ingrained.
I mentioned in the introduction, that there are different types of amnesia and certain features of amnesia could overlap, in some cases, it would be temporary while in other cases could be long-lasting, let's go through the different existing types of amnesia briefly, we have the;* Anterograde Amnesia*: A person with this type of amnesia is often unable to remember new information, this usually occurs after an episode of brain trauma, like having a blow to the head and it leads to brain damage, this person will experience full memory from time to time before the episode of the injury happened.
Traumatic amnesia: This is a result of a hard blow health on to the head, for example, a case of a car accident which would lead to loss of consciousness or coma. Such duration is often temporary but also depends on how severe the injury is.
Retrograde Amnesia: This is the opposite of retrograde amnesia, this is when an affected person is unable to remember the events that occurs before their trauma, but they can remember the events that happened afterward. On highly rare occasions, anterograde and retrograde amnesia happens together.
Transient global amnesia: This is a temporary memory loss, and at a point where the case is severe, there is usually difficulty forming new memories, which is rare and more likely to happen to older adults who have vascular (blood vessel) disease.
Dissociative/Fugue amnesia: This is very rare but can make the affected person forget both their identity and their past, this implies that they could wake up and suddenly begin to lose the sense of who they are. Often triggered by a traumatic experience, the ability to remember could return within minutes, hours, or even days, but the memory of the particular triggering event may never come back completely.
Posthypnotic amnesia: This is also a type of amnesia where the affected person is unable to recall what happened while they experienced hypnosis.
Alchohol-induced amnesia: This is when a bout of heavy drinking leaves a person who has memory gaps, it is also called a blackout.
Source amnesia: With this type of amnesia, the affected person can remember some information but not how they got it.
Prosopamnesia: This person cannot remember faces, people can either be born with this condition or they could acquire it.
Childhood amnesia/Infantile amnesia is not an actual disorder as the young child's language and memory are still developing, as a result of this, most adults are unable to remember events from early childhood.
As already seen, the symptoms of amnesia depend on the cause, but generally include; confusion, memory loss, and inability to recognize usually familiar people or places. The possible causes of neurological amnesia are;
- Inflammation of the brain, which may be due to an infection with a virus such as a simplex virus or herpes.
- Stroke.
- Tumors in areas of the brain that control money.- Seizures.- Long-term misuse of alcohol.
Preventing an occurrence of amnesia may not be within our power sometimes, maybe when it happens due to an accident, but in some cases, it can also be controlled through;
Put on a helmet while bicycling and a seat belt while driving.
Not consuming large amounts of alcohol.
Whenever there is a case of infection before or can spread into the brain.
Serious headache, numbness on one side of the body, or the inability of the body to move may suggest a brain aneurysm or a stroke.
References.
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/amnesia/symptoms-causes/syc-20353360
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/21455-amnesia
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/21455-amnesia
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/9673#what-is-it
https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/conditionsandtreatments/amnesia
https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/conditionsandtreatments/amnesia
Hi, I am Tobi a writer, speaker, relationship blogger, and lover of good music. I love making friends and learning from people. Want to hear me speak on relationships and general life issues, you can find my youtube channel where you can listen and watch any episode for free, do not forget to subscribe, friends. I sincerely appreciate every love I get from here, please do well to keep them coming.