Marijuana and Memory

[Rose Gardener]

So much I want to say. Only where do I start?

 

Ok, first I'll talk about my memory. For the most part it's not too bad, with or without pot. My short term memory is worse than my long term memory tho. Unless of course it's something that I have a keen interest in. Then I can remember and recall what I need or want to.

There are days when I forget to grab my mobile, or wallet, or keys, or something before I go off to work. Thankfully I can't lock my keys in the house!

And there are also time where I'll be partway thru a sentence and just completely forget what I was saying, the topic being talk about, and yeah. But I'm with most everyone else, I think this happens to just about everyone, stoner or not.

I think this is just because of distraction and having my mind on other things. I know at work, if I let my mind wander, I tend to forget to put invoices in the cartons before closing and the like.

 

I go thru moments when I forget what I'm doing too. Like going into the kitchen to make coffee. I forget to take my mug with me and I also forget why I went into the kitchen, by hey, this happens to Mr too and he doesn't smoke pot at all, not even passively coz I smoke outside.

 

At this point, I'd like to mention my father and his memory. He has TLE (Temporal Lobe Epilepsy, left front to be precise) and it affects his short term memory greatly. BUT when he has a smoke, his short term memory improves. But also, he can remember Ohm's Law, all the electrical conversions (watts to amps and all that stuff), and just about anything related to electronics. This, I think is because he was an electronics engineer for so long back in his younger days. When it comes to computers tho, he has to call and ask me, (or find someone else who knows), about the most simplest and most inane little things! Me, on the other hand, it's basically the other way round!

I guess it's like nitram said, it's "state dependent". If I learn something when I'm stoned, I have better recall of it later, when I'm stoned.

 

This is where I have to take a moment to remember what I was saying because I stopped to roll a cig...

 

Ah yes....

 

I have days when I can't even remember getting out of bed, if I had lunch, or even who it was I just got off the phone with. I also think this could be the result of distraction or that it's just not important enough to remember.

 

I don't drink much, (mainly because it interacts badly with the prescribed pharmaceuticals I 'have' to take), and I'm not a heavy pot smoker, (one gram last me about three days) so I don't think that my memory is affected by that.

 

And now at this point, I want to mention a friend of mind. She IS a heavy smoker and drinks a fair bit and is as ditzy as they come. She is intelligent, but very VERY forgetful!

I don't know if it's because of the amount she drink, or smokes, of if there is another factor I don't know about. All I know is that I can talk to her one day to organize some smoke or what have you, and later that day when I talk to her again, she can't even remember that I spoke to her earlier!

 

In the end, I think it all comes down to the individual and how their brain works. The brain IS the final frontier in medicine. Doctors, scientists, etc, just don't have the slightest idea how it works.

stonedstump mentioned taking omega 3 fish oil with ginko biloba.

Omega 3 does help memory (along with just about everything else) and I heartily endorse the taking of fish oil, or hemp oil, whatever you prefer. I used to take cod liver oil in liquid cap form, until it started causing some nasty reflux and stopped, and my memory, alertness, and just general health improved greatly.

Actually, at work, we have some anti reflux fish oil caps... Might look into getting some. Wholesale plus 10% for employees! Woohoo! Sooooo much cheaper than the pharmacy!

 

Oh, one last thing. I think...

One thing I have noticed with my memory is that it is worse when I am tired (as is most everyone else's too I think). And since I use mj as a sleep aid (among other things) because I don't sleep well at all, my memory is a lot better the day after a night of smoking because I am relatively well rested.

 

Anyway, great topic Buddy!

 

Cheers.

~M.

[amarkrieder]

I too use cannabis for sleeping problems

 

before I discovered the existance of cannabis I suffered badly with nightmares from childhood abuse by the people around me and while in the care of the State Government of Tasmania these were so bad that my mind would not let me remember the content but my body told me by the wakeing sweats and terrible tiredness the next day leaving me unable to focus even on simple tasks.

 

After ~20 years of trying to find a legal way to treat my problem I asked my State appointed mental health worker if there was any way I could get at these memorys so that i might examine them and hopefully reduce there impact on my daily life and was reminded the the human mind protects us from traumatic experiance by forgetting events eg. amnesia experianced after a nasty motor car crash with no brain damage and as reported in emergancy rooms.

She asked me if I was sure I wanted to override this built in safety and spend even more of my future time re-experiancing the pain

or just get on with life understanding we cannot change the past

 

Even if i want to "get on with it " then I need help with controlling the daily effects and the very same group that abused me all those years ago Tas Gov continue to do it today by not allowing me access to the one medication that works for me and what is worse was problem mostly caused by them (PROOF I recieved a payout as compensation from them)

 

she was right not remembering some things is a bonus in some ways

 

and what is the difference between takeing 1400mg Sodium Valproate a day for the rest of my life as i have been told i have to, or smoking cannabis for the rest of my life as I want to.

 

Please do not use lung cancer as Quality of life is just as important as Quantity to me.

[grok]

none of us have ever permanently forgotten anything. It is all there and can be accessed with hypnosis. You can be put in a hypnotic trance and recall how many steps it took you to get from school to home on your first day of primary school..true!!

 

our ability to memorise and recall certain facts is largely detirmined by the effort we put into memorising them in the first place. In our society memory recall or the ability to regurgitate 'facts' we learned at school or University is the main detirminant of 'intelligence'

 

our brains have the ability to easily remember another persons face and the 'vibe' that they emit but will often have difficulty putting a name to that face...

 

we have a natural memory forgetting ability inbuilt....this is why you cant recall much of your childhood....only memories that have a special significance for you...in fact if you ask anyone what they were doing 90 days ago they would probably not be able to tell you.

 

MJ certainly does affect short term memory recall...but whos to say this is a 'bad' thing?....when straight your memory comes back..

I have experienced not being able to finish a sentence because i forgot what i was talking about...this common 'side affect' of ganja plus the fact that it makes you talk and respond to people slower than someone who is straight are the main reasons i beleive that it is often referred to as Dope...

 

dramatic and traumatic experiences if severe enough will cause amnesia. if really severe it can cause a person to 'shatter' into several distinct personalities. M.P.D. (multiple personality disorder)...each 'person' will have segregated memories and distinctly different personalities...(this is a popular technique used for brainwashing and Mind Kontrol experiments)

 

why not live more in the 'now'?....memory is only useful for accessing the past....imagination is for accessing the future...MJ helps you live in the present...

 

when you're studying something that is of interest to you it is much easier to learn and memorise...and you will therefore be more intelligent in that paticular area of life..

 

..well that my 2 cents worth!!!