By Celestine Okafor (Editor-in-Chief) @CeleOkaf11
For all ages, people often are affected by severe or partial loss of memory, which experts in clinical psychology and other category of behavioral scientists, have described as Amnesia.
This pathetic clinical condition makes individuals to easily forget things, places and people, etc. Why indeed do people draw blank sometimes? How do they manifest such condition and what are the medical or psycho remedy for cases memory loss?
Timothy (surname deliberately withheld), a news reporter with one of the leading national newspapers, was hurrying on Tuesday last week for an early morning appointment with a former minister in the ex-president Goodluck Jonathan administration in his Asokoro, Abuja home. While on transit, Timothy's anxious mind ranged, especially on the kind of questions he would ask his proposed interviewee. He made notes, convinced himself that he was ready for the interview. Now in Asokoro, the news hound was ushered into the posh living room of his host. Exchange of pleasantries and banters over. The reporter opened his handbag to retrieve his digital recording device to proceed for the interview. It was unfortunately not there. He had forgotten his vital work tool at home in his anxious state.
The previous night, Timothy (fondly referred to as Tim by his professional colleagues) had gathered his recording tool and some of his trade materials on his reading table at home in other not to forget any of them. But he eventually did. The young man is clearly suffering from a bout of memory loss, otherwise known as Amnesia in clinical psychology.
Alhaji Abubakar El-Rufai, a Kaduna state-born commodity merchant based in Federal Housing Estate in Lugbe, Abuja, recently secured a heavy consignment of cheap farm produce. His supplier who sold the commodity at a give-away price was asking for an instant payment. It was just 20 minutes to the close of the day's banking hours. Thinking however that his Company's bank cheque booklet which he had brought out that morning was in his hand bag, he hobbled to the bank for a quick sundry transactions. He was disappointed. The bank had closed for business even before he could get home to fetch his cheque book. Since it did not occur to him that his request could still be attended to by officials of the bank if he fulfilled certain conditions and security documentions, his supplier had no choice than to sell the goods to another ready buyer. This however put-paid to his anticipated profit. Alhaji El-Rufai, too, was a victim of memory loss.
Like Timothy and El-Rufai, Joyce Mordi, a credit control manager with a popular commercial bank in Garki area of Abuja, confessed to NIGERIAN NEWSLEADER Newspaper that she often suffers from the attack of Amnesia. According to her, she was in her office one morning when a one-time class mate of hers in the University walked in. Joyce indeed recognized the face of her visitor though, but could not put a name to it. Her guest painfully reminded her of her identity.
Consider the case of Pa Adegoke Adetiloye, a retired politician and Nigerian Civil War veteran. Now 80 year-old, Pa Adetiloye suffers from chronic Amnesia occasioned by old age. At his home in Dutse Alhaji, Kubwa area of Abuja, the old man is known to be a good friend of both the little kids and Adults in the neighborhood, particularly because he regales them with endless tales about the Civil War and the soldierly exploits of the actors in that war both on the Nigerian and the Biafran side. Pa Adetiloye is also full of stories about pre and post-independent African States, the political events and developments in Nigeria and most African nations in the 1960s and 70s, the experiences of his youthful years in Isale-Eko in Lagos and what life was like then. He could capture accurately what took place in those years. But by noon, ask the old man the type of food that was served him for breakfast, he would have difficulty with his memory. Pa Adetiloye would stare confusedly into space, trying hard to recall what food he ate that morning.
However, memory loss happens to many people and very often, too. It makes individuals forget places, events, people and things they know. A lot of people have lost so much as result of this clinical abnormality. In both cognitive and abnormal psychology, amnesia is simply a condition in which a person forgets vital information at critical moments, either permanently or temporarily. But the individual, in many cases, is usually aware that he or she has had the information before but could not, at that particular moment, recall it.
Amnesia or memory loss, NIGERIAN NEWSLEADER Investigation study reveals, has both biological and psychological causes. The most common biological causes include brain damage, arising from head injuries during accidents or as a result of infections. Diseases as well as consumption of certain types of drugs, especially excessive intake of alcohol, could cause severe loss of memory. Specifically, chronic alcoholics suffer from a kind of memory loss in which they have the tendency to fill the gaps in their memory with stories of events that never occurred or that never were. This is a type of memory loss called confabulation in clinical psychology. And because such alcoholics could not recall all the details of the story, they tend to unconsciously create stories.
Ageing (old age), however is another biological cause of memory loss. Research studies in cognitive psychology, NIGERIAN NEWSLEADER found out, have shown that individuals between 60 years and above usually suffer from considerable memory decline. This is because certain bio-chemical substances are deficient in their brains. It makes acquisition of new information difficult, but they could recall accurately the events that took place about 50 years ago as in the case of Pa Adetiloye, the veteran Civil War hero, who could not recall at noon time, the type of food he ate for breakfast but could tell accurately and with excitement, events that happened in his early life, especially during the early 1960s political developments.
Another major cause of Amnesia, NIGERIAN NEWSLEADER also gathered, and which is rather psychological, is stress, coupled with anxiety. It happens that when individuals are under tremendous stress, they tend to forget easily details of events that are happening. That is why students who are under severe anxiety, for instance, forget what they learnt before going for an examination. In some cases, however, they draw blank in the examination hall but after the exams, they will begin to recall all the facts they had initially assimilated. In most secondary schools of those days, this is simply what students refer to as "brain fag", usually associated with studious students who are know to burrow into books like the earthworms.
Another variety of stress-related memory loss, is called dissociative amnesia. According to neurological experts, this is a condition in which a person tend to forget even his own name, names of his wife and children, his home address, the schools which he or she attended, where he works and all other vital information about himself. This condition may even last for a few days or months before the memory returns to normal. The police, sometimes, often pick them on the street where they wander aimlessly.
Dissociative fuge is another variety of Amnesia. In this case, the individual, who, usually may have undergone a severe traumatic ordeal, goes away from his usual place of residence to take up residence in a new environment but after some months or years, as the case may be, he or she comes out of the fuge state and goes back to his former abode. At this point, the person loses memory of his activities in the new place he resided when he was in the fuge state.
There are different kind of Amnesia or memory loss. The first, according to clinical psychologists, is Retrograde Amnesia, a condition in which the memory of events before a critical incident is lost. The second aspect of memory loss known as Antrograde Amnesia, is also a condition in which memory of events after a critical incident is lost. This type of memory loss is sometimes associated with those who receive ECT ( Electro Convulsive Therapy ), a kind of treatment in psychiatry where an electric current is passed into the brain of the affected individual. There is also another type of Amnesia called TOT (Tip Of The Tongue). This is a temporary memory loss in which a person is unable to recall accurately certain information, but could recall some components related to the required information.
In all cases of memory loss, it has been found that information stored in short term memory is lost much more easily than the information stored in long term memory. For instance, telephone numbers obtained from directory or names of people met at a cocktail party are usually stored in the short term memory, whereas names of one's old friends and relatives are stored in long term memory. This is why it is usual for individuals to recall names of people close to them and those they have interest in.
But how really can Amnesia and it's associated problems be managed? Dr Josiah Daushep Pam, a Jos, Plateau state-based behavioral scientist opines that Amnesic conditions can be adequately handled through stress management. This, he said, includes the use of different relaxation technics which helps tremendously in the retention or recollection of learnt information. He advised that individuals who are preparing for examinations or job interviews, and even executives who are going for important board meetings, should ensure that they are fully rested and fairly relaxed several hours before the examination, the interview or the board meeting begins.
Dr Micheal Anyaegbunam, another consultant clinical psychologist based in Wuse Abuja, told NIGERIAN NEWSLEADER that there are other methods of enhancing memory storage. According to the human behavioral expert, the use of Mnemonics, which involves compressing group of verbal information into a short-coded information is a very important and helpful method. Anyaegbunam stated that this method specifically aids recollection of much longer and comprehensive verbal information through short hand information method.
Also, interest and motivation have been identified by Dr Anyaegbunam as another efficacious way. To him, the more interested a person is in a certain set of information, the easier it will be to retain the information in the memory or to retrieve the information later. Besides this method, the use of rehearsal is another. The more certain piece of information is rehearsed or repeated, the more the likelihood of recalling the information. Old age, however adversely affects memory storage. It has been found that individuals who keep their minds and brains active and stimulated through active reading or as a result of the kind of work they do, would not lose much of their memory even after they are beyond Seventy years of age. NNL.
