In desperation, some people with retrograde amnesia try other ways to unlock the memories they cannot reach. It also provides little help for people with retrograde amnesia, who have lost past memories that no amount of training and relearning will bring back. Memory therapy is not a cure for amnesia, however, and it does not repair the damage that has been done to the brain.
Training people with memory problems to use mnemonics and other memory tricks is one of the best forms of treatment for the types of amnesia that affect the ability to learn new information. “Anyone can hone up the memory by training it.” 52 “You can learn the process of using your memory just as thoroughly,” she says. “You learned these things when you were a child and now you can perform them without effort.” 51 According to Podder, the memory process is an example of implicit learning, the kind of learning that, like riding a bicycle, rarely disappears with amnesia. “Remembering is a process that must be learned, just like walking, talking, eating,” says Tanushree Podder, author of the book Smart Memory. Training people with anteretrograde amnesia to use such methods can make it easier for them to live with their memory difficulties. The shopper can then remember that the list has three items, and what they are, just by remembering the word mop, or even just the image of one. If the list includes milk, oranges, and potato chips, a mnemonic might take the first letter of each item to make the word mop. People use mnemonics to recall lists of things, such as items to buy at the grocery store. One useful technique in memory therapy is mnemonics, a memory trick that dates back to the time of the ancient Greeks. This treatment is similar to what students call study skills, ways to improve the ability to memorize information.
#Therapy for amnesia how to
Memory therapy is a form of amnesia treatment that helps some people relearn how to remember. “Amnesiacs can learn through therapy to rely on other memory systems to compensate for what is lost.” 50 “Depending on the degree of amnesia and its cause, victims may be able to lead relatively normal lives,” says Julia Barrett in the Encyclopedia of Medicine. With the help of simple memory techniques and everyday tools such as sticky notes, date books, and alarm features on cell phones, they can remember what they need to know to get through a day. Most people lose only some of their memories. Thankfully, few people with amnesia have cases as serious as those of HM in the 1950s and Wearing in the 1980s. But he sits down at a piano, says Goodwin, “and sounds extremely accomplished.” 49 Memory Training All of Wearing’s new memories melt away in seconds. “Though he could no longer read books or a newspaper,” says Jan Goodwin in an article in Reader’s Digest, “Clive, it turned out, could still read music.” The ability to play music, like the ability to speak or ride a bike, is part of a person’s pro- cedural memory-not the memory of facts such as names and faces, but of processes. Amazingly, though, Wearing can still play melodies. Sometimes he asks if she is the queen of England. He can still speak, but every day, he greets his wife as if meeting her for the very first time. Wearing remembers nothing from before his illness, and he has remembered nothing since.
He lives with what experts believe is the worst case of amnesia in known history. He recovered from the illness, but he has never recovered his memories. The infection attacked the main memory centers of his brain. Seven out of ten people who get herpes encephalitis die if it is not treated immediately. The herpes virus, the same germ that causes common cold sores, found its way into his brain and created a life-threatening infection.Įncephalitis cases such as Wearing’s are very rare but very serious. Then, in March 1985, he came down with encephalitis. He directed a world-famous London symphony and even created the music played at the wedding of England’s Prince Charles and Princess Diana. There was a time when he was one of the world’s greatest musicians. But Wearing’s life was not always this way. Anything he learns or sees or does is forgotten in the amount of time it would take him to read this sentence. London resident Clive Wearing’s memory is exactly seven seconds long. Treating Memory Loss Memory Training Hypnosis Healthy Lifestyle: A Memory Backup A Helmet for the Mind Living with Lost Memories Life with Amnesia Hoping for a Cure
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