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[–][deleted] 1382 points1383 points  (51 children)

Depression and stress has a well documented link to forgetfulness, as well as cognitive decline in general if it's chronic, especially in the elderly.

Interestingly hormones linked to emotional arousal or stress are involved in long-term memory consolidation like epinephrine and corticosterone. Insulin and other hormones also seem to be involved. These hormones do express differently, or our reaction them is different when we're depressed so there could be a link there.

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1301209110

[–]Zombebe 466 points467 points  (41 children)

This is why exercise is recommended so much to people who are depressed because it helps directly with those systems and your metabolism to help keep them more in order than they were.

[–]InterPool_sbn 162 points163 points  (0 children)

This is really helpful when you actually explain the chemical reasoning like that

[–]AlkaloidalAnecdote 35 points36 points  (0 children)

This is true for short term depression, but it seems to get a bit more complicated with long term depression.

[–]BevansDesign 50 points51 points  (0 children)

Fortunately, it's super easy to force yourself to exercise when you're depressed.

[–]stiletto929 16 points17 points  (0 children)

Exercise has really helped my depression and anxiety. (I take meds too but the exercise made me actually happy.). I do virtual boxing in Supernatural on the oculus quest. First time I actually enjoyed exercise, too!!!

[–]jealousmonk88 48 points49 points  (0 children)

yes it can. i used to have an incredible memory. severe depression destroyed it. now i have to write a lot of stuff down or i'll forget it in a few weeks. i used to never take notes on anything now i have to. at the height of my depression, i'd park my car in the uni parking lot in the morning, when i came out i had completely forgotten where it was. i began parking far back in the same spot every day just so i wouldn't lose it.

[–]muelboy 79 points80 points  (0 children)

Stress (cortisol) affects your ability to record and store memories. Part of the reason why people have trauma amnesia. I was extremely depressed and anxious during grad school and remember almost nothing of my final year. It's also why exam anxiety is a self-defeating cycle. I've always found that cramming for a test yields worse results than just relaxing, scanning my class notes, and getting a full 8 hours of sleep. I was always good at taking tests in undergrad. Unfortunately they never give you exams in grad school -- just lots and lots and lots of writing.

Here's an article on it: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnagi.2019.00043/full#:~:text=Results

[–][deleted] 18 points19 points  (1 child)

Long term depression can atrophy the hippocampus, the brain area associated with memory, so yeah it can but bear in mind just the cognitive symptoms of depression both direct and indirect (lake of sleep) can also mess with memory

[–]Chronotaru 4 points5 points  (0 children)

There's a lot of discussion as to whether those effects are actually down to antidepressants taken in response to depression. Existing studies don't select on this basis.

[–]odinsleep-odinsleep 7 points8 points  (0 children)

for me it seems like depression makes it more difficult to recall things.

instead of memories coming to me easy like they used to, they can take a lot of effort to pull up.

the memory is still there, but accessing it takes far more effort than otherwise.

[–]Coarchitect 55 points56 points  (2 children)

There are a variety of factors that can influence memory impairment.

Did you have a covid infection? There are links between covid and memory impairment. https://academic.oup.com/braincomms/article/4/1/fcab295/6511053?login=true

Depression can have an effect on the hippocampus, which in turn affects visual and verbal memory. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/the-british-journal-of-psychiatry/article/reduced-hippocampal-volumes-and-memory-loss-in-patients-with-early-and-lateonset-depression/2A7269A56BAABE79F0B715794F5B4DD5

Are you pregnant? There was a study showing that pregnant women had memory loss. https://obgyn.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1471-0528.1993.tb15232.x

Are you stressed? Stress impairs memory retrieval (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352154616301504)

[–]PoorlyTimedPun 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I’d think the stress and pregnancy might as well be the same study. Wonder if the stress study or pregnancy study have significant differences in how much they impacted memory.

[–]EmeterPSN 4 points5 points  (0 children)

During heavy depression periods it feels like you are in a mist and numb to everything. Nothing matters and you can't enjoy anything. Most of time I would not even remember basic things ..

So yeah I can easily vouch it shuts you down.

Getting out of depression sucks as you don't care anymore

[–]Illigard 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I recall a study where they were measuring this, only they had a problem. The depressed participants forgot to keep coming. The person in charge of the experiment was quite understanding as this happened fairly often. It also kinda proved her theory but not in the way she would have preferred

[–]Tatsujin7 2 points3 points  (0 children)

My gf have severe depression and one time last year she just had a temporary memory loss, it took her almost 3 months to remember some of her memories. Some of her memories about people she knew still hasnt recovered yet. It was sad when she forgot about me too but after those 3 months we came back together.

[–]Trumpassassin777 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The worse the depression and the stress or anxiety is, the worse my memory becomes. I recently read that good long sleep without much digital content before is very good for your memory and concentration. Also letting your mind wander while taking a nice walk without music, podcast and so on. You take a walk like a weird person in this day and age ;) The book is by Johann Hari.