Fibro Fog: Internal Memory Compensations

Fibro fog is the term used to describe cognitive problems associated with Fibromyalgia (losing your train of thought, forgetting, staying focused, getting distracted, etc.) Fibro fog can interfere with one's ability to remember important information and thus present a challenge in everyday life. Internal memory compensations help you by using different strategies such as visualization or self-repetition to jog your memory.

1. Regrouping - Using smaller groups to divide something that you need to remember. This technique can be used if for example you need to remember a few things to pick up at the grocery store. Let's say you want to buy milk, chicken, lettuce, green beans and cottage cheese. You can regroup these using food groups like dairy (milk and cottage cheese), vegetables (lettuce and green beans) and meat (chicken).

2. Paired Association - Associate something to the information that you need to remember. For instance if you want to remember the name Mr. Brown you can think of the word 'colour' or 'chocolate'. Or you may want to think of something else that makes you think of the word brown. Funny enough 'upside down' makes me think of the word brown. In 'Hop On Pop', a Dr. Seuss classic, the words go as follows:

"Mr. BROWN

Mrs. BROWN

Mr. Brown upside down"

Every time I hear the name Mr. Brown I get this image in my head of Dr. Seuss' whimsical picture of Mr. Brown upside down! So I can then use the words upside down to jog my memory.

3. Visualization - Associate a word that you want to remember to a mental image of something. Using the grocery list for an example try to bring up images of the inside of your cupboards and your fridge/freezer to remember the things that you need to buy. This is particularly effective for me because I'm a creature of habit and I tend to put grocery items in the same place every time. I'm also a visual learner. So I can literally close my eyes and see that on the top shelf, on the right hand side I have both cottage cheese and sour cream stacked one on top of another. If I needed one of the two I could imagine a hole missing on top of one of the containers.

4. Self-Repetition - Repeat to yourself what you'd like to remember. Let's say you need to remember an address you can repeat "1-2-3 Telephone Lane" over and over again. Or even the repetition of a particular task can help you remember too. Every time I come in the house I hang up my house keys right beside the door on the key hook and then my purse on the hooks beside that. It's not just a tidying tactic but it is the way that I remember where things are.

5. Mental Reconstruction - Mental reconstruction is to mentally review a situation that has happened or will happen so you can remember it. If I need to stop numerous places when I'm out running errands then I would mentally review the steps (first stop grocery store, second stop dollar store and last stop is the pharmacy).

6. Storytelling - To make connections between different pieces of information to create a story. Using the above example of going to the grocery store, dollar store and pharmacy we'll create a story. "The grocery store was out of hot sauce so I bought it at the dollar store and it gave me awful indigestion so I had to pick up heartburn relief meds at the pharmacy!"

I learned the names of these techniques during my time at Constance Lethbridge but it was interesting that I was already using some of these in everyday life without realizing it! If you haven't tried out some of these give them a whirl and drop me a message telling me what you think. I love to keep in touch.