Forgetfulness, lack of concentration and substituting words?

[2snowflakes]

Thank you mjan, very encouraging words! I'm going to focus more on my brain health, thank you.

[Sirike]

Me To

I also suffer from forgetting words and lack of concentration. My friends laugh about it and understand but not really. I think all of us with MS go through this. hang in there.

MDE

[a.nukem]

Oh boy do I understand the position you are in. I'm 21 as well, DX at age 19. I've always been the "smart one" in my family. I was the human dictionary, could tell you how to write papers and say just about any word properly, and never fuddled my speech. We started noticing that I was doing the word switcheroo as a junior in high school but didn't think anything of it... now I do a lot of describing when I grab for a word and can't find it or I try to say something and say something different. I called my jacket my blanket today even. ^_^

Example: The clicky-clicky, ooooh.... ahhhh.. thingie... = The Camera.

Take it one day at a time. Laugh about it, trust me it helps. It took some time for my family to get use to the issues that have seemed to flood me in the last few years, but they adjusted too.

A good way to laugh about MS? When somebody asks if you've lost your mind (and they know about your MS) politely tell them it is quite possible, you never know if you just gained another little white dot on your brain. The first time I told my mother that she almost died laughing. It gave me a giggle too. Humor always helps.

If you ever need to talk to somebody around your age my email address is in my profile. We all make it through together around here.

[pjsSissy70]

I have had MS for 20 yrs now. Just recently I have started having these kinds of problems, maybe longer. I started writing myself posty note reminders, but then Id forget where I put the notes. Ive recently found posties that I wrote a few months ago... very frustrating when you cant remember anything. Ive been forgetting normal words and trying to use other words that I think sound like the one I want. I usually try not to talk infront of strangers because I get embarrassed easily.

[chucklebug]

I now have a hard time finding the right word and often substitute unwittingly. I hate it when I do that and people say "it happens to me, too. You're just getting old." I may be getting old, but this is NOT the same. This didn't happen gradually.

I also notice I can't think of that word for the furry thing... you know... it's scratchy... oh, yeah - CAT! But I don't have problems with complicated phrases and words.

[heather122]

I have recently ben diagnosd with ms. All my tests came back ms but I have no symptoms. It was found while looking into migrains. I feel like I hav this problem and that it has gotten worse in the few months. If I mention this as a symptom my family says oh I do that to. My family is very supportive but when I talk about symptoms they say thats not bad we all have that.

On a different note do you ever find yourself feeling like you have extra spit in your mouth. I feel like I constanly wipe my mouth.

Everything feels like a symptom but I never know. I guess we just keep moving on till we can't.