Memory: Does stress affect your memory and how?
By award-winning author and stress-relief expert Susie Mantell
Absolutely! One very simple way to see this is if you think of the energy and capability of the human system as a pie. (This pie has considerable expansiveness in its capacity, but ultimately there is a finite amount of physical and emotional energy for processing available to any of us in any given moment.) Picture the pie being portioned out with slices pre-designated for work, day-to-day living processes like walking,, eating, reading etc., attention to family and friends, energy for necessary bodily functions: breathing, digestion, circulation, immune function,etc. Now imagine that there is a sliver "on reserve" for crisis.
7AM: You wake up with a slight low backache. Then a spot on the jacket you'd planned to wear for your presentation that day takes a bit of that "reserve slice" to find something else to wear and quickly change clothes. Now a little more gets used for your child who wakes with a miserable cold, and the energy required to find child care so you can get to work. A bit of the reserve gets called upon now because you are late to work and sitting in traffic. You enter the building 20 minutes late and... Oh! No! The elevator's out of order and you must walk up 4 flights to find there's a small leak over your desk and you must pack up and move into a temporary office. (Nothing "life and death" here...just STRESS.) As you're packing, the phone rings and you learn that FEDEX has lost your presentation materials for today, and that back problem is beginning to really ache. You call the doctor to see if he can squeeze you in this week and are put on "hold" as you unpack your office necessities. 2 minutes...5 minutes...(Your back is killing you. Client due in 30 minutes.) and...9 minutes on "hold". When you finally get through to make an appointment, a fairly cranky receptionist tells you that your doctor is out of town, and by the way... she reminds you that your account is past-due. (You paid that bill!) "Please send us the cancelled check?" etc...etc...etc...and it's only 10 AM! How can you remember your sister's birthday is today? You are on "system overload".
Now this is an extreme example of a stressful day, but can you begin to see how your reserve power can be depleted by many such small, cumulative stressors? Imagine when that is compounded by your department downsizing or the loss of a parent or job relocation or divorce or chemotherapy or any number of HUGE stressors! Understandably, when our physical and emotional energy is being drained off by stressful experiences, there is simply less energy of all kinds for us to retain phone numbers, and lunch dates, and hair-cut appointments or school plays.
Much new research is being done in the area of memory and emotions and stress, and many scientists would now say these reside not only in our heads as previously believed...but in fact at a cellular level with information communicated constantly throughout the body by transmitters..peptides. One very interesting, very readable book on this subject is Candace Pert's, "Molecules of Emotion." (Dr. Pert is a bench scientist at Georgetown whose work is well-known.) Another great book, clearly explaining how it is that stress can play such a tremendous role in our physical and mental health is "Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers" by Robert M. Sapolsky.
The limbic area of the brain is where we are believed to process emotions and images and determine which are 'just passing through' and which we'll retain for future reference. The amygdala is involved with mood and the conscious emotional response to an event, whether positive or negative. The amygdala is the nucleus responsible for the tension you feel when you unexpectedly smell smoke. It is what says, "man in ski mask in alley = danger". Some say the hippocampus is the "record" button, strongly associated with memory as well. Most of the zillions of images and emotions we experience are quickly forgotten. There is no need to remember EVERYthing. However we sense significant emotional connections,and particular emotional memories from early childhood..or a birth...or a profound loss..can stay for a lifetime while sometimes we can't remember where we left our keys! (You've heard of short-term and long-term memory.) The limbic system and hypothalamus are responsible for sensory experience, pleasure, pain, attraction, revulsion, anxiety, etc. (You can see where stress might have impact here!)
There is also interesting work being done in genetics and other research regarding how "inevitable" memory loss is as part of healthy aging, in the absence of significant illness. There are suggestions that intentionally keeping the mind active in senior years,e.g. doing puzzles or hobbies, playing cards or reading or taking courses that interest us may greatly enhance memory.(Like exercising a muscle...the "Use it or lose it" principle.)
So...making a point of avoiding stress where possible, and releasing stress on a regular basis and in various ways that are pleasurable and personally effective, can in fact help us process and retain information we wish to access again more readily. (uh....If we can just Remember to do it!)
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Award-winning stress-relief expert Susie Mantell ...is the author of the deeply soothing relaxation CD, "Your Present: A Half-Hour of Peace,” clinically approved for symptoms associated with stress and sleeplessness, depression and grief, anxiety, P.T.S.D., Fibromyalgia, caregiver stress, cancer, pain, divorce and addiction recovery. Featured in The Los Angeles Times, NBC, ABC, CBS-TV, Town & Country, The American Pain Society, Hazelden and The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, listeners include The Mayo Clinic, Memorial Sloan-Kettering, The Betty Ford Center, V.A. Hospitals,and Canyon Ranch (#1 Spa.) Customizing stress-reduction for Fortune 500 companies, distinguished hospitals and spas, Mantell has facilitated thousands in relieving health-related, work-related, chronic or traumatic stress. Her multi-sensory, mind-body techniques appear in national media, medical and corporate publications. Susie Mantell's Stress-Relief & Wellness Tips are intended as an adjunct to, not a substitute for, professional health care. Order “Your Present: A Half-Hour of Peace” and find more of Mantell’s stress-relief tips at www.relaxintuit.com