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Long-term stress erodes memory

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Re: Long-term stress erodes memory

#91

By the far, the most stressful thing I've ever done is stay with my dad while he died of cancer. For the last two weeks of his life, I stayed at the long-term care facility he was at. I put all my client's projects on hold so I could be with him. I stayed perhaps 18 or more hours of each day. I slept in the chair next to his bed. I did my best to take care of what he needed. When he was in pain I would go out into th…

Out of curiosity what are those words that need to be said?

Re: Long-term stress erodes memory

#92
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you mind elaborating a bit on the "took every advantage I could to compensate for the damage caused by stress." In a similar position and would be good to learn what worked for you.

At start I dropped everything non essential, then fixed it one thing at a time. Key was to establish routine and patterns, which does not drain mental energy and time from me. For example I have simple exercise routine I do every evening. It is just stuff I do before shower and bed. I also stopped driving in narrow city roads, I leave a car at motorway exit and walk last mile. Forget self-help stuff. It is really jus…

This is something I would really like to read more about. No pressure, but this would be excellent subject for a blog post.

Re: Long-term stress erodes memory

#93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

new child

Interesting. This immediately put me in mind of the birth of my own child. While no where near as bad as you describe, my short term memory did kind of go to crap after she was born. I blame it mostly on sleep deprivation, which is a kind of stress, I suppose.

I'm having first child in few months. I'm stressed out as it is, can't even imagine what will happen when he is born. Even worse, I'm working from home.

Re: Long-term stress erodes memory

#94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

new child

Interesting. This immediately put me in mind of the birth of my own child. While no where near as bad as you describe, my short term memory did kind of go to crap after she was born. I blame it mostly on sleep deprivation, which is a kind of stress, I suppose.

Interesting... I'm having the same issue. In my case my daughter was born 5 months ago and the lack of sleep and sometimes the bad sleep is causing a direct effect on my memory. Before that, I was able to remember a lot of things, but I guess I'm too tired now. Even reading a book is challenging and I have thousand of books. In our case our daughter was born with hip dysplasia and I was under a lot of stress.

Re: Long-term stress erodes memory

#96
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not the poster you're asking, but have 3 kids. Stress factors include: 1) Getting very, very poor sleep, which can last anywhere from 2-12 months depending on your kid and your parenting technique. 2) Higher monthly expenses, plus a potentially-giant bill for the birth, on top of a year of smaller but still substantial bills for various things. This will be worse if the pregnancy is split over two years of insurance…

> potentially-giant bill for the birth It boggles my mind that we consider the US a first-world country when I read things like this. Also not sure I agree about the breastfeeding being so bad. Sure, it's a bit of a chore, but most mothers I know (including my wife) found it to be a positive experience that increases attachment. And the leaving the house/car part I also don't follow. You have one more person to dress…

> It boggles my mind that we consider the US a first-world country when I read things like this.

We had a hospital stay before the birth, emergency c-section (the cord was around my son's neck), hospital stay after the birth, and about 2 weeks of him staying in the neonatal ICU. I think the bill came to around $30,000 (covered by insurance), and I think we paid a couple of $20 copays.

> And the leaving the house/car part I also don't follow.

Exponential? No, but I don't think anyone claimed that. But compared to a couple going out, a couple and a child takes several times more time to do each step. Everything takes more planning, and nothing is completely spontaneous.

Re: Long-term stress erodes memory

#97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was the stress primarily because of sleep deprivation/multitasking with a new baby? I am just trying to understand.

There's a lot of people on here discussing the stress of a new child. I don't think they are differentiating between stress, that this study discusses, from lack of sleep, which also affects memory.

I find getting too little sleep very stressful. I'm required to keep doing the same things, but less able to handle those demands. When I don't get enough sleep, I've got worse health, constant headaches, and neck aches. It's its own stressor, as well as having separate negative effects.

Re: Long-term stress erodes memory

#98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> potentially-giant bill for the birth It boggles my mind that we consider the US a first-world country when I read things like this. Also not sure I agree about the breastfeeding being so bad. Sure, it's a bit of a chore, but most mothers I know (including my wife) found it to be a positive experience that increases attachment. And the leaving the house/car part I also don't follow. You have one more person to dress…

> It boggles my mind that we consider the US a first-world country when I read things like this. We had a hospital stay before the birth, emergency c-section (the cord was around my son's neck), hospital stay after the birth, and about 2 weeks of him staying in the neonatal ICU. I think the bill came to around $30,000 (covered by insurance), and I think we paid a couple of $20 copays. > And the leaving the house/car…

> We had a hospital stay before the birth, emergency c-section (the cord was around my son's neck), hospital stay after the birth, and about 2 weeks of him staying in the neonatal ICU. I think the bill came to around $30,000 (covered by insurance), and I think we paid a couple of $20 copays.

If you that's the case and you hadn't already hit a larger yearly out-of-pocket-max through other bills, then your insurance is uncommonly good to put it mildly. If you additionally didn't have to fight with insurance to get that stuff covered so completely then you have ZOMGWTF good insurance.

Re: Long-term stress erodes memory

#99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a lot of people on here discussing the stress of a new child. I don't think they are differentiating between stress, that this study discusses, from lack of sleep, which also affects memory.

I find getting too little sleep very stressful. I'm required to keep doing the same things, but less able to handle those demands. When I don't get enough sleep, I've got worse health, constant headaches, and neck aches. It's its own stressor, as well as having separate negative effects.

Yes, but that's a specific physical stressor, resulting in mental stress. It's not what is being examined in the article and modeled in the experiment.

Re: Long-term stress erodes memory

#100
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It boggles my mind that we consider the US a first-world country when I read things like this. We had a hospital stay before the birth, emergency c-section (the cord was around my son's neck), hospital stay after the birth, and about 2 weeks of him staying in the neonatal ICU. I think the bill came to around $30,000 (covered by insurance), and I think we paid a couple of $20 copays. > And the leaving the house/car…

> We had a hospital stay before the birth, emergency c-section (the cord was around my son's neck), hospital stay after the birth, and about 2 weeks of him staying in the neonatal ICU. I think the bill came to around $30,000 (covered by insurance), and I think we paid a couple of $20 copays. If you that's the case and you hadn't already hit a larger yearly out-of-pocket-max through other bills, then your insurance is…

I don't think everyone realizes just how much worse health insurance has gotten in the past couple years for many of us. When my kids were born (10+ years ago), I'm sure the whole pregnancy and birth was covered by just one co-pay. Now, with a $5k deductible on the best plan we can afford, it would be a different story.
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