This level of forgetfulness?

Hmm, possible OCD? If it is, probably only the individual would know, because they usually do not discuss the obsessive thoughts (for obvious reasons). This site has a quiz.

Sounds like maybe there was a bit of hyperbole going on. I suppose that it is possible to be so stressed out and frazzled that you are all crazy like that…I tend to not give enough of a Sh*t most of the time to ever let things get to me. So I really can’t relate…but I wouldn’t let it get to you (if it is)...until next time you see them, drooling, with toilet tissue trailing behind them down the hallway.

I have been cancer-free for 12 years, but when I have my yearly mammo scheduled, I start to freak out.

The last time, I had to pull over on the shoulder of the road and remind myself of where I was going (a hospital that I had driven to at least 200 times.) My mind went truly blank.

I too can defocus during extremely stressful personal situations. I have to think really hard to do logical steps.

Are men less prone to these types of reactions? I know that you wanted to keep the gender masked, but was the person female? I know that men and women deal with stress and stressors in different ways…just wondering if there is a generality that could be drawn. Of course, the sample size is 4 which is probably a bit small to really make a generalization. LOL

I have blanked out too—but there has never been a pattern and I don’t think I have ever forgotten to wipe.

@atharkhan So glad to hear that!

I think men definitely process stress differently. I’ve never been so nervous as to where my mind spaces out due to stress.

I work good under stress =P

Why not try Google?

Stress

You are probably defining short-term memory differently from the person in question. Your definition sounds like a medical / diagnostic type definition. I think many people define short-term memory differently.

For instance, have you ever walked into the kitchen to do something & then completely forgotten what u walked in there for? Then you walk back out & you remember what it was. I think of that as a short-term memory brain freeze.

Although I am not a professional, I do believe that in some cases we can be so consumed by events that what your friend is experiencing can be triggered.

For example, when my father died, I came back from viewing the body and felt completely overwhelmed. People were calling me and at some point, while taking one of those phone calls I started cleaning in the kitchen while on the phone. At some point I realized that I had already done this, and several times, because there were certain parts of the kitchen that were already glistening, although I had no recollection of having cleaned it before.

It was as if someone had shut down the portion of my brain that allowed me to think even remotely about things that would have required some extra level of thought, and only allowed me to function minimally beyond the scope of what I was dealing with at that moment, namely, the death of my father. The thought of balancing my checkbook, as an example, would have been out of the question. Although I felt a need to keep moving, I could only perform perfunctory tasks, and apparently on a repetitive basis.

I don’t think that it has as much to do with forgetfulness as it does with how we are able to psychologically cope when faced with what we perceive as an extreme amount of stress.