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 the hall and plead with the nurses to get more pain medication, though sometimes they were hesitant because he had taken too much (long story there, and I knew nothing about how the system worked then, but apparently you have to say very specific words, which are full of legal meaning, to make clear that a person wants an unlimited supply of pain killers during their final days). When he was lucid we would talk. When he wasn't lucid, I would do what I could to comfort him. I was alone with him in the room when he died.<p>And after that... my concentration was gone. For a good two years. My ability to write code for 70 hours a week, and think of it as fun, was gone. My mental clarity was gone. It took a solid two years to come back, maybe three years.<p>My dad was my best friend and losing him hit me very hard.
And I learned there are some kinds of emotional stress that take years to recover from.
Great. Something else to be stressed about.<p>Kidding aside, stress is a deadly serious thing. I never took it seriously until it nearly did me in. I can also attest to the memory and other cognitive issues. It can take quite a while to recover.<p>The most stressful situations are where you are expected to perform, but have little or no control. This could be a job situation or some other situation. Find a new situation or a way to establish more control. Better to lose that job than your ability to work at any job.<p>The last thing you want to do if you're constantly stressed is to just suck it up. It's one thing to do that for a limited duration to achieve something specific, it's another thing to do that indefinitely with no end in sight.
A lot of folks are focusing on the title, but I think this is the most interesting part:<p>> When they gave the mice a chemical that inhibited inflammation, neither the brain-cell problem nor the depressive symptoms went away. But the memory loss and inflammatory macrophages did disappear.<p>>And that led them to conclude that the post-stress memory trouble is directly linked to inflammation — and the immune system — rather than to other damage to the brain. That type of information can pave the way for immune-based treatments, Godbout said.
Oh what a vicious cycle this is. As someone battling with depression, I tend to take on a lot of side projects and extra work in order to keep my mind busy and avoid those thoughts.<p>Then I get stressed because I have so much to do.
I would be interested to know whether or not there is a relationship between stress and lack of sleep as well that could account for some of the memory issues related to stress.<p>I was in a very stressful relationship in college that resulted also in a lot of sleep loss (although oddly I rarely had problems falling asleep probably because of exhaustion, just got way too little of it), strangely it didn't seem to affect me that much negatively at the time. I managed to get basically straight A's but I had to lose more sleep to do it and finally graduate and then go on to a masters sans relationship, but in the past 3 years I've still had a different and tenuous relationship with sleep and lately I feel like its started to affect me. Despite having a fairly low-stress life (current relationship is low stress, job is low stress, high-maintenance family is kind of taking care of itself), I'm noticing some of the symptoms referenced in the study, but it would have to be either a delayed reaction or more sleep-related than stress-related.
A hidden source of stress can be a single individual (or two) who causes you ongoing low levels of stress, without you realizing how big a toll it's really taking on you.<p>I've had it happen, wherein I wonder why I'm feeling anxious, angry, or otherwise. Then, I step back and recognize how a particular person is treating me and realize that a) it's simply wrong/unfair and b) I'm allowing it to happen and allowing it to get to me.<p>It doesn't mean it's malicious or intentional, but it's no less affecting.<p>I'd encourage everyone to step back once in a while and objectively consider their relationships, then tweak, manage, or dispose as necessary.
My mother is obsessive about not losing her memory as she gets older, paranoid about dementia and Alzheimer's.<p>I just sent her this article. This probably won't help.
I can also confirm that I've noticed after a very stressful period of over 4 years that my memory was completely shot.<p>When I entered the workforce, at first I noticed I couldn't remember names at all, I would have to either concentrate on the name while ignoring the conversation in front of me, or I pay attention to the conversation but have an almost certain chance I will forget the name.<p>I've noticed in general that I had poor short term memory, but I never realised this issue when I was in college.<p>The worst part was not being able to remember what tasks I accomplished just a few hours before at work, boy that always made me feel good.<p>It's been driving me nuts for years, I'm unsure how much I have recovered if at all.
Robert Sapolsky has dealt with this field quite a bit and is a plain-spoken and engaging academic concerned with much of what is being discussed in this thread. I highly recommend a documentary he co-produced, "Stress: Portrait of a Killer."<p>A short interview on the topic: <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/express/wp/2008/09/23/heres_one_way_to_avoid/" rel="nofollow">https://www.washingtonpost.com/express/wp/2008/09/23/heres_o...</a><p>YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYG0ZuTv5rs" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYG0ZuTv5rs</a>
<i>>>Mice that were repeatedly exposed to the aggressive intruder had a hard time recalling where the escape hole was in a maze they’d mastered prior to the stressful period</i><p>This sounds like an extreme level of stress, of course the poor mouse has memory issues. I don't think you need to worry if you have ordinary levels of stress from traffic, mortgage, kids etc... But if you live in Syria and your city gets destroyed by war, then yeah, your brain performance will suffer, but I don't think anyone would be surprised by that result.
I'm not trying to make a serious point here and I don't know enough about the study to say that it was unethical, but this sounds terrifying and kind of like a bad prison experience.<p>> This is the first study of its kind to establish the relationship between short-term memory and prolonged stress. In the case of the mice, that meant repeat visits from a larger, nasty intruder mouse.<p>> Mice that were repeatedly exposed to the aggressive intruder had a hard time recalling where the escape hole was in a maze they’d mastered prior to the stressful period.
I discovered a short memory loss on myself. It's more like an instant blockage rather than a memory loss.<p>Whenever I have multiple tasks to cover in a short amount of time, my creativity levels stutter. I find myself unable to come up with quick and creative solutions instantly. I guess I need to learn how to work under pressure although I've read that multitasking is counter productive.<p>I find short breaks helpful but most of the time I can't afford them because of the urgent nature of the tasks. Writing down helps a lot when I do routine actions, but I still believe that this might not be the best method to incentivize creativity.
For those that are stressed about stress, Kelly McGonigal has some really interesting research on stress and the picture isn't quite as black and white. Depending on how the person views stress, it can benefit the person instead of harming them.<p>Her book: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Upside-Stress-Why-Good-You/dp/1101982934/" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/Upside-Stress-Why-Good-You/dp/1101982...</a>
That explains why my memory improved remarkably after I had half a dozen CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) for sessions for GAD (General Anxiety Disorder).
It's comforting to find other Hacker News readers who have experienced stress-induced cognitive impairment. A recent mental breakdown eroded my cognitive abilities. One of the worst aspects of this experience is the feeling that I'm no longer good enough for the work, the communities, and the discourses that are the primary passions of my life.
How do you know you're stressed?<p>I'm a Jr dev who spent a year sneaking into lectures, studying, stealing food before I became employable. I now work 70 hours a week for peanuts and although I feel fine, I am pretty sure I am about to rip my hair out.<p>Oh yeah, I'm probably pretty stressed.<p>What do I do about this?
actually makes pretty good sense as a coping mechanism I guess. decreased memory function might help erase bad experiences, thereby decreasing stress - unless your job depends on abnormally high levels of recall... probably not a big issue in days gone by.
i wouldn't be surprised to learn that this is not universal, that there are some individuals whose reaction to this sort of stress does not cause the sort of brain damage described in this paper.
I've definitely noticed this with our kid. There are days when I'm using the tracking app no so much to create a long-term record, but to make sure that I've actually fed her recently.
Presumably this happens because the stressful situation or memory repeatedly activates the attention system thereby priming it towards the stressor and making it hard to address any other memory.
"This new research focused on the hippocampus, a hub of memory and emotional response."<p>Hasn't depression research been focused on hippocampus function for some time now?
Pretty much textbook science from animal models. Stress wrecks havoc on typical brain functions including memory, learning, attention, even decision making.
Sadly I can confirm this from personal experience.
I was under a lot of stress for the past three years.<p>Before stress started I had almost photographic memory. I was not very smart software developer. But ability to recall patterns and documentation fast, made me very productive. I worked at CS semi-research position and spoke at conference every other month.<p>Now it takes mental effort to recall what I did 4 hours ago. I can only program if I strictly follow my TDD routine and design notes. Recently I could not even pass job interview for trivial entry level position :(<p>Stress is mostly gone now, but it will take about one year to recover. It is very weird period. People, who do not know me well, think I actually improved over past three years. I fixed my health, lifestyle, social interactions...; I took every advantage I could to compensate for damage caused by stress.<p>Now, I can feel improvements every week, and I am basically starting from scratch. Once I get my old memory back and combine it with new things I learned to cope, I will be unstoppable :)
Mods, can we change link to <a href="https://news.osu.edu/news/2016/03/02/long-term-stress-erodes-memory/" rel="nofollow">https://news.osu.edu/news/2016/03/02/long-term-stress-erodes...</a><p>The linked article is full of popups, ads and dark patterns.