Retrograde Amnesia

in a psych class i took in college we learned about retrograde and antegrade amnesia. amnesia, obviously, is a lack of memory caused by some sort of brain trauma. the prefixes for the 2 types of amnesia define the events that the person is unable to remember. “retro-” means after, as in hipsters who dress like, “retro 80s” 20 years after the original fashion came out. “ante-” means before, as in “ante up” or, pay before you play. the latter type is what most of us are familiar with and portrayed on TV shows and movies and stuff: the person can’t remember events that happened before their injury, like what their name is, where they’re from, etc. retrograde amnesia is the inability to remember events that happened after the injury.

apparently, Ativan can cause retrograde amnesia. that’s why i can’t remember most of what happened after i took the first dose. Ativan works on your central nervous system (CNS), which comprises the spine and the brain. apparently, 6mg of Ativan injured my brain enough to cause retrograde amnesia. i figure that 10mg taken in one dose 10 years ago didn’t traumatize my brain because a lot of chemical changes can happen in your body over a decade. my body reacted differently this time around.

it still disturbs me that i can’t remember everything that happened, but i’m relieved to know why.