I have been enjoying the benefits of different levels of amnesia for over a year, now, and found a good source of information at the Mayo Clinic website. It's very concise (as in brief!), but gives a good overview if you're wondering what amnesia is and what causes it. OK: I said "enjoying the benefits" because I didn't want this to sound like an "Oh, poor me!" rant. So I'm not enjoying amnesia. And they're not benefits. Sometimes, it sucks. Oh, I know who I am and can remember the name of the first boy who kissed me -- but there's more to amnesia than total memory loss.

Back to the Mayo Clinic, then -- on the page detailing "complications," I find this: "even mild amnesia takes a toll on daily activities and quality of life. The syndrome can cause problems at work, at school and in social settings. It may not be possible to recover lost memories" (http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/amnesia/DS01041/DSECTION=complications).

I am now retired from the security of a job as a tenured professor of English -- well, it's partly because the stultifying atmosphere of higher education in America is seriously detrimental to good mental health (don't believe me? Go to any university and ask any professor in the liberal arts or social sciences) --; but partly, and just as insidiously, because of the amnesia resulting from a series of ECT (Electro-Convulsive Therapy) treatments that most definitely interefered with my ability to teach. If you weren't aware of this, you might be interested to know that electro-convulsive therapy (ECT) -- passing an electric current through the brain to cause (yep, you got it) a convulsion -- can cause confusion, disorientation, some permanent memory loss, and a lot of short-term recall difficulty as well.

I seem to have received the full package, as it took me months to regain first everything I knew about my daily life and second everything I ever knew about everything else.

I became adept at pretending I knew where I was going, what day it was, and who the woman was who had just greeted me by name and appeared to know me reasonably well. Or at asking. ("Hi, there, why are we saying hello?" draws a lot of blank stares, in case you've ever wondered.) I hired a "handler" who drove me to class and reminded me what areas of the syllabus we would be covering that day.

I spent months on the website FreeRice.com quizzing myself on my vocabulary (I'm a writer, dammit -- I felt so bereft at not being able to recall words I used to know). (For those of you who haven't been there yet, try FreeRice.com -- the site quizzes you on English vocabulary and some other subjects, too, now -- and for every answer you get right, they donate 20 grains of rice to a legitimate source of food for the hungry, worldwide; and while 20 grains doesn't sound much, it sure adds up quickly.) I became hypersensitive about my memory losses and defensive about my mental capabilities in general. When I realized that the only real option I had was to apply for disability retirement, I was frustrated and hurt when my friends made comments such as "we're sorry you've chosen to retire" or implied that they were "sticking it out"; why couldn't I?

N.B. Some of the above text is copied from another hubpage I wrote some months ago ("How to Fire Your Boss"). I had forgotten I had written it until I was about to describe what ECT actually is -- then the memory of the other hub came back, and I used some of that text.

People with mild amnesia need patience and prompts. I've discovered that whole "files" of associated information tend to come back intact when I am supplied with the right prompt -- I just never know what that prompt might be, or what "files" might come back. For example, I might be in class discussing some aspect of Hamlet's personality, when a chance observation by a student would bring back -- seemingly complete -- everything I used to know on Hamlet's age and the differences of opinion on this topic from several editors of the play. It's a pleasant sensation, if I'm totally honest, this surge of whatever-it-is in the brain that brings back information in a rush of recognition. But it's very unreliable.

If you know someone with amnesia, no matter the cause or how mild the symptoms are, please be patient with her. She may not be able to type with her previous accustomed ease any more, or remember how to sign her name. She may have to be told how to use the phone, if it's a model she hasn't used for a while. She may feel completely humiliated, in fact.