Retrograde amnesia is loss of all or some of memories due either injury or a possible disease. A sufficing head injury to inflict retrograde amnesia would be a concussion. It is believed to be related to the consolidation process, in which memories are stored in the long-term memory. Depending on the severity of the concussion, the patient could have full lost or partial loss of memories. In concussions though, the patients’ memories almost always come back to them after a certain amount of time. A disease that is associated with retrograde amnesia is Alzheimer’s. The cause for the disease is yet to be determined however it is thought to be genetic. Once a certain age is reached the patient’s memory begins to slowly dissipate until they almost all their memories are gone. Korsakoff syndrome is also associated with retrograde amnesia. This disease occurs due to excessive alcohol consumption because of a deficiency in thiamine. Thiamine deficiency is seen in almost all diseases relating to memory loss, including Alzheimer’s. Losing memories is an awful occurrence and seems quite scary especially when present in family members. Nevertheless, it is much more awful when experienced first person.
Last year I was skiing with a close friend at a local ski resort. It had just snowed, and school was cancelled so we decided it would be a perfect day to go. For the most part it was the perfect day until the last few runs. We were going down a trail when I caught an edge and face-planted. It almost didn’t hurt at all except for my lining goggles hitting my eyes quite hard. When I got back up I noticed a massive gap in the middle of my visual field. I thought it would go away soon, somewhat like the stars that one sees when standing up too fast. I finished my run and got on the lift with my friend. I started to tell him about the fall when I noticed the gap in my vision begin to gradually increase. After that I don’t recall the next thirty minutes and only know what my friend told me. Apparently, I started asking him various questions such as “Where are we?”, “How did we get here”, and many other questions along those lines. When we got to the top of the mountain, he decided I need to go to ski patrol to get checked out. I remembered how to ski perfectly fine, but I couldn’t recall any events prior. During our ride down the mountain I kept asking him the exact same questions repeatedly. Once we got to the bottom, we walked to his car to drop off our equipment. When we arrived at his car my memory came back and I could recall everything except past thirty minutes. It was evident I had a severe concussion and had to make sure I rested my brain for the next few weeks. This event was quite frightening especially actually feeling yourself start to forget everything and then all of the sudden you’re somewhere completely different. Although this was only a brief loss of memory, it gave me insight as to what losing your actual memory could be like, and hopefully it something I won’t be experiencing again.