How can one help a friend regain her lost memory?

I wanted to say how sorry I am that this happened, what an awful thing to experience. The things that I would try to do would be just talking to them and having a conversation with them, like I normally would. Words, that are familiar can unlock something in someone's mind to make them think of a certain place, event, or a time.

With this said it is also known that certain pictures or videos could help let them understand what they have experienced and watching or seeing these photographs or movies, will help to unlock something to help them get some of their memories back. One thing to undersand that when someone is going through this, it can be very scary alone. If they are frustrated try not to push anything on them, instead provide great company, like you used to.

This is still helping but not pushing too many things on her at the same time. At some point they will ask you for help, or you can ask if they would like to go over anything, you are there for them and let them know to take their time.

Traumatic Brain Injury often known by initials TBI, can cause a wide range of difficulties, depending on how extensive the brain injury is and what portions of the brain are injured. Memory is very complex, knowing a little about memory may help you to help your friend. Memory can basically be divided into broad categories including: long term memory, intermediate memory, short term memory, immediate memory and prospective memory.

Prospective memory is the ability to remember an upcoming event and action, such as needing to take medicine at a certain time, or remembering to buy a card for a friend's birthday. Immediate memory is recalling something long enough to write it down, like a phone number or long enough to respond in a conversation, usually 30 seconds up to a minute. Short term memory is more than 30 seconds or a minute and up to about 2 or 3 days.

Intermediate memory is for longer than 2 or 3 days and up to about a week or two. Long term memory would be remembering something longer than 1 or 2 weeks with no upper limit on the time frame. There are other types of memory and other types of selective memory loss, for example sometimes there can be a loss of the ability to remember faces, not in the sense that most people say that they are not good with names and faces, but a true inability to recognize anyone's face.In other words it will be like meeting the person for the first time every time they see them.

This is known as prosopagnosia. In this case, sometimes the individual will remember the person's voice, so they won't recognize their face, but will know who it is when the person speaks. For long term memory loss, the approach for treatment would vary, if an individual is able to recall new information, the person with long term memory loss may benefit from simply learning again the relationships and history of family and friends.

If the individual is also unable to recall new information, then the road to recovery will be much more challenging. In either case, a memory journal can be helpful. Start with the friends and family , no more than 7 at a time.

Take a close head shot and side view of each person, make one page in the journal for each person. If the ability to read is still intact, then label with the person's name and a short written description, no more than 3 or 4 sentences describing the relationship with the person. Reviewing every day or even more than once a day, may be helpful.

Sometimes individuals with brain injury have word finding problems; they may know the word or name they are trying to say, but can't recall the word at the exact moment that they are trying to say it. The "it's on the tip of my tongue" type of feeling, only more severe than most people experience and may happen constantly. Finally, I suggest your friend receive therapy from an American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) certified speech-language pathologist who has experience in adult traumatic brain injury rehabilitation.

An experienced speech-language pathologist can provide therapy for cognitive (including memory) and communication issues related to traumatic brain injury. You can find a SLP through the ASHA website. http://www.asha.org/proserv/ Keep in mind that not all SLPs are listed.

In the sources section below, I have also listed other resources that may be helpful.

I am very sorry to hear you cousins best friend had such a heartbreaking event happen to her. I do not have personal experience in head trauma or loss of memory because of it. But, I do have a Mom who developed Dementia quite quickly, they believe due to traumatic events in her life.My Mom has a hard time remembering names, or anything complex.

She gets confused easily. I tried taking care of her at my house, but realized after a year I am not equipped to take care of her effectively. The nursing home we had chosen specializes in Dementia dn Bipolar (which she has, as well.

) It was interesting for me to find out from them that "Routine" is best for dementia patients. It seems to be true, as she is doing much better. When we talk to Mom, we talk a bit slower and focus on "one thing.

" In other words, we do not say "Mom, grab the toothbrush, bring it here and then sit down, we will have dinner. We just say "Grab your toothbrush" and when that is done, we can take a breathe and then suggest she comes to sit down. I believe that confusion (for my Mom atleast) leads to anger.

I would suggest maybe one person visit your cousins friend at a time, in a calm matter. Relax and do not be all over the place with conversation. Perhaps showing her pictures might help.

If she gets confused, maybe you should stop and try another day.

I am not an expert in this but I have worked in a nursing home and have seen people come out of comas and they do not know anyone. These patients seem so afraid, and the well meaning family and friends try to hard to help. As a result, many residents are confused, scared, and angry when this happens.

Therefore, the best friend of your cousin with the memory problems is not alone. All of these patients/ residents experience information overload in a huge way. To explain something here I’ll have to tell a bit of a story, based on actual events.

Jackie(not her real name) came to the facility in a coma after a car accident. She was hit head on by a drunk… She was in a coma for a week but it was enough to loose the memories. Jackie woke up and had all these people around her kissing, hugging and crying over her.To her they were all strangers, in reality they were her kids, her husband, parents, assorted family, and friends.

I do not know who was more upset her or her family. What seemed to work better for Jackie, on the shrink’s suggestion the family brought in videos of family parties, and other events. These videos were something we staff members could play for Jackie, and she got to know her family again without all the stress they were causing her.

She did love watching the movies etc and it was an easier way to jog back the memories. However not all memories had returned when she was released after a 2 month stay.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.