The Forgetful Phenomenon
I don’t get it. I really don’t. I made it through school, managed to get a job, live on my own. And yet, I wake up this morning and take a shower and spend about five minutes standing there wondering if I’ve already washed my hair or not. How can this be possible at this stage in my life?
I mean, I’m pretty sure I’m not forgetting things already. And if I am, I’m forgetting that I am. I just don’t understand how someone who’s made it this far in life can forget an action as substantial as washing one’s hair. I’m writing this post to see if this phenomenon has happened to you, and I’m praying you’ll say that it has, or at least offer other examples to make me feel a little better.
It’s not like washing your hair is some little tiny forgettable process either. I mean, there’s a good amount of routine involved just in getting sudsy. I’m a scrubber. I like to get deep down into the scalp when I’m washing my hair. So one would think that I’d remember that process. That I’d remember pouring shampoo into my hands and standing there for several minutes while I bring my head to a fine lather.
Plus, I’m required to remember all kinds of other things all day long. When I was in school, I would stay up all night long making up for months of not paying attention (or not even attending) class. I’d memorize chapter after chapter of material for any question my professor could throw at me. Come test time, I’d be fine. Quadratic formulas, 5-chain polymers, Derrida’s deconstruction methods, I’d remember everything. But whether I shampooed my hair thirty seconds ago, that I couldn’t tell you.
I don’t even use shopping lists when I go to the grocery store. (Quick aside: Is this just me or are shopping lists out of style anyways?) I’ve never forgotten to pay a bill. My clients get their work on time. Lights off. Doors locked. Write a thank you to those friends of yours for having you over last week. Renew your license. Get more coffee, whole bean, not ground. Pack a suitcase for an entire week away from home – won’t forget a single thing.
But shampoo on my head, don’t have the tiniest clue. You figure it out.
So what is it fellow Birds? Am I absolutely crazy or are you going to make me feel better by letting me know that it happens to you to? What other things do you constantly forget that make no sense? Drop us a line below to let us know.
You are not crazy… Or we’re both crazy. This happens to me at least once a week. I wish I knew how many times I’ve washed my hair twice or, on the other hand, didn’t even wash it. The other thing I forget on a regular basis why I went into a room. “I remember I came in here for something…. Now what the hell was it?”
I got out of my truck the other day, walked half way up to the front door and couldn’t find my keys. Absolutely freaked out about it. Turn to my roomate and asked if she saw what i did with them. her reply, “They are in your left hand.” We didn’t speak for the rest of the night.
I washed my face twice during one shower last week. I couldn’t remember the first time around until I was lathering up the second time around and I remembered I had gotten soap in my eyes the first time.
I don’t think it means you’re getting forgetful. I think it means you have too much on your mind.
I’ll sit down at night in front of the TV and reflect on my day and wonder if I took a shit that day or not. I would think you would remember something that significant, but I guess not….I’m feeling old.
I’m glad this doesn’t just happen to me! In fact, it happened just as I got out of the shower recently.
It isn’t forgetfulness because I don’t think you even process that you’re doing it; it’s so rudimentary and unimportant for us to encode into long-term memory, so we just forget about it. If you’re someone who thinks all the time about random stuff, then of course you’re going to forget the stuff you aren’t thinking about at all. This is my best guess as a cognitive scientist.