I was talking to a student about ageing and memory loss. One of her worries was about whether or not she could keep up with the younger students. Another was a problem of forgetting names and words. This is something that happens to us all as we age but we can get frustrated with ourselves because our memory isn’t as good as it was, along with our hearing and eyesight and other things that are part of growing old. I wouldn’t expect to run as fast as a twenty year old so why would I expect my brain to work as fast as theirs? Our brains process more slowly, but with our years of experience our levels of understanding are way beyond those of our younger selves. I can’t quite remember when I noticed that my short term memory wasn’t as good as it had been, it just crept up on me. I was Counselling at the time, so was probably in my fifties. I never used to take notes because once a client sat down I would remember everything about them. I found myself getting mixed up, especially if they looked similar, so then I started taking notes and it wasn’t a problem any more.

BF Skinner the behaviourist was still working at ninety and he said that once an idea came to him he had to write it down immediately or it would be gone. I find I have to do that too. Ageing doesn’t affect my intellect or understanding except to improve them, but my ability to hold anything new in my head is definitely impaired. It can be embarrassing at times when I relate a story for a third time. The stories are still there in glorious detail, I just forget who I’ve told them to.

Ageing is a fact and our brain ages as does our body. So what! It’s just another life stage.

Younger people haven’t been there so they don’t know what it’s like, it isn’t in their experience. I wonder if that is why  I often get spoken to as if I were a child. I was once told that it was nice for me to have a little job to keep me busy when I had  just come back from helping a supervisee contain a very disturbed and suicidal client.  Another time someone rushed to pick up a bag I’d dropped, saying ” It’s a long way down”. I didn’t want to embarass her by saying I’d just done fifty squats.

So, if you are an ” Aw bless” please, for your own safety, keep away from me.

We’re starting the new supervision course soon, and we’re starting on line.  I’m looking forward to what will be a new experience for me. Unfortunately I still don’t know when I’ll get back to London.