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Originally Posted by shutterbug  It's the middle of the night and I drank too much Dr. Pepper... |
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AND the problem with have more treatments than medically necessary is that each one has caused me to loose short-term memory functioning and I constantly feel like all the words I'm trying to think of are on the tip of my tongue and I just can't ever think of them! It's the most annoyingly frustraiting thing!
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Hey, Shutterbug, it's good to have you back!
How much caffeine are you drinking each day? The reason I ask is because I found an interesting article yesterday that links caffeine to the "tip-of-the-tongue" experiences you describe. I don't doubt that most of these can be attributed to your ECT treatments, but caffeine might be making it worse.
I drank 5 liters of caffeinated soft drinks in one day a couple of days ago. I've never had that much caffeine in one day before and I don't think I'll do it again! I could hardly concentrate long enough to read one sentence and couldn't remember what I read when I did. I regularly drink too much caffeine and frequently have those "tip-of-the-tongue" moments.
I suspect that this problem is more evident in bipolars. Almost every bipolar site I've been to recommends limiting caffeine or avoiding it altogether--I'm sure you're aware of this already. I think caffeine might be beneficial for combating depression, but is definitely not good for mania/hypomania. I also suspect that BP2 rapid-cyclers, in particular, have a tough time kicking the caffeine habit, which would explain why I haven't been able to do it yet.
Anyway, here's the 2004 article about the small study. There's still some debate about the results. It's notable that the experiment was conducted with a relatively small amount of caffeine: 200 mg. I'd like to see a larger study on this, and one that compares normies to bipolars.
BBC NEWS | Health | A coffee can make you forgetful
Take care...