I do that, too, and frankly it worries me. I've even talked to my husband about my fears I'm becoming demented at times. Not suggesting that you are, Lucille, but my mind used to be really sharp and I was quite witty. Don't think I am so much anymore. I'm not sure if it's just aging (will be 60 next month) or something else.

It happens to me, too. And then I do the internet search using similar words, just as you did.

DH and I do that now and then. It is a normal part of aging and I don't think it implies an oncoming dementia. I heard the difference described as not being able to remember where you put your keys is normal, looking at them in the palm of your hand and not know what they do is a warning sign.

May be the worry of not finding the word overtakes the brain’s thinking of the word. Sometimes I make myself let go of the word search for a few minutes and then go back to it.

i know, it’s disconcerting.

Happens to me "all the time"! I just say, "I'm short on words". It just feels like my brain is full....and it pushed out something it didn't need. lol

I think you can kind of jinx yourself in looking for a word. As soon as that little panic sets in......then you have to take a break before it will pop into your head.

Isn't it nice though that we can remember every single word to the Gillian's Island theme?

I’ve been doing that for 40 years and it hasn’t gotten any worse so I wouldn’t stress too much. My DH still teases me about calling insect antennae “bug antlers” when I couldn’t think of the word back when we were dating :-D

Colleenoz -- Oh, that's precious: Bug Antlers!

I'm starting to conflate words. I'll start a sentence, then think of two different words that apply equally well to what I want to convey. Out of my mouth comes some weird combination of the two. It's usually adjectives or adverbs. (Ugly" and "Hideous" turn into one nonsense word.)

I have been losing words too. It's alarming. I used to have an incredible memory and it isn't so incredible anymore! Lol. I do mention these kind of things to my doctor. I said you tell me when it's time to worry. She laughed and said OK.

However the doctors had recently changed my blood pressure medication to calcium channel blockers in addition to my beta blockers. The calcium channel blocker turned me into a bumbling zombie! I was in a fog and barely remembered my name! So definitely be aware that some medication can contribute! I told them to put in my chart never give me calcium channel blockers again. Both times I had them I had the same results. It does mention that in the side effects if you read about them. Just a few days after getting off of them I felt like a completely different person. The fog was gone, I wasn't stumbling over words and I wasn't in a sleepy stupor zombie state! My husband was so happy to have me back! He was very worried about me and he told my doctor he thought I was having little strokes. All of that because of a medication.

That's not new for me, losing words, but what IS new is, every so often, using the wrong word. For example, the other day I said "shoulder" for something completely unrelated that started with "s", not even "sh". I corrected myself immediately but just found it odd.

This happens all the time to me. I totally forgot the name of a boy killed 15 years ago although I was friends with the family and he lived next door to my daughter. I had to go thru the alphabet and came up with it. Other ordinary words escape me. Mostly I remember.

This started with me after I turned 60. Sometimes I even type the wrong word here and have to go back and edit.

I've done that my entire life, although I notice as I'm getting older, I do it more often. I also conflate as described by chisue. I remember (good, I remember!) one time I was buying film and the clerk asked me if I wanted Kodak or Fuji film. I responded that I wanted Kojak film. Everyone (clerk, me, customers in line behind me) had a good chuckle over that one.

I've also been told the same thing as Elizabeth by a relative who works in the mental health field. If you can't remember where you put your keys, that's not cause for alarm, but if you find that you don't know what the keys are for, time to get checked out.

Yes, so common in those of a certain age. Elizabeth, my key story is that it's okay to misplace them but if you find them in the refrigerator then it's time to worry.

Feel a bit better that I'm not alone:)

I call it "lost in the file cabinet" I know the word or piece of information, but am unable to get it right then. When I stop trying, it surfaces.

So sorry you were feeling the effects of losing words Lucille.

I do that when I get migraines. I have one today and I can't remember things when in conversation. It's because there's no blood properly going to my brain. Migraineurs develop white lesions on their brain which are spots where the brain cells are dying.

I hope yours is just a simple thing of too much information being stuffed in there and so the filing cabinet has overflowed as Idstarr said and the delete is not working the way it should be in your brain right now. Best to you.

Me, also. Sometimes I can't think of a word, but I can think of a similar word that means basically the same thing, so I will use that.

I think best in visual terms. If I can't think of a word, I "see" the written word in my mind and then am able to say it. The long route to do a simple thing! lol!

Be careful who you vent to. A new Nurse Practitioner (young) asked me (elderly) if I were having any memory problems. I said I do forget words sometimes. She wanted to know what words. “Blender Stick”. She wrote on my online chart Memory Problems will discuss removing a drug. No, why would you suddenly do that I said. That is Wrong.

I want to be given time to adjust to my aging by myself. Now I have to defend myself? Groups like this give us confidence that wenarevnormal for our age so we help each other when we forget.

My train of thought frequently departs the station with out me!

Maggie you have a good PA! As I said in my post there are some meds that can cause you to have these problems! It's a great idea to remove the possibility of the medication and see how you respond.

Luckily I knew that calcium channel blockers had the possibility of causing the type of problem I was having. Removing it, my return to my normal self, was proof it does not work properly for me.

Statins will make me have problems even remembering what I am getting out of my chair for. However in this past year my bad spelling has gone to even worse. Tend to use alternatives after racking my brain for the correct term.

The one word I am having the biggest problem with is - inconsiderate. And it happens a lot because there is a lot of inconsiderate people in my world lately! And since I don't type for a living any more I've noticed that I have developed some typing dyslexia - no problem reading but when I go to type a lot of times I type some words with the letters reversed, and it's happening automatically without thinking of it in my brain, in other words my fingers are doing it automatically. What's up with that??

I often find it difficult to remember a word that I want ... or what did I come to this room for.

And sometimes when a middle-aged person speaks of mainly the forgetting words thing, I may helpfully offer, "I have news for you, buddy - it gets worse!".

I also have a problem (I wrote "probelm") with putting letters in the wrong sequence when keybroading, rita.

ole joyful

I remember being pregnant 50 plus years AGO. Spent the summer in Florida. Could not pronounce porpoise, now matter how hard I tried.

Ah, Glenda - anyone who was pregnant for 50 plus years in Florida gets a lifetime pass on many, many idiosyncrasies.... =)

I, too, have what I'd call 'typing dyslexia'. I reverse two letters in common words -- words that I've only been typing since I first learned to type in 1955.

last night I wanted to tell my son to grab the "dental floss" but I couldn't think of the word dental...ugh!!!

This is why words like thingamajig, thingy, doohicky and whatchamacallit were invented.

This weekend my beloved spouse announced to the dog that she had a "bird leaf" stuck in her hair.

It was a feather.

:-)

I'm so glad I read this post . My loss of words/memory had me worried. It bothers me when I forget something . If I can,I grab my computer and try and look it up. The last time I went to see my psychiatrist , I told him I'm worried about my memory. He said 4 random words and told me to remember them. At the end of my visit,he asked me what the words were. I stressed and strained so hard to remember them - I thought my brain was constipated because they just wouldn't come out. Took me awhile ,but I managed to remember 3 and he gave me a hint on the last word. He said I'm fine. If that's "fine" , I'd hate to see what "bad" is ......

I too have always had this problem. As a child I thought of it as having a sort of sieve as the floor of my brain and different sized marbles represented words that would drop into the holes. I did eventually learn from my mother that I was breech and didn't breath for a while after I was born. Well that explained a lot. I have learned coping mechanisms and going through the alphabet is one of them. I constantly reverse letters when typing but I am a lousy typist. I lack a proper left and right. Oh well. Since people call forgetting having a senior moment obviously it gets worse as you get older. I have a word I constantly forget. It is incredulous and I was able to remember it right away this time. Its a word people frequently misuse and I wonder if it is in for a permanent change. As long as I can wonder I think I am OK.

Hee-hee! I'm adding 'bird leaf' to 'bug antlers'. Anyone else have some creative substitutes?

Isn't it reassuring when you hear younger people forgetting a word?!

I've also had trouble remembering the four words given to me by a medical professional, and I think that measures short term memory. I can speak three or four foreign languages, and sometimes I get them mixed up and substitute Italian words for Spanish words, since I have a larger Italian vocabulary, even though I've spoken a lot more Spanish. I would like to learn Portuguese, but I think I might be too old for that now. I haven't learned a new foreign language since I was in my 30s, but I haven't lost them either.

I sometimes have trouble remembering an English word, and that seems to happen more often and not remembering a foreign word. I don't have an explanation for that. When I was speaking Spanish in Mexico (after only one semester of conversational Spanish at an adult education class), I would find creative ways of using what words I did know to get my point or idea across, and I think this exercise was very helpful for me in learning new Spanish words. You might try this exercise to help you remember English words as well, similar to what Marilyn_C suggested. Another exercise you can try is working on crossword puzzles. I think word puzzles are supposed to help your memory.

I didn't lose a word today; I lost a stick of butter. I had to take a pound of butter out of the freezer (evidently no one else in this house can take butter out of the freezer when the last refrigerated stick is placed in the butter dish), so I put two sticks in the MW to soften, to add to cooky dough. At the end of a few seconds one stick was still kind of hard, so I put it back for a few more seconds while I put the first stick in with the sugar in the mixer bowl, and turned it on to start the creaming.

I had the cookies baked and cooling when I opened the MW door to wipe the plate, as I was cleaning the kitchen. There was my second--nicely softened--stick of butter. :[

I spent way too long trying to remember "smart stick" for that kitchen gadget.

But I'm not completely out of the woods. That's what Cuisinart calls theirs.

I'm still trying to recollect the generic name...

I feel much better now, hearing we are in the same boat. Dawn in Cal, I must use at least one of those words every day! ...... mama goose, I have left the chips out of chocolate chip cookies! That's bad.

Stick blender, Artemis?

My Granddaughter calls egg yolks "Egg pits". She does not like them. Now we all call them that.

happens to me all the time... but mostly, it is that I can't think of a word in one language but know it in the other. Trouble is, its usually the language spoken where I am presently, and I can think of it ( a word) in the language not spoken there...

Moni