Everyday bustle and problems lead us to forget about the little things: take out the trash, watch an interesting movie, buy bread. But sometimes it happens that due to absent-mindedness and inattention, more serious things happen, like a disrupted business meeting, a forgotten iron, or a missed birthday for a loved one.
We are used to explaining everything by poor memory, but absent-mindedness and inattention have nothing to do with it. The whole point is that a person cannot concentrate, focus on what he is doing and what he needs to do.
In order to understand how to get rid of absent-mindedness and inattention,
it is necessary to find out their causes and types.
Classification
Absent-mindedness is a condition characterized by inattention and forgetfulness that constantly accompany a person.
Psychologists note the presence of three types of inattention.
- Fluttering attention. Characterized by insufficient concentration of attention and easy switching from one task to another. This type of inattention often occurs in preschool children. It can also occur with severe fatigue, as a result of insomnia, monotonous work or severe headache.
- Professorial absent-mindedness. There is a serious concentration on one specific matter. Such concentration is found in professors or scientists who are fixated on their thoughts. We should not forget that many great personalities were absent-minded, as they were focused on their discovery or creativity. It also occurs in individuals who are absorbed beyond the idea, fixated on a fixed idea.
- Weak concentration. An even greater weakening of switchability is characteristic. Occurs in people with reduced activity of nervous processes. Senile absent-mindedness often occurs.
Considers such types of absent-mindedness as well.
- Insufficient concentration. Characterized by a decrease in the ability to remember what is heard or seen. Occurs in people who react acutely to various conditions. For example, it is a consequence of lack of sleep, severe anxiety, fatigue.
- Rigidity. Lethargy, slowness, which is characterized by difficulty switching from topic to topic. Occurs in patients with epileptic syndrome, hebephrenia, and hypomania.
- Unstable attention of spasmodic nature. There is constant jumping from topic to topic, which leads to absent-mindedness and forgetfulness. Occurs in children with attention deficit disorder.
What is absent-mindedness and inattention?
Many people like to say that absent-mindedness is characteristic of great people. This is repeated by those who do not want to work on their bad qualities and look for excuses for them. In fact, this drawback is not as harmless as many people believe.
Absent-mindedness is a state of attention in which a person cannot concentrate on ongoing events or actions. It is also called inattention, forgetfulness, and is often not considered a vice, but only a character trait.
None of us were born immediately absent-minded or inattentive. Many people consider them "glory flaws," but they can lead to real tragedies: car accidents or factory accidents. Such people also cause a lot of trouble in everyday life, because they also cannot build normal relationships due to constant everyday “accidents,” and they are unlikely to bring much benefit at work.
Absent-mindedness has absolutely nothing to do with memory, it is a violation of attention. This trait is acquired, so you need to get rid of it if you want to change your life for the better and make it easier for those around you, to whom you cause, albeit minor, troubles.
Possible reasons
Anxious thoughts and constant worries can lead to absent-mindedness.
Let's look at what factors can cause a person to become absent-minded:
- the presence of monotonous, monotonous work;
- severe fatigue;
- prolonged headaches;
- the result of simultaneous execution of several tasks;
- the presence of mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia;
- anxiety disorder, depression;
- organic brain damage;
- consequences of insomnia, chronic lack of sleep;
- the result of mental or physical fatigue;
- changes with age - in people over 70 years of age, the ability to concentrate their attention significantly decreases, which leads to absent-mindedness;
- the presence of extreme anxiety can also lead to inattention;
- the presence of pathology in the body, namely: atherosclerosis, hypertension, osteochondrosis, hydrocephalus, vascular dementia, epilepsy, Alzheimer's disease, vegetative-vascular dystonia, iron deficiency anemia;
- a sudden distraction while performing an automatic action can also lead to absent-mindedness. For example, in a situation when a woman is peeling potatoes, she is distracted by a phone call, and she automatically throws the peeled tuber into the trash can and the skin into the pan.
What is attention from a psychological point of view?
Attention is a concept in cognitive psychology that represents the extent to which we process specific information that our brain receives from the environment.
Thanks to attentiveness, the subject’s successful orientation in the surrounding space is ensured, and it also ensures a complete and clear reflection in the psyche. The object of attention falls into the center of our consciousness, other elements are perceived weakly, not clearly, but at the same time the direction of our attention can change.
There are several types of attention:
- Involuntary type
. While working with this type of attention, a person does not make any effort of will to concentrate, he does not even set a goal for himself. - Arbitrary type
. During this type, a person makes an effort of will to focus on a specific object. - Postarbitrary type
. During this type of attention, a decrease in volitional efforts is characteristic, but the goal of being attentive remains.
Diagnostics
To diagnose the causes that influenced the occurrence of absent-mindedness, an MRI may be prescribed
If absent-mindedness is present, the following studies may be prescribed:
- Initially, the patient is recommended to undergo an examination by a neurologist, during which the doctor assesses the state of functioning of fine motor skills and excludes the presence or absence of neurological symptoms;
- conducting a neuropsychological test to assess the level of intellectual abilities, attention and performance;
- genetic analysis;
- blood biochemistry to determine the level of glucose, magnesium, iron, lead;
- ultrasound examination of cerebral vessels using Dopplerography;
- Magnetic resonance imaging;
- electroencephalography with EP.
Treatment
An absent-minded person may not need drug therapy. Sometimes following certain recommendations is enough to improve the process of concentration. However, for certain conditions, medications may also be prescribed, including:
- Piracetam - to improve brain activity;
- Glycine - has a beneficial effect on the nervous system and increases performance;
- Biotredin - improves cognitive functions, improves memory, increases alertness;
- Phenibut - affects the improvement of blood circulation in the brain, thereby increasing the quality of mental activity and memory.
Physiotherapy procedures can also be used, namely:
- inhalation;
- laser therapy;
- Ural Federal District;
- magnetotherapy.
Walked into a room and ended up in another
If simple measures do not help and forgetfulness has become your habitual state, contact a specialist who will help you find out the cause.
“In the initial stages, deterioration of memory, memorization and decreased interest in life manifests itself as dementia (dementia, in which cognitive functions are impaired due to vascular and degenerative changes in the brain), says a neurologist at the National Medical and Surgical Center. Pirogova Vera Blokhina . – Most often this disease occurs after 65 years of age, but in rare cases it is also recorded in young people. Hereditary predisposition is of great importance for the development of this disease. Age-related memory decline, unlike dementia, does not cause social maladjustment and does not progress.”
With vascular changes, treatment of concomitant diseases, correction of risk factors (weight, blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol levels) and taking special anti-dementia drugs help slow down memory deterioration.
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Adviсe
I bring to your attention recommendations on how to deal with absent-mindedness.
- Take short breaks and respites in your work to realize what has been done and understand what still needs to be done. Before starting a new task, be sure to think through its implementation and make a mental plan.
- Try to concentrate on your business. Often, forgetfulness is a consequence of lack of concentration. For example, when, while performing one task, all thoughts are filled with something else.
- Try not to put things off until later, even if they seem insignificant and take a little time. Thus, you delay their implementation, which only increases absent-mindedness.
- You can use visual reminders. Choose a few items that will remind you of specific things to do. Keep them handy so that they are always visible and remind you of what needs to be done.
- Use conscious associations. You can come up with a relationship between a task and a situation, an important task and a subject. Once you find yourself in a hidden place, you will be able to immediately remember what you planned.
- Try to get rid of all kinds of junk. This applies to the desktop, both at work and at home, because often it is chaos that leads to absent-mindedness. It is worth taking care of organizing your desktop on your computer.
- Determine your priorities, concentrate on one object or completing one task. You need to understand that almost no one manages to do two or more things at the same time.
- Solve problems as they arise, do not invent difficulties for yourself before they happen.
Now you know for what reasons adults may experience inattention and absent-mindedness. It is important to understand that pathology may occur in certain situations. Therefore, if you have other suspicious symptoms, then it is better not to delay, promptly seek help from a specialist, undergo diagnostics, and if any ailment is detected, begin appropriate treatment.
Symptoms of forgetfulness
Don't panic if you forgot the phone number of a new friend, this is simple selective memory. The brain does not remember information that is not of great importance. Experts recommend paying attention to your brain health when:
- you cannot remember recent events that happened to you since morning or yesterday;
- you are absent-minded: you have difficulty retaining information in your head here and now, you forget where you put your phone;
- you forget things that you always remembered: a friend’s address, the way to your favorite cafe, the name of an old friend.
