AIBU to be worried about a sudden memory loss?

[over2021]

This morning at 7am I logged onto work laptop from home (I'm on annual leave so it was a quick email check). I do this every day- the password never changes.

Logged off, dropped DD at school and came back to action one of the emails and I can't remember the password. Like, it's totally wiped from my brain. I know it starts with a capital W but that's it. 13 hours later and I still can't remember it.

Nothing like this has happened before. I'm genuinely worried that there's something not right!

Please reassure me that a) it's normal and b) I will remember the password tomorrow!

This is a migraine symptom for me. I lose the ability to log into any work systems, even those I use daily 😬

Yep, happened to me with my bank card pin. I am 38 and I've had the same pin since I was 16. I put the pin in the cash machine wrong three times and it snatched my card! When the next one came, it had the same PIN number and I just automatically put it in, no problem. I wasn't even in the area of the right pin. I don't know what the hell happened but it was weird

I have a theory that this happens when you try to focus on it, meaning that you are using a different part of your brain, as opposed to the part that deals with automatic memory. Muscle memory helps me with things like this. I may forget the number but if I have inputted it often enough and am relaxed about it, I will remember the shape when you input it.

I had similar some years back; I couldn't work out what the car indicator lever was for. Never had anything similar since so maybe it was a peri menopause thing as has been suggested.

I get this with peoples names, I was out with our walking group and suddenly realised I couldn't remember the woman's name I was walking with, she not a close friend but well known to me and I spent ages trying to remember her name and really worrying about it and thinking of scenarios where I might need to know it, it was ages before it came back to me.

Yes happened to me, I forgot my internet bank customer number. It can be many reasons, stress, menopause, age, illness ie autoimmune conditions and fibromyalgia cause "cog fogs". Also we now live in an age of advanced technology where we have to remember so much information and consume so much data, it's not surprising we shut down.

This happened to me with my PIN once - not menopausal, no other memory issues. Just one of those things. Also when I was getting one of my Covid jabs they asked if I was on any medication and when I opened my mouth to say what it was, my mind went totally blank. I’ve been taking it every day for five years, the box sits on my bedside table. But the name just went.

I once was putting away returns at work and I picked up this tester pot of paint on the counter and said 'this is a nice colour, we don't stock this, do we?' A reasonable assumption as it had another stores code stuck on it.

My coworkers both stared at me. 'What?" I said.

It transpired that half hour ago, I had picked it up, commented on the colour, gone and looked for it, realised we didn't sell it, pulled it up on the screen, raised a transfer to our Ware branch who did stock it, printed out the transfer label, stuck it to the pot and put it on the side to be given to our delivery driver the next time he went there.

I remember nothing of any of this.

I would think they were winding me up if it weren't for the system showing that it was me who did it and the fact that they were a miserable pair of tossers who wouldn't know a joke if it happy slapped them.

I'm so sorry @LakeIsle48 I hope you find out what is causing it and some treatment soon

You've tried to do it without the usual cues for typing it in, so your muscle memory hasn't been able to kick in.

Walk away, go back to it and start it up as you would usually do and by the third time, your fingers will start typing in the correct password as though you'd never blanked.

It also happens with PINs in the supermarket, especially now we don't enter them as often.

Not a serious medical issue, not because you're female and inherently faulty once you start leaving peak fertility (I fucking hate the narrative that women become hormonal idiots the moment they go past peak fuckability in the eyes of men - haven't we been fighting for centuries to NOT be dismissed as irrational beasts entirely at the mercy of our uteruses and of lower intelligence/recall as a result?) - just you're missing your usual cues for entering the password correctly.

Don't call me a hormonal idiot. I'm going through a medical condition that can be managed with treatment.

It's ignorant comments like yours that have meant women don't want to ask for support and medical professionals haven't prioritised debilitating conditions like endometriosis or the menopause.

32 years ago, I woke up, sat straight up and thought "I've forgotten my pin number". I never remembered it.