Vibration Magazine Blog

I’m middle-aged, and I go through this all the time: where are my house keys… purse… car in the parking lot? How did I forget those printouts for the meeting… to defrost tonight’s dinner… to move the wet wash to the dryer before it gets moldy?  Sometimes, I’m suddenly concerned I’ve forgotten an important meeting, but can’t recall quickly what day of the week it is today — much less when that appointment was to take place — which sends me scrambling for my calendar.

Now, I was about to make an important point here, but I’ve forgotten what it was… darn!  Looking above for reminders… oh, right!

We middle-aged people caring for parents, children, spouses, paid work, projects, community work, and somehow ourselves often become forgetful and distracted.  Many of us worry that we are acting uncomfortably like our parents and other elders who have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease and related dementias.  Do we have it, too?

Well, maybe: there are early-onset cases of dementia involving people in their 50s and 60s. But this is unusual. It’s more likely what I call MLDS: Mid Life Distraction Syndrome.  To state it idiomatically: we have too many balls in the air, are up to our eyeballs, and struggling to tread water while having too much on our plates.  But still, we wonder: are we experiencing “normal” forgetfulness?

We may also wonder about our elder parents, spouse or other aging loved ones.  Should we be concerned about certain behaviors we see? What does forgetfulness that is not “normal” look like?

I’m not going to answer by focusing on physiological processes or diagnostic criteria, but on simple, everyday functioning. I encourage you to consult your physician if this topic continues to worry you, or the following seems to point to something that is outside the norm. Try these six points on for size… (Read this piece in its entirety here.)

Essence Recommendations for Mid Life Distraction Syndrome from Vibration Editors

(Follow the links below to articles and/or single essence portraits elsewhere in Vibration; make your browser window smaller if the background gets in the way of the text.)

Corn, Dill, Shasta Daisy, Restedness, Olive, Elm, Mid-Life…. can you come up with some more? Add them in comments, including why you suggest that particular essence.