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My past employment required that I be able to concentrate for periods of six
or more hours.  This is something I could do before PD.  Even after diagnosis
I was able to concentrate for long periods.  But as time went on, my ability
to concentrate became more difficult.  I tried writing things down, thinking
I was forgetting what I had done only an hour or so earlier.  This worsened
until today I find concentration for periods of 15 to 30 minutes is the best
I can do.
 
I find that I am so easily distracted.  This may be what is wrecking my concen
tration.  I can easily stop in the middle of a letter and play a stupid
computer game.  So I made the computer games difficult to access.  This
helped somewhat.  Probably what brings this to the forefront is the big tax
day, yesterday.  I starting working on the taxes six weeks ago.  Yet I found
myself working over the weekend just to get all the numbers in and
right(details).  Often after completing a section or a form, I would get
distracted.  Once I went out and washed the car.
 
I have thought that stress played a role in breaking concentration.  The more
stressful the work, the easier it was to be distracted.  I have tried
decreasing medication and increasing medication.  These do not help in that
decreasing medication can make movement difficult and slow.  The job becomes
difficult physically and that is distracting.  If medication is increased it
is possible to have dyskinesia, but worse than that is a mind-state just
under paranoia or bordering on that state.  In that mind-state nothing
important gets done.
 
This brings me to the possible state of short-term memory problems.  I have
read papers where they say in PD there is a short-term memory problem.  The
problem is not in receiving the data or in remembering it.  The problem is in
recalling it right away.  An example is, my wife will come near my office and
say, "Are you there?" to which I reply, "What?"  All I can initially recall
is a voice-noise.  By the time she has repeated herself, I am fully aware of
what she said the first fime.
 
All of this comes back to the problem of concentration.  could it be that I
am unable to recall immediately what I just did?  As a result I am easily dist
racted?
 
Do others have similar problems?  I would appreciate comments.
 
Regards,
Alan Bonander ([log in to unmask])