Living with a memory impairment and making decisions

(Chapter 18 Making Decisions in my book)

Sometimes I have problems making decisions. They can be easy decisions or some that are much harder to make. I’m not sure why this happens but it is not something that I can fix. An easy decision can be ordering some ham from the deli. This can be a challenge because it is not something that I do on a weekly basis, just once in a while. The problem is that I will forget which ham I really like. If I write down the one that I really like on a piece of paper, I will probably lose the paper.

Another example of me having problems making a decision happens quite frequently. I love taking photos and that is not a problem for me. That is because I have a very simple camera and everything is automatic. The problem happens after I download the photos onto my computer. It is very difficult for me to figure out what photos to delete and which ones to keep. This is especially difficult in the fall when I take lots of fall foliage pictures. I can spend hours trying to figure out what photos to keep and which ones to delete. If I get too frustrated while doing this because I can’t really decide what to do, I will close out the folder and try again later. It could take me several days to get this done and the frustration that I feel is real! Unfortunately, I haven’t found a way to change this for me.

UPDATE: 2020 Recently I figured something out. I wrote the store name and the name of the ham on a small piece of paper. I put it on top of my driver's license in my purse. I have looked at this many times when I couldn't remember what him I liked. It has helped me so much!