I gave a short reply Pippa when I welcomed you to the site in our Introduction thread. I personally would like you to try and see a Neurologist. Is this something that your GP or PCP has mentioned to you?

Optic Neuritis is often (but NOT always) a symptom of another neurological condition, and if you add that to your short term memory loss, then a Neurological disorder of some kind is rather suspicious.

Try not to get any more worried over what I just said because there are plenty of non-serious and curable, even temporary, neurological problems around. Not all are chronic, not all are life threatening, but I would think that your sypmtoms need further investigation.

It is not normal for a 21 year old to have short term memory loss. Something has to have triggered it, and until you find out what, you are going to be stressed out, and stress will probably only compound the problems that you're already experiencing.

I do hope you get some answers soon, but I'd definitely be going back to discuss this with your GP. At least that would be a starting point.