Hi, I am a bit of a stranger here but just freaked myself out and wondered if any of you had similar experiences. I had a mild head injury over 2 years ago that left me with real problems. Generally these days I function quite well, but today I went to tidy out a cupboard and don't recognise lots of the things in it. Does this happen to any of you? If so how do you not get freaked out? Thanks

A I recall, this is called visual agnosia. Some might be familiar with this from the book "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat."

There are two main categories (apperceptive and associative) and a number of subtypes, like inability to recognize faces, inability to recognize landmarks, word blindness, etc... I struggle with the latter and and my neuro-psychologist told me it's due to damage in my occipital and/or temporal lobes.

Is this the first time it has happened to you, post injury?

I have had this happen a few times. I found I needed to step back and sort of regroup my thoughts. It is disturbing.

No this has happened several times before. I often don't recognise where I am in the car or people's houses, or even my own things. Not happening as much as it used to but it still freaks me out.

Does not happen to me except with words... however... do you have a seizure issue?

I can be "word blind," too. I also have moments when I feel lost, in a totally familiar area - like my own road. To overcome the latter, I use my GPS everywhere I go.

I do find this is more likely to happen when I'm tired or overwhelmed.

Unfortunately this happens to me a lot, I can suddenly not know where I am or what I'm doing, I can go in to what should be a very familiar place yet not recognize it, it looks kind of familiar yet not at the same time.

I can do something, for eg get something out of a cupboard and not realize I just did it.

I am seeing a neurologist and he suspects some kind of seizure or non epileptic seizure, not saying this is what's going on but it is disturbing when it happens.

How long do these spells last for?

I just wait for the spells to pass, they don't last long but they really disturbed me at first.

Are you seeing a neuro?

I know this sounds crazy and is probably not possible..but I feel my cognitive skills have declined significantly the past few weeks. Have to reopen the same thread to remember what it was about.

Have to write down which medicines I've taken or haven't. I try real HARD not to get paranoid and pride myself on my cognitive skills still being good, but just don't know what is going on.

Could it be that you're still adjusting to your new meds?

good point. Im on a lot now and that could definitely be it. thanks for the idea. Didn't think of that.