Xanax, Ambien Cause Short-Term Memory

Lately, I’ve felt like Dory, the lovable and forgetful fish friend in Finding Nemo. I have almost zero short-term memory. I tell stories twice, wrapping presents is a disaster (What did I just wrap and who is this for?) and remembering why I walked into a room is a joke. The other day in Sunday school, the teacher called on me and I launched into a story but halfway through—I forgot what the topic was. So I just kept talking until I made some sense.

Life lesson: The answer to a problem is never “just keep talking.” Stop. Stop talking as soon as you don’t know what you’re talking about.

Even as I was writing this, I put a Lean Cuisine in the microwave, walked into another room and thought "what am I microwaving?"

Yesterday I Googled “short-term memory loss” and two of the top hits were related to Xanax and Ambien—both of which are medicines I take.

With my crazy family, there’s no way I’m giving up my Xanax this close to the holidays. But if I give up the Ambien, I’ll be a total insomniac and insomnia causes—you guessed it—short-term memory loss.

So I came up with one rational solution: Take enough Xanax so you don’t care that you can’t remember.

That said, if you told me something in the last few weeks and I didn’t act on it, you might want to tell me again.

Focus, Jessie. Focus.

The still needs people to adopt 150 seniors for Christmas. This would be a surprisingly easy project. You have to get six washcloths, one queen-sized blanket and one accent pillow. The washcloths and blanket wouldn’t cost much if you use those 20 percent off Bed, Bath and Beyond coupons that are everywhere. We can save my soapbox on how overpriced throw pillows are for another day. Still you can get those on a pretty good sale most of the time. Especially since you don’t have to coordinate with a particular room.

We’re still expected to see some snow today.

The Victoria’s Secret fashion show is tonight at 10 p.m. on CBS.

Send us your photos from UGA (or LSU) fandom for the SEC Championship Game this weekend. We’ll put together a photo gallery of all the bulldogs.

Stay warm.