Hi
Lately my working memory has been shot. It has been getting progressively worse over the past year.
I'm suspecting it has to do with the increasing stress levels of my life but who knows.
I'm diagnosed combined ADHD/ADHD-PI with co-morbid OCD and possibly MDD.
My question is really, as my emotional regulation has suffered to a great extent, where would I start looking for improvements; increase recovery (from distress) or increase training (of working memory).
I've recently read Dr. Brown's "Smart But Stuck" and he refers to impairments in emotional regulation being related to working memory.
Here's link to an abstract of a referred study:
http://www.ncbi.nlm....pubmed/19025300
This research examined the relationship between individual differences in working memory capacity and the self-regulation of emotional expression and emotional experience. Four studies revealed that people higher in working memory capacity suppressed expressions of negative emotion (Study 1) and positive emotion (Study 2) better than did people lower in working memory capacity. Furthermore, compared to people lower in working memory capacity, people higher in capacity more capably appraised emotional stimuli in an unemotional manner and thereby experienced (Studies 3 and 4) and expressed (Study 4) less emotion in response to those stimuli. These findings indicate that cognitive ability contributes to the control of emotional responding.
I'm not sure if my working memory deficits are due to:
D-amp use - in therapeutic doses
Previous trials of anticholinergics - Bupropion, diphenhydramine
Less sleep
Changes in life situations
So really my question boils down to:
Where do I start looking for good sources of info? Would it serve me better to train working memory e.g. via Dual-N-Back? or would that be detrimental? I'm thinking along the lines of physical exercise = good at optimal amounts that would allow supercompensation to happen, not so good when chronically extended beyond recovery ability.
Thoughts, input?
Cheers