anxiety affecting memory

Hi, I hve an excellent memory except when I can't recall where I put an item I need. Then I go bolistic. If someone says: "try to remember where you put it."--I get angry because if I could remember where I put it I wouldn't be in this mess. So saying that just gets me angry which adds even more to the frustration and the inability to remember. What helps? Putting a time limit on how long I look for the item. If I haven't found it within ---- number of minutes, I commit to discontinuing looking for it. Usually, once I've done that, the item will subsequently surface. As for things that might help: in addition to the things others have said: having someone gently--and I emphasize gently--remind you occasionally of things that need to be done can help. As long as the person isn't nagging this works. My husband does this for me, Because I forget to do things when I am overloaded with demands. Deep breathing is supposed to send oxygen to the brain which clears thinking. So that might help. As a blind person, I use a lot of devices that have voice output instead of visual output. A lot of these devices are now used by sighted people as well. So you can get telephones that talk the numbers as you dial them--although not with the teltouch digital ones. You can get talking clocks, talking diaries, (which will ring and speak the reminder message to you), talking calculators, talking computers, talking thermometers, talking timers. A lot of these devices have "save" functions, so you can "save" your diary, for example. Or they have buttons so you can replay the message. If you ae calculating a sum and don't recall the result, as long as you haven't erased the calculation, the calculator will reannounce the result if you press the right button. Having a notepad handy to jot down things as you think of them, and then referring to it regularly can help. I find a talking diary helpful for this. You could also call yourself up and leave the reminder on your message machine. I do that with phone numbers I need to remember. If I need to leave the house at a certain time, or wake up after a nap, I will often call a telephone clock number that will ring me back at the appointed time. If your kids are old enough, can they help out? Or your colleagues at work? Hope this helps. Tziporah