I was recently involved in a memory test as a precursor to a study of older people (yes, there’s always someone studying us!). I failed to remember three items when I had to repeat them back some time later. But I’m not too worried about that failure because, as we all know, memory behaviour is often a bit patchy at all stages of our lives.

My late wife Dorothy, with Alzheimer’s, had an entirely different ability to remember which changed as her disease progressed. More than once, I was astounded when she seemed to have a flash from the past; like the time she laid out all her undies and socks on our unmade bed. Was she preparing to pack them for travel? To launder them? To make sure she had enough? On that occasion, it was easy to help her replace them, as I gently explained we were home again after a (non-existent) trip away.

Our ability to recall or remember is sometimes described as being short or long-term, selective and variable, all at the same time. It’s a complex topic even for a psychologist; our minds and behaviour are all so different and unique. Like most of us, I guess, my memory also responds differently when I am tired, happy, sad, or flustered (and I tire and fluster more easily and frequently these days!).

Now living alone, and when my mind is in that ‘revolving-door’ state of flux, it often means I shouldn’t make hasty decisions. But indecision often leads to procrastination and, for me I guess, a mild sort of depression. To counter that feeling, I need a strategy, and I do have one or two.

No doubt my readers will also have their personal antidote to the ‘blues’. Mine is easy. I go walking and, if that’s not possible, I read, or watch a movie (a TV mystery show can be good therapy), have a snack, plan a meal, or just make a cup of tea, and do a crossword puzzle! Music can work, too as another strategy to dispel my blues.

I use anything that forces my stupid brain to focus on something outside of unpleasant personal reverie and push the unwanted memories aside or, as a psychologist might say, ‘submerge’ them. Much as I would wish them to evaporate permanently, of course they won’t.

Is it better to forget or remember unhappy times? Well, I’m here to tell you that I do both. Trouble is, I get them mixed up sometimes – remember stuff that I should have forgotten and forget things that I should remember! We are complex things, we humans, aren’t we?

Best remedy of all is probably a happy interaction with another person! A chat with a mate, even on the phone can lift my spirits, maybe theirs, too, especially if I let them get a word in!

And if, like me, you also ‘overthink’ the state of your health and your supposed unhappy place in life’s journey, perhaps also swamped with ‘wrong’ memories, then maybe you might like to try my non-scientific remedies. They are all there, in the paragraphs above. At least I think they are…….