Black Muddy River

“When it seems like the night will last forever, and there’s nothing left to do but count the years…” (Garcia). The Grateful Dead, in their song “Black Muddy River,” unwittingly describe the life of the person afflicted with amnesia. The difference between the amnesia laden life and “Black Muddy River” is that amnesiacs do not know they have missed years to count. Amnesia, a memory disorder that prevents the encoding or retrieval of new (anterograde amnesia) or old memories (retrograde amnesia) effects only a very small percentage of the world population, but severely decreases the quality of life (“Amnesia”, “Mayo Clinic”). Amnesia comes in many forms, ranging from the dissociative to that caused by physical damage to the brain (“Amnesia”, “Mayo Clinic ”). Neurological amnesia becomes more common as people age, due to the onset of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of neurological deterioration, although it also affects other age groups through means other than the regular deterioration of the brain. Dissociative amnesia, however, affects each demographic equally, and has no particular bias (“Dissociative Amnesia”, Mayo Clinic, “Amnesia”). Neurological amnesia can afflict any person with brain damage to the hippocampus or other memory forming regions of the brain (“Amnesia,” Mayo …show more content…
Dissociative amnesia has a completely different set of causes. Among the producers of dissociative amnesia exist psychological trauma, and extreme stress. For example, extreme financial issues, the death of a loved one, or guilt could all cause dissociative amnesia (“Dissociative Amnesia”). Real life examples that exemplify neurological amnesia include the surgical lesion of Henry Molaison’s brain tissue, and the viral damage to the hippocampus of Clive Wearing (Myers,