For some reason I can no longer scan an unsorted list looking for a particular name and be certain whether it’s there or not after 1 try. Now I can look through them several times and miss it on every pass. This seems to have come on very suddenly for no particular reason. What can you suddenly not do? Anything clearly the result of the gradual decline of aging shouldn’t be included, unless it is genuinely sudden.
Not sure what you would consider sudden. Over the past couple of years I find my self struggling more and more with vocabulary words that I understand when I read but can’t recall to use them when I am writing.
I lost the ability to have a phone conversation and radio conversation simultaneously, as I could when I was a dispatcher.
I’ve lost the ability to finish my
I don’t know how to stop interrupting people!
I can’t remember phone numbers anymore but I think that’s everybody.
Found out a couple years ago I can’t ride the spinny rides any more. I went to the fair for the first time in at least a decade, was so excited to ride the Gravitron, almost panicked inside it. Very bad. Will not do again. I was afraid to try the Tilt a Whirl, as that was always my favorite, and if I couldn’t handle it I would be heartbroken. Especially now that Fatter Older Me for once has an advantage - I bet I could make that thing spin around like a goddamned top these days.
Patience
Tolerance
Sympathy
Compassion
The last inhumanity to man by man finally broke my back.
Mankind does not deserve any of those listed above.
I can’t remember people’s names. Oh right, I never could.
I, too, find myself losing words that I know perfectly well. This scares me because frontal-lobe aphasia (yep, it’s medical) is a sign of dementia, specifically one that my father suffered from. Yesterday’s word was “Sumac”, a plant I’ve seen practically every day of my life.
My speaking vocabulary is suffering terribly as I get older. I’ll know there’s a word I want, but it just won’t come to me.
My writing vocabulary isn’t suffering much from this, although I often do have to pause to dredge for the word I want. Usually I get it within ten seconds. But in speaking, the word just won’t come to me at all. Irritating.
My doctor tried me on Paxil, and I lost my sexual functionality, almost completely. Totally nixed my ability to attain sexual completion. Paxil wasn’t helping my other problems, so he took me off it again. I had a nice one-person orgy to celebrate.
When I was younger my math ability was legendary; I could do all sorts of math in my head. Now, I need a calculator to do simple arithmetic.
I’ve pretty much lost the ability to remember people’s names.
About five years ago I suddenly stopped having erections. I can still have orgasms and all that, just no erections. And Viagra just makes me clammy.
My ability to recall people’s names is declining. I’ve been listening (daily, during my commute) to the second Song of Ice and Fire book. (I haven’t watched the TV show.) Sure, there are about 150 characters so far whose names I couldn’t possibly remember, and that’s normal, especially in (translated) audio.
But I was discussing Game of Thrones with the guys at the office and, in the middle of a sentence, I couldn’t recall the names Lannister, *Joffrey *or Cersei ! 
Like Panache45 I’ve lost the ability to do even simple arithmetic in my head.
3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971693993751058209749445923078164062862089986280348253421170679 …?
I used to be able to go on for several hundred digits.
I used to draw and paint watercolors as a hobby, from childhood into my 20s, and felt good enough about my ability to write and illustrate a children’s book for the elementary school classes I aided. (Landscapes, human figures, real animals, fantastical animals, portraits, village life – that book had a lot of complex illustrations, and I was pleased with how they turned out.)
Then I stopped drawing for a bunch of reasons (like grad school taking up all my time), and now 15 years later…ugh, I’m a disgrace. I’ve been playing Telestrations with my friends at work this summer, and now I can’t draw even the most basic, stick-figure-level thing anymore. I feel so ashamed!
Oh yeah, this too. I can’t swing on a swingset anymore without getting nauseated, either.
I used to be able to sit cross-legged by standing backwards from how I wanted to sit, planting my feet, and spinning around and going down. I could get up with the opposite movement.
I also used to be able to sit cross-legged with my hands on my knees and do a backward somersault without moving my hands or uncrossing my legs, landing still seated cross-legged a couple of feet behind where I started.
I’d hurt myself badly if I tried any of those now.
I got through college without owning a calendar or datebook. I remembered every class, exam, assignment due date, exam date, workshift, personal engagement, and any other thing I had to remember-- like when I was reading Torah in shul-- without ever writing anything down. I remembered doctor and dentist appointments even when they were months in the future. I still didn’t need a calendar when I had to keep dozens of randomly scheduled interpreter shifts or meetings in my head.
I can no longer do this. Actually, mostly I can, but I don’t trust myself. I remember things vaguely enough-- there are times when people ask if I’m free a certain time, and I’m about 90% sure of the answer, but I no longer have the mental picture of a calendar page in my head like I used to.
I’m sure most of it is age, but part of it is the ease of using a computer program or phone app over a written datebook or calendar.
FWIW, I can still tell you the birthdays of everyone in my family three generations back or forward, and several times removed, and those of friends going back to high school. It’s a lot of dates. I also remember pretty much every date I ever had to learn for school. And I remember important dates in my life. I got my first period on June 6. It was the day before the last day of sixth grade. I got braces on January 6, the day before my 11th birthday. My high school graduation was May 25. My husband left for Iraq on November 11. But I’m not sure what today’s date is.
I used to be able to get into the lotus position without using my hands. I also used to be able to put my feet behind my head.
However, I still can touch my toes without bending my knees. I can also still turn a cartwheel, however, I used to be able to do them one-handed, and I can’t do that anymore.
spelling and vocabulary …used to be you could give me a word and 90 percent of the time id know how to spell it and know the meaning of it and half the time now I fumble mostly …