Losing things you are holding

So I've gone looking for things I'm holding in my hand before. You know, panic and everything, "Where is it?!" So does this friend of mine (who I also suspect of experiencing significant dissociation), and it's kind of been freaking her out lately.

So what I guess I am trying to ask is, has this happened to anyone else here? Anybody got any idea what this is? Is this a normal thing? Is this a dissociation thing?

Three women were sitting at a table talking about getting older and things like memory issues. The first lady says "Yeah...sometimes I find myself with the fridge door open and I can't remember if I was hungry or just checking out what I had for later..." The 2nd lady says "I know what you mean. Sometimes I'll be half-way up a staircase and can't remember if I was going up for something or coming down." The third lady says "Well, I don't have a problem with my memory...knock on wood!" and she rapped her knuckles on the table. Then she got a startled look on her face and said "Oh, someone's at the door, I'll be right back!"



Guess I'm trying to say that I think it's normal. I've done it myself (Singleton) just yesterday. I think it happens because we might be lacking in sleep, stressed about something, or in my case - I was making a mental checklist of things I needed to bring with me, collected most of the things and then wondered "now where the heck did I leave my keys" imagining them in the various places I had stopped to gather things, only to find them in my hand at the second stop where I had to put them down to move something!

I agree with Hope - this is very much normal. If it were to happen very often I'd first check things like sleeping patterns and such to see if it's fatigue or other such things. If nothing is otherwise wrong I'd mention it to a GP or T. Good luck figuring this out

Totally normal, one of my singleton friends called me once saying "I can't my find phone!!" and i was like, "You're on it right now..." and we had a good laugh and we never let her forget it XD. Like they said above, sleep and relaxation is probably all you need.

This happens to us all the time. Alex and I have come to calling it "The Great Hunt" and we have a running joke that we can actually teleport things.

Oh gosh! This happens to me all the time! I'll lose pencils, erasers, my glasses, you name it. I'll be holding them or I'll have just set them down next to me. The fridge example in the joke applies to me, even. It's ridiculous! Moving from one room to another to do something and completely forgetting what I was doing by the time I get to where I was going.
I'll lose things in "the nether" and what have you.
I feel like this is a pretty normal phenomena in general. It doesn't make it any less bothersome.
-G

Thanks for your responses! In my larger Internet search, I didn't find much about it...

It isn't something that really bothers me (or happens to me very often), but it bothers my friend a lot. I thought that it probably had to do with stress (which also makes dissociation worse, which is why I asked here), which should be getting better now for my friend.

I read the title and thought you meant losing things you /were/ holding and have no memory of putting down but are no longer holding. Because...I do /that/ all the time. I very rarely do the 'looking for something already in my hand' thing. I think, with as rarely as I do that one, I probably do it as much as a normal person.

The losing things that I was deliberately holding onto, however, is too frequent and annoying (and commented on by other people) to be normal, even if it has nothing to do with the DID. :/

This was always an issue when I was younger and had to hold onto something and was wearing leggings or something so had no pocket. I would lose money and important pieces of paper ALL THE TIME.

Does anyone else do that?

@TheHost: Have done that one too. If I don't stare at it and commit it to memory that I am holding it, I will set it down somewhere and lose it. Or forget I am holding it until I look at what I've been carrying. Have to put it in an easily visible spot or something that I will remember to take to the next place (hit or miss on that too).

But it most memorably happens when I am looking for several things. I'll find the first thing, and by the time I find the second thing, I'll go, "I just had the first thing. Where did it go?" ... "Why is it on top of the refrigerator? Oh yeah... I was looking for the second thing on top of the refrigerator." By which time I'll likely have lost the second thing again.

But I lose things a lot in general... Reorganising is a bad, bad idea.

TheHost: Yes, very much so. I have physical issues with my hands due to abuse though so that might be why. But indeed, if I am dissociative it will happen all the more frequently. Hope you figure it out.