In all mental health problems, amnesia may be one of the most terrifying condition out there. Amnesia is just a disturbing and upsetting condition that is often portrayed in television and film. There are several types of causes for amnesia, and there are approximately nine causes of amnesia. The causes are separated into two category because there are two kinds of amnesia. The first kind of amnesia is retrograde amnesia, and this is the most common type which are presented in TV shows, hospital, and stories. This is where a person damaged their temporal lobes and especially the hippocampus.

Patients with retrograde amnesia are unable to recall memories from the past occured before it is presented, but the ability to form new memories and recall after the start of amnesia is not affected. The second type of amnesia is anterograde amnesia which is the reverse-side of retrograde amnesia. “This is caused by the damage to hippocampus or surrounding cortices, disabling memory formation, and often it is permanent if the brain is damaged.” Patients with anterograde amnesia are unable to form new memories from the point when it is presented and to recall memories recently formed because information is not moved to the long term memory. The last type is global amnesia, and this is a temporary total loss of memory and the patient affected is unable to recall any information restored in memory. Out of the nine causes there is the sudden trauma in the head that can lead to amnesia.

This trauma is supposed to be unique and physically devastating events, for example a person who came from the war, sports injury, accidents at home or at work. The sudden shocked will eventually damage the brain and cause the loss of memory. Second, is the sustained brain damage, this is similar to the first one, however it is repeatedly damaging the brain from recalling the trauma too much. The third cause is stroke, while having a stroke, the high blood pressure will unfortunately enter the brain and that can also lead to amnesia. The fourth one will be the alcohol abuse, alcohol will have negative effect into a person’s brain and eventually lead to loss of memory. The fourth cause is psychogenic amnesia which is the most mysterious and least understood form of memory loss.