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What Are Your Most Amusing (Or Disconcerting) Brain Fog Experiences?

Hip

Senior Member
Messages
17,820
Those of us with CFS all get these "brain fog" moments: when it feels like half of our brain has gone offline, and we find ourselves struggling with cognitive dysfunction for hours, or sometimes days, or longer.

Disastrous or perplexing though these brain fog moments can be, a few hours afterwards, when we have recovered back some of our mental faculties, they can seem quite funny in retrospect or sometimes quite disconcerting, depending on the circumstances.

One brain fog story I heard was about a CFS patient going out to mail a letter, and instead of locating a mailbox, she tried to post it in a parking meter, and just could not figure out why her efforts were not working!

Another brain fog story I read (on this site) was this: "the brain fog was so bad I didn't recognize a number 8 on a page. I couldn't figure out why those 2 circles were on top of each other!"

These are very interesting stories.

We have all been there, totally perplexed over a simple task or totally confused in trying to understand something fundamental and basic.

It really seems as if part of the brain does go offline during these brain fog moments: like as if you temporarily loose internal communication with certain "brain areas": like your object recognition faculty, or your logic faculty, or your long-term memory faculty.

I think more research should be done on this CFS brain fog phenomenon. It is very intriguing in itself, and trying to understand it better should yield some clues as to what is going on in the brain in CFS.

Anyway, it would be good to hear everyones' stories of their best "brain fog moments".
 

heapsreal

iherb 10% discount code OPA989,
Messages
10,086
Location
australia (brisbane)
a pen i leave by the computer that i scribble down notes on when googling went missing and was really giving me the S--ts! bloody kids stole my pen! I went to the fridge to get my pepsi max and there was my pen in the fridge. I even asked the kids if they put my pen in the fridge, they gave me a very weird look, what r u talking about dad, mmm i always have a second look in the fridge now, i might find 20 bucks one day, lol.
 

Boule de feu

Senior Member
Messages
1,118
Location
Ottawa, Canada
This is fun! =-)
I shouldn't laugh, but I know it happens.

One day, I was driving to school which is a 20 minute drive.
I ended up on the highway and could not understand why I was not getting there.
After thinking really hard, I realized that I was going to the wrong school!
Actually, I was on my way to my previous school (where I used to teach 7 years ago).
It was a 55 minute drive and in the opposite direction.
I had to turn around and I was late for work.

______________

A story that I'm not too proud of:

One day, my daughter stayed home because she was too sick to go to school.
I can't remember exactly what was wrong with her, but I remember that I had
given her the medication the doctor had prescribed her.
She would not wake up.
We realized after that I had given her meds twice - probably 15 minutes apart?
I had forgotten that I had done it.
We ended up calling my doctor's emergency number who told us to let her sleep,
she would eventually wake up.

I got so scared! That was the last time I gave my children their meds.

_______________________

I also have lots of stories about misplacing things, like waiting beside the fridge so my soup would heat up, thinking I had put it in the microwave. I got fed up waiting because the "fridge" would not "ring" to let me know it was ready.
 

Enid

Senior Member
Messages
3,309
Location
UK
Being persuaded into a School Reunion by an old friend and asked my name by the reception committee - blank - long silences (friend leapt in with the required information) and the reception committee quietly and rapidly dispersed. I did recall it half and hour later but felt the committee members would not be amused at this new found discovery.
 

Hip

Senior Member
Messages
17,820
One of my regularly recurring brain fog D'oh moments is picking up a vitamin supplement bottle, taking a few tablets and closing the lid again. Then moments later, I look at the supplement bottle still in my hand, and I think: did I take those tablets or not? And I often I really have no idea of whether I did or not.

Often I will take the vitamins again, just to be sure that I do get my daily dose; and on the second attempt a taking them, I really make a special effort to try to remember it! I suppose this is perhaps more an example of a non-extistant short-term memory than brain fog.
 

SaveMe

Senior Member
Messages
421
Location
the city
This is fun! =-)
I shouldn't laugh, but I know it happens.

One day, I was driving to school which is a 20 minute drive.
I ended up on the highway and could not understand why I was not getting there.
After thinking really hard, I realized that I was going to the wrong school!
Actually, I was on my way to my previous school (where I used to teach 7 years ago).
It was a 55 minute drive and in the opposite direction.
I had to turn around and I was late for work.

______________

A story that I'm not too proud of:

One day, my daughter stayed home because she was too sick to go to school.
I can't remember exactly what was wrong with her, but I remember that I had
given her the medication the doctor had prescribed her.
She would not wake up.
We realized after that I had given her meds twice - probably 15 minutes apart?
I had forgotten that I had done it.
We ended up calling my doctor's emergency number who told us to let her sleep,
she would eventually wake up.

I got so scared! That was the last time I gave my children their meds.

_______________________

I also have lots of stories about misplacing things, like waiting beside the fridge so my soup would heat up, thinking I had put it in the microwave. I got fed up waiting because the "fridge" would not "ring" to let me know it was ready.

scary but interesting!
 

Boule de feu

Senior Member
Messages
1,118
Location
Ottawa, Canada
One of my regularly recurring brain fog D'oh moments is picking up a vitamin supplement bottle, taking a few tablets and closing the lid again. Then moments later, I look at the supplement bottle still in my hand, and I think: did I take those tablets or not? And I often I really have no idea of whether I did or not.

Often I will take the vitamins again, just to be sure that I do get my daily dose; and on the second attempt a taking them, I really make a special effort to try to remember it! I suppose this is perhaps more an example of a non-extistant short-term memory than brain fog.

Same here, I see so much of myself in this. You are not alone!=-) LOL!
 

Hip

Senior Member
Messages
17,820
Being persuaded into a School Reunion by an old friend and asked my name by the reception committee - blank - long silences (friend leapt in with the required information) and the reception committee quietly and rapidly dispersed. I did recall it half and hour later but felt the committee members would not be amused at this new found discovery.

This is really classic brain fog example: it really typifies how part of your mental database can "go offline" for a while, so that you just cannot retrieve a bit of information, no matter how you try. Then a few hours later, you have access again to that info.

This brain fog phenomenon should provide so many clues as to what is going on in the brian in CFS. Obviously it can't be permanent damage that is causing this brain fog cognitive disruption, because the brain fog phenomenon is so transient - you loose conscious access an item of info in your brain for an hour or so, but then access mysteriously returns later.

I have wondered if brain fog is related to anesthesia. Anesthetics will reduce and ultimately eliminate consciousness at high enough doses, as anyone who has had anesthetics at a dentist or hospital will have experienced.

It seems like brain fog might be a kind of partial loss of consciousness. Could there be some toxin in the brain that acts a bit like an anesthetic, thereby causing these brain fog symptoms?
 

heapsreal

iherb 10% discount code OPA989,
Messages
10,086
Location
australia (brisbane)
I can really relate to the supplement thing, i will take them and then go back and have to try and remember if i actually took them or sometimes i put them on the kitchen bench ready to have before breakfast and i will go off and have breakfast and then do whatever and my wife will say are u suppose to take these, usually a fist fall, oh yes, thats right before eating i was, now im going to be burping fishoil, i might drop the fishoil till lunch.
 

TinyT

Senior Member
Messages
150
Location
Australia
Yup I've forgotten regularly if I've taken my tablets/supplements.

I also have a routine when I'm in the shower- wash hair, wash face, condition hair, wash body etc. There has been a fewoccasions where I sit there and have to seriously think "did I wash my face yet?". I've even asked my fianc a few times (we usually shower together).

The worst moment I think was when i was asked my date of birth at the hospital to confirm identity before having a test done. I got it wrong the first time! I had to close my eyes and really concentrate to get the dates in the right order. Also temporarily forgetting your bank card pin is not fun either!
 

Mya Symons

Mya Symons
Messages
1,029
Location
Washington
At least once a week, I put the Milk in the refridgerator and the cereal in the cupboard. Once I couldn't find my keys and they were in the freezer. Another time I started the car to warm it up before I went to the store. I decided not to go to the store, but forgot the car was running. The car was running all night long until it ran out of gas. I had to get my neighbor to drive us to the store to get gas.

I hate going to the store alone because when I am done I can never find the car. So I always bring someone with and tell them to please remember where we parked the car or I put directions to the car into my ipod notes before I go in.
 

heapsreal

iherb 10% discount code OPA989,
Messages
10,086
Location
australia (brisbane)
At least once a week, I put the Milk in the refridgerator and the cereal in the cupboard. Once I couldn't find my keys and they were in the freezer. Another time I started the car to warm it up before I went to the store. I decided not to go to the store, but forgot the car was running. The car was running all night long until it ran out of gas. I had to get my neighbor to drive us to the store to get gas.

I hate going to the store alone because when I am done I can never find the car. So I always bring someone with and tell them to please remember where we parked the car or I put directions to the car into my ipod notes before I go in.

mya, your suppose to put the milk in the fridge and the cereal in the cupboard, just more then once a week though, lol.
Isnt it amazing how bad our memories are and i suppose many other non cfs people can have these episodes but not the amount we seem to have.

cheers!!!
 

Hip

Senior Member
Messages
17,820
I blame mine on hypoperfusion to the brain (POTS=not enough blood flow).

Yes, that is definitely something that should be researched: is CFS brain fog due to moments of low blood/oxygen supply in the brain, either due to POTS and/or cerebral vasoconstriction? It is easy to do fMRI (functional MRI) studies on brain blood/oxygen flow; it would be interesting to see if low cerebral blood/oxygen flow coincided with our brain fog moments.