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

[hmnr asg]

This might sound pretty crazy but its 100% true and I haven't told anyone because of how embarrassing it is.
One night when I had to run an errand and I was particularly crashed, i went to the garage to get into my car and to drive to my destination.
I opened the door and sat in the seat and felt something just wasn't right. It took me a few seconds to realize that I had actually opened the passenger side door and I was sitting in the passenger seat.
For a few seconds I felt like I was really losing it!
I know it's hilarious in hindsight but it was very distressing at the time.
I have many other examples but this is the funniest one

 

[belize44]

I was being inundated by telemarketers and was furious at being constantly interrupted in whatever I was doing. I had found a script online about how to talk to them; and it instructed me how to ask them for certain information so that I could write a letter asking them to stop calling me. The first few times, I sounded very assertive and I succeeded in getting them to obey.

Then I got a bad brain fog day. A telemarketer called me and I started to read the script. Suddenly, I forgot WTH I was doing. I paused, then muttered, "I can't do this." The telemarketer very kindly replied, "It's okay, go on, I'm listening!" I was so surprised and confused, that for one moment, I felt as if I were the telemarketer and I had reached a kind person.

Then, there were the times when my job took me out of town and I would be driving back and I would keep taking the wrong exit over and over. I would pull over and break down crying, so exhausted and wanting to just go home and go to bed!

 

[Rufous McKinney]

They are far less amusing here lately.

1) I turned ON the hot water in the bathtub, but upon returning, I could not turn the water back off. I struggled and struggled. I called my daughter, elsewhere. I did not want to wake up the sleeping nurse at 11 pm.

While I turned ON the correct knob, I failed to turn that correct knob, when I came back. So I am: a total IDIOT.

I got really angry, at myself at 11:30 PM.

2) after five months, I dug out my silver flute. I do not play it any longer, I cannot.

But I WANT TO. So I blew into my flute for several measures, and maybe five short melodies. OK, I didn't pass out, so I was a bit impressed with myself. Maybe I can play it for 3 minute sessions?

I went back an hour later. The flute wont' work. I"M inspecting all its parts. I even looked inside the mouthpiece.

My daughter found that I'd put the drying rod, inside the main flute. Why look there? Why even remember I use a drying rod, or notice its absence in the flute case?

I felt like an IDIOT.

 

[Rufous McKinney]

I was so surprised and confused, that for one moment, I felt as if I were the telemarketer and I had reached a kind person.

sharing your mortification.

Its our brains wiring, and that operator is supposed to connect the proper wires but she's busy elsewhere.

Then, there were the times when my job took me out of town and I would be driving back and I would keep taking the wrong exit over and over.

thats horrible.

It was when I nearly got myself killed doing a u turn at 7 am; that I decided I do not do any of that any longer.

 

[Rufous McKinney]

telemarketers

I just have one calling me. Oddly: my mistake of answering that phone call, led to finding a possible HUGE improvement in my ME CFS.

I ordered this odd supplement. I told myself NEVER AGAIN answer the phone, let alone speak to the telemarketers.

The guy called me back last week; I just ordered some more, he gave me a price break.

Yet he pretends to be a researcher from Stanford University.

And I know he's a salesman in Florida.

 

[Rufous McKinney]

But I WANT TO. So I blew into my flute for several measures, and maybe five short melodies. OK, I didn't pass out, so I was a bit impressed with myself. Maybe I can play it for 3 minute sessions?

I bought a very old used flute, for $10 in High School 1969. I taught myself to play it, by ear.

Put on Jethro Tull, play along. I am so happy.

Well now it's 2023. And I cannot aerobically tolerate playing it what so ever.

But I got it out, and played a few measures of this or that. Then a bit latter, I impressed Grandchildren by riffing Mary Had a Little Lamb, and Old McDonalds.

My brain and my fingers, can still remember how to play this thing by. ear.

But 1) my shoulder and left arm cannot hold up the flute: I had to USE my physical shoulder in order to blow in- oh thats a serious PROBLEM

and 2) my fingers are double jointed. Or it's the connective tissue issue we seem to enjoy. or weak ligaments So my fingers lock up. And then you cannot press the keys. (this would happen long ago, after playing for an hour)

And 3) the constant numbness in my pinky finger and right hand: prevent me from dealing with this locking up issue.

 

[Dysfunkion]

I was being inundated by telemarketers and was furious at being constantly interrupted in whatever I was doing. I had found a script online about how to talk to them; and it instructed me how to ask them for certain information so that I could write a letter asking them to stop calling me. The first few times, I sounded very assertive and I succeeded in getting them to obey.

Then I got a bad brain fog day. A telemarketer called me and I started to read the script. Suddenly, I forgot WTH I was doing. I paused, then muttered, "I can't do this." The telemarketer very kindly replied, "It's okay, go on, I'm listening!" I was so surprised and confused, that for one moment, I felt as if I were the telemarketer and I had reached a kind person.

Then, there were the times when my job took me out of town and I would be driving back and I would keep taking the wrong exit over and over. I would pull over and break down crying, so exhausted and wanting to just go home and go to bed!

I relate heavily to all of this. Forgetting what I'm doing mid interaction and blanking out as well as the making the same mistake over and over again are a couple of the top things that go wrong on a weekly basis. With me it usually comes in the form of routinely forgetting a specific set of things that have to do with schedules, it's like whatever part of my brain that controls the perception of time in relation to events gets messed up the most. Also really familiar with the sudden "I can't do this anymore" mental state that will hit me out of nowhere for no reason. When that one hits my anxiety generally will sky rocket and interacting with anyone becomes really difficult though I can feel it's chemical anxiety and not real anxiety. Doesn't make it any easier to not spiral down a bunch of improbable, paranoid situations that could happen though. If it's a bad thing that can happen my mind will fixate on it and keep chaining things on to it.

 

[Rufous McKinney]

I recall at 8:30 pm having to go online regarding boarding an airplane the next day. I had spent the whole day getting there the night before.

I could not find the letter "r" on the keyboard. I know the letter "r" has to exist here, but I cannot find it. Like it had been erased. And then I got entirely flummoxed and brain unplugged entirely.

At least it will come back online, eventually. Sort of.

 

[Hufsamor]

While I was still driving a car I had two experiences with a kind of short-circuiting.

Once on the freeway. I drove along on my way back from work, (I was still working part time) and all the sudden I had no idea what was going on or what I was supposed to do. It was a divided highway, two lanes in each direction.
Nothing made sense.
Luckily I was present enough to just keep on what I was already doing, keeping my hands and my foot steady and straight, until the moment passed.

The other time, also on my way back from work, I was going to drive through the roundabout I had to drive through every time I was going anywhere. And the same thing happened- I had no idea what to do or how to deal with it.
Somehow I decided to do the same as everyone else did, just following the car in front of me and hoping that was a good idea.

The most scary thing was that I felt completely ok the second before. I didn’t feel tired or overwhelmed or anything. The confusion hit like a lightning from blue sky.

I’m just glad I never got involved in any accident

 

[Hufsamor]

"I can't do this anymore" mental state that will hit me out of nowhere for no reason. When that one hits my anxiety generally will sky rocket

I get this too. I know exactly what your talking about

 

[Rufous McKinney]

with a kind of short-circuiting.

I view some of this as relating to our boiling over hippocampus. And that pretty switchboard operator, she's preoccupied elsewhere.

 

[Dysfunkion]

I get this too. I know exactly what your talking about

Yeah I've so far not found a trigger for it unless I'm having an immune reaction to something. It seems to hit like clockwork every day in between in between 10 AM-2PM. Nothing seems to touch it except that it's worse if I had a bad reaction to something the day before. So I think it's something to do my immune system doing something funky with my nervous system.

That thing you described with driving is actually exactly why I can't drive, I can't really explain it well to people but you fleshed it out well. I have these lapses in attention and motor control over what I'm doing that make driving very difficult, the timing of my movements in the car can also be frequently off. No one gets it, they think I'm just a little anxious to drive. I've tried to drive so many times before but it's just too much for me to handle. Yeah we didn't crash when we were in it but I was also constantly making and correcting tiny movement mistakes and hyper focusing out of anxiety. In a normal more relaxed state those would all have been accidents. I'm fine with the carless life though.

 

[Rufous McKinney]

I'm fine with the carless life though.

me too,, mostly.

I think, well if I can do a little field trip once a month, thats 12 field trips in a year!

I never did finish my analysis of plants I observed, on my first and only field trip to the huge Mountains nearby.

That as March 2018. Its 2024. I intend to demand to be taken back to that place. That forest. But I was far less sick last time.

To go back means I have to face how much sicker I now am. Because it was around July 2018 that I became FAR FAR WORSE. (stress induced probably, so good luck, everybody avoiding that kind of too much stress)

 

[Rufous McKinney]

have these lapses in attention and motor control over

I cannot process the inputs from driving, get really WOOZY. So I was only going about 2 miles maximum driving myself anywhere (to doctors, or see my husband).

No way could I pull onto a freeway any longer.

 

[hapl808]

I cannot process the inputs from driving, get really WOOZY. So I was only going about 2 miles maximum driving myself anywhere (to doctors, or see my husband).

Yeah, I started to notice that even 10 years ago. Freeway driving became excruciating, and even local driving was hard. Now I haven't driven a single block in well over five years. Very strange since it was such a big part of my life.

 

[Dysfunkion]

I cannot process the inputs from driving, get really WOOZY. So I was only going about 2 miles maximum driving myself anywhere (to doctors, or see my husband).

No way could I pull onto a freeway any longer.

Even being in a car with someone on the freeway gives me anxiety, I will never know how people do it. By the shock people express when they learn I can't drive though it must be like breathing to them though I know even everyone else on the road can be pretty stressed though with everything going on especially on a high traffic day. I'm grateful for the times I do get rides though especially lately.

There's some places further away I wish I was close to so I can return to on my own but it doesn't get me down too much. In fact some of those places are probably for the better. Like my favorite buffet, the mall, a concert venue, and the casino. It would be death by impulse spending and stress eating while going deaf far faster than I ever expected to do so.

 

[Rufous McKinney]

Very strange since it was such a big part of my life.

1) my puddling eyes, made it hard to drive at night, started about 30 years ago....

2) I was covering six counties, gone for a week at a time, driving all over the place, on LA freeways even.

3) next discovery: my coworkers typically drove to the long haul meetings. but abruptly, my coworker would abruptly get a migraine coming on and BOOM I have to drive back three hours worth. I was able to do it, even if I was tired.

but then I"d be some version of crashed after those trips.

4) meeting coworkers at 7 am, to drive for hours, cancel that.

5) I'd be able to go places alone, for a number of years, because alone, I can just take my time, Stop whenever. This enabled me to do field work in slow motion, but then I'd have to somehow get back home again, several hours of driving.

6) when I went from mild to moderately horrible over a six month period, that was when I stopped being able to process the visual inputs of moving at that speed.

Cancel driving.

 

[Rufous McKinney]

Even being in a car with someone on the freeway gives me anxiety,

driving in the remote boonies, that I could do more of.

About ten years ago, I was having alot of anxiety which I was unable to grasp. Panic Attacks, etc. That doesn't happen much any more.

so sometimes, let me drive would massively reduce my anxiety- because now my body is busy with steering wheels, brakes, acceleration, and it unplugs the anxiety reaction your having. Its a distraction from it.

 

[Rufous McKinney]

I can't drive

you mean you never learned to drive?

My mother didn't drive, so I grew up remarkably isolated with my Dad at work every day. When I was able to escape that isolation, I was OUT OF THERE.

My mom tried a few times, just obviously developed some phobia. She was great at telling my Dad how to drive.

I recall when I was in college, she took drivers Ed, got an A, then tried to drive a car and once again, entirely flunked.

 

[Dysfunkion]

you mean you never learned to drive?

My mother didn't drive, so I grew up remarkably isolated with my Dad at work every day. When I was able to escape that isolation, I was OUT OF THERE.

My mom tried a few times, just obviously developed some phobia. She was great at telling my Dad how to drive.

I recall when I was in college, she took drivers Ed, got an A, then tried to drive a car and once again, entirely flunked.

I took some classes and went out a lot with one of my parents but I was too unstable on the road and it wasn't a matter of getting used to it. I technically can drive but that doesn't mean I should, if I go really slowly I might be able to get to a nearby grocery store and back but nothing too crazy.