I am curious to know what others experience during brain fog and if it an ongoing symptom for most or does it cycle for you.
Brain fog for me is a "package" of symptoms and comes in cycles and is really scary, I am "not there", can't think clearly of course, can't remember phone numbers and things like that. I get anxiety, shaky, tremory, usually w/flushed hot skin, yet no fever and leg weakness all accompany it.
What do you experience, does this sound at all familiar?
[ 02-17-2010, 02:17 AM: Message edited by: lymebytes ]
Posted by lyme in Putnam (Member # 11561) on :
A stranger to my own life
Posted by LittleLymie19 (Member # 15610) on :
I feel like I'm not actually SEEING anything...like my eyes are seeing everything around me, but my brain isn't processing it all. I have no depth perception or real perception of things around me, so I can't drive a car (because I can't park it or tell where the cars are around me on the freeway, and I react to slowly to what's around me) and I bump into door frames and whatnot. I'm only half there, and I'm only percieving half of what's there.
Posted by Florence1 (Member # 22960) on :
i call mine the black hole.....its like thoughts, words, spelling all dissappear, slow response to conversation......
Posted by BackinStOlaf (Member # 23725) on :
I go to a room to do something and forget what I went for 10 seconds later. I can't think of words I want to say when I speak. I forget what I was going to say halfway into a sentence. I forget things easily.
Posted by map1131 (Member # 2022) on :
I call it being in the tunnel. I see the world, but it's as if I'm in an actual tunnel looking through to the outside.
My thinking is slower and I'm not able to comprehend things as quickly.
Pam
Posted by feelfit (Member # 12770) on :
Lymebytes,
My brain fog manifests as a 'total' blank in my brain....It is usually accompanied by shakiness, anxiety and either hot or cold feelings.
I slurr my words, or my words feel very heavy and slow coming out of my mouth.
I also have what LittleLymie describes...depth perception problems, spacey feelings, bumping into things...and gave up driving over 2 years ago because of this....
At that time I was in a parking lot at a gas station and totally 'lost' couldn't figure out how to open my purse, pump gas, or walk into the building...very scary!
feelfit
Posted by Florence1 (Member # 22960) on :
feelfit just reminded me of something else....I have been driving 17 yrs with not one bump, ticket or anything until 2 weeks ago when i slightly bumped a car in front of me just couldnt judge the distance,
then i was at a drive thru with my daughter and as the lady was giving me the icecream, i went to pay her and took my foot off the break instead of moving my arm...
i started to roll forward and couldnt think quick enough to put my foot back down,
I had to reverse to pay her....there was just no coordination between brain, arm, foot.....very weird.....
Posted by Haley (Member # 22008) on :
I feel as if I am floating and I am unable to do simple tasks and have normal conversations.
It's as if I drank a quart of vodka and took a handful of Ambien. I feel this way all the time.
Brain fog is a lousy term to describe it. Brain fog is what you feel when you are someone that doesn't have Lyme that just woke up and feels a bit groggy. IMO
It's quite a humbling experience.
Posted by lyme in Putnam (Member # 11561) on :
anyone else's concept of time off?
Posted by Michael_Venice (Member # 17254) on :
Mine is similar to aspects of LittleLymies and Feelfit's. I can 'see' but cannot process what is in front of me. Very hard to describe, but LL said it well. I am weakest/shakiest then, usually. Dizziness or disequilibrium is part of it too.
I don't feel all the way conscious, there's often an odd physical feeling in the front of my head....it's like taking a very, very bad drug. If I'm interacting with people, it's like I'm experiencing consciousness from the bottom of a well or something.
It's a living hell when it's there. I think it's why I feel 'passing out' feelings, it feels like a pre-syncope feeling. And lasts and lasts, for hours.
I'm actually glad to read this thread, because I wonder myself. It's very disturbing (and tends to get a bit better at night).
But I agree..."brain fog" is too benign a term for what I (and others) experience. I would wonder, "is THIS brain fog? 'cause this seems more severe than that term puts across.....
Posted by Brandimc (Member # 22017) on :
I cant remember my last name...let alone what day it is. Posted by lymebytes (Member # 11830) on :
Feelfit, I think we have the same strain! Really, when one of us gets well, the other must use the same protocol, lol. You reminded me slurring of words - yes that is me too and I feel like I am not making sense when I talk. I also feel off balance.
When my son was sick he described his as "reality snaps" snapping in and out of reality, sometimes he'd be "out" for days or longer.
Haley - good description, I agree.
Posted by Trevor1 (Member # 15489) on :
mine is 24/7 and has been for 5 years, it feels like I am detached from reality and not present. It's by far my most frustrating symptom, I don't feel alive. When I look at myself in the mirror it doesn't even feel like I am looking at myself, this is very creepy, my memory is terrible I cant focus. I'd do anything to alleviate this symptom some.
Many of you say it comes and goes, worries me that mine is constant, and always has been.
Posted by map1131 (Member # 2022) on :
Trevor, my brain fog lasted for 6 yrs daily until it started waxing and waning. That went on for a few years.
Then came longer periods of being clear headed. But it doesn't take much to put me back in the tunnel. Stress or doing more in life and I'm fogged again.
Difference today and the great part....it can be cleared.
Pam
Posted by lyme in Putnam (Member # 11561) on :
I know the feeling of not feeling alive, it lifted last night and back full force this am. I've had this for many years, but when I was
symptom free, it lasted for a year and a half, and it was the best year and a half in my life.
Not glorified, just my life, and hopefully I'll get it back (and you and whoever is cursed with
this.) I guess we have no choice but to wait it out, but its hard pretending to be you when you
feel so out of yourself. Doing things almost mechanically. Feel good.
Posted by jmb (Member # 18338) on :
like I cannot think 6 minutes ahead.
Posted by venus (Member # 16991) on :
I am sorry all of you suffer this. I have had it constantly for 2 years now. It started as me going in and out of it. I think - maybe - that it is finally getting better after 1 1/2 years of treatment. I just started levaquin. I am really hoping that it will help.
It makes me feel less alone knowing others are out there fighting this too. We all just have to have faith. I will probably be singing a different song when I up my dose of levaquin to 500mg tomorrow.
Hugs all. Kathy
Posted by elley0531 (Member # 9434) on :
Mine is transient-some days are bad-like real bad-others I feel okish.
For me it is horrid memory, overall hungover feeling, and at its worst tons of derealization/depersonalization which is the worst of all of it for me because I feel like a robot in a fake world and it really creeps me out.
Posted by nefferdun (Member # 20157) on :
I feel numb and disconnected from life, other people and myself. I have no motivation to do anything and have to go through the motions.
My memory is gone. I have actually not recognized people I know, thinking to myself that they look like who they are but not registering that it is them! I can be walking along telling myself something over and over to remember to do something and then five hours later it hits me I never did it.
I cannot concentrate or learn. I feel stupid.
I think a better word would be "dementia" as that is what this really is. But it is like a fog too as everything disappears and seems out of focus and unreal.
Posted by elley0531 (Member # 9434) on :
the unreal feeling according to my LLMD and my GP is Derealization/Depersonalization and its apparently very common with Lyme but also adrenal disorders and other hormonal disorders.
I still have it big time, but it has gotten a bit better since I started caring for my adrenals.
Posted by Dancer (Member # 11039) on :
My field of awareness gets small. Like normally I would be very clear about where I am in my day, what's to be done, what I already did, where I am in my week.
When the brain fog rolls in, my awareness is in a much smaller timeframe. I am aware of what I'm doing now, but everything else sort of recedes. At worst, if I don't get my thoughts on paper, they're gone. I liken it to driving a car in dense fog - how close is the fog to the car, how far can I see. How big is the field of my awareness. If its really bad, I'm like, what did I eat today? Did I eat today? I'll write an email and then 2 hours later I'm surprised by the response. When I see the email and am reminded, I remember, but before that, it sort of doesn't exist. If I'm not so foggy, maybe I'm aware of today's actions, but I'm unaware of tomorrow and I forget to pack or prepare for what's coming next.
Also there can be very little thought traffic - I'm stuck on the car analogy I guess. Like a single car going down a country road, versus how my normal would be, lots of thoughts occurring to me - a busy freeway with lots of traffic, on and off ramps...
Slowness to speak, inability to think globally or summarize. Can think in small details but not the big picture. I can do things that require small steps for hours - like doing sudoku or playing a really simple and repetitive computer game. HOURS.
I could go on! I'll stop there.
I will say, about six months ago at a certain phase of treatment, I had a short period where my mind was SPARKLING clear and I really had forgotten that that was what normal was like. It was amazing and wonderful. The person I was is still there, just need to dig her out from under all this rubble.
Forgot to add - it cycles - can change in the course of a day even.
Posted by 5dana8 (Member # 7935) on :
numb, empty blank mind, being spaced out and not being able to concentrate or focus. Florence1 said it perfectly " a black hole"
![[bonk]](graemlins/bonk.gif)