10 Embarrassing Things That Happen When You Have Fibro Fog

Embarrassing fibro fog moments happen to me all the time. Some days I don’t know if I should laugh or cry. Unfortunately, most fibromyalgia fighters have to battle fibro fog to some degree.

• What is Fibromyalgia?
• What Are Common Fibromyalgia Symptoms?

1. Short-Term Memory Loss

This seems to be an almost daily occurrence for me: I get in the shower, wet my hair and then totally blank on whether I washed it or not. Because I have naturally curly, dry hair… I don’t want to wash it daily, especially not more than once a shower! And if I do remember if I washed it that shower, I can never remember the next day so it’s hit or miss. This is a daily frustration I have not found a working solution for.

2. Forgetting Conversations

My poor husband — I do this to him way too often. He mentions something and it feels like the first time I am hearing about it. Even after arguing about it, I still have no idea if I am right. Sometimes I do think he believes he said something to me but didn’t. At least that’s my story…

3. Forgetting What I Am Doing

The confusion from standing in rooms with no idea why or what I went to get or do. I know, this happens to everyone sometimes… you walk into a room and totally forget why or what you are doing there. During a fibro fog moment, when it happens a little too often, you really start to wonder if you are losing it.

4. Getting Lost, Even With GPS

I have always claimed to be directionally challenged. Me and a paper map? Forget it, I’ll never get there. I have forgotten how to get home before — just totally spaced! I can take it to an all new level by doing it with my GPS telling me where to go. Siri has to reconfigure so often I wonder why I use it at all. Half the time I think Siri just is messing with me on purpose — a U-turn here? And if I piss her off too much she gives me the silent treatment. Seriously, I get no audio!

5. Easily Distracted

I bounce from one thing to another before finishing what I was doing.

I have a personal example of this. Yesterday, a blah day, I thought I could handle doing some household chores. I decided to start laundry and starting sorting and putting lights in the machine. I got thinking about the towels I had forgotten to grab, went to the washroom, got sidetracked by the dog sleeping in the bedroom, went into the kitchen, started the dishwasher, realized I forgot sorting clothes, went back to laundry, got a load started, went to have a shower, went back into the kitchen to a half-unloaded dishwasher, finished that, went check laundry — I had forgotten to turn it on. Then I went and had a nap.

6. Verbal Confusion

This can be forgetting the next word I was about to say, or unintentionally subbing another word in that doesn’t make sense. My family gets a chuckle listening to me, to my embarrassment. I do too when it’s pointed out that I used a different word then I was trying to say. Sometimes the subbed words are funny! Kind of like when auto-correct changes a word and totally loses the meaning, but funny as hell.

This is a recent Facebook post my husband put up. Slightly embarrassing!

7. Forgetting Simple Details

I often forget basic information, of course, when I need to remember it most (filling out doctor’s form ). It’s helpful to have Hubby there, he’s used to it. I also use my Note App to keep information handy that I often need. You can laugh away forgetting your own phone number, because really, who calls themselves? It gets a little less amusing when you draw a blank on the simplest of questions that should be ingrained in our brains.

Perfect example: I argued with a doctor about how old I was, I added a year, and the doctor actually did the math to prove I was a year younger (I was wrong). This was not one of my finest moments.

8. Awkward in Social Situations

Everyone forgets a name or a spouse’s name from time to time, and that can be uncomfortable enough. Now amplify that by 100.

Maybe I’ve seen a good movie, read a good book or maybe heard a great new song. I need to make small talk, so I recommend it to someone and draw a blank. Now imagine doing that all the time. When you are trying to sound professional, or at least somewhat intelligent, this can be handicap. Halfway through a sentence I forget what I’m saying or discussing. Wondering if I just said out loud what I was thinking. Realizing five minutes into a conversation that I am already lost.

9. Missing Important Dates

I don’t know if this is a fibro fog thing, a not working thing or probably both. I never know what the date is or half the time what day of the week it is, so even if I do remember a birthday, I still usually miss it. I have given up on relying on my memory — any and all appointments, birthdays and other important information all go into my iPhone calendar with an alarm!

10. Losing Things

I know people do this all the time: look at something and it needs a safe place to live, so you do that, only to forget where that safe place was. I do that, too. I have a verbal checklist I do just to leave the house, so I remember everything (theoretically). I try and leave everything I need by the front door so I don’t forget to take it (although it might live in my car a lot too long). I am slowly working to downsize and de-clutter. If everything has a home, I am hoping it will make locating lost objects easy!

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