If you have a chronic illness, you may have experiencedĀ brain fog at one time or another. Brain fog mayĀ be a symptom of your illness or a side effect of medication youāre taking, but either way, it can be extremely frustratingĀ to deal with the impairments it can have on your short-term memory and mental functioning. When brain fog hits, you may find yourself struggling to carry on conversations or remember names, dates, events or simpleĀ words, which can have a big impact on your personal and professional life.
In order to manageĀ the effects of brain fog, some people haveĀ developed certain coping mechanisms or tricks toĀ help them navigate their daily lives. To better understand the ways in which people manage and respond to it, weĀ asked our Mighty communityĀ toĀ share things othersĀ donāt realize theyāre doing because ofĀ brain fog. Maybe some of these will sound familiar to you, too.
Hereās what the community shared with us:
1. āRepeating myself unintentionally due to missing or forgetting words in a sentence, and also stuttering words trying to remember words.ā
2. āPretending to comprehend whatever it is youāre saying even though my mind is a million miles elsewhere.ā
3. āI take pictures of things I write down (like addresses or shopping lists) in case I lose the paper or leave it behind when I go to the grocery store. I also take pictures of the locked door and dog crate so I donāt get anxious that I left them open ā I do this with candles as well so I know I blew them out before I leave town to run an errand and it really reduces my anxiety about accidentally burning down the house with the animals inside.ā
4. āI tend to avoid outings and appointments because itās just too hard to process so much information in a conversation.ā
5. āWearing a nice dress at work. Only my work bestie knows it is because I could only handle figuring out one piece of clothing that morning. Everyone else compliments me and asks what Iām so dressed up for.ā
6. āTaking extra long showers because I canāt remember if I washed my hair yet, or I mix up products (conditioner on legs, shaving cream on head), one shaved armpit/leg, to name a few.ā
7. āI encourage people to talk about themselves so I donāt have to speak.ā
8. āWhen I know Iām having trouble, I take notes in situations where people donāt usually take notes. People think everything from āthatās weirdā to āsheās just trying to impress peopleā to āshe must be really organized.ā The truth is it just helps me follow important conversations and bring my brain back around if I lose the thread of what weāre discussing or I forget what I was going to say. It also makes it easier to figure out later if I missed something.ā
9. āTaking your medication twice because you forgot that you took it before.ā
10. āWhen Iām going through a thick fog day, I keep all conversation to a minimum. I rarely even text because I know Iāll forget to text people back.ā
11. āI talk out loud to remember the things I am doing because otherwise I will forget in about 20 minutes.ā
12. āI have to have my husband help me fill out the simplest of forms. Itās embarrassing, frustrating and depressing.ā
13. āI forget names. Sometimes I donāt recognize new acquaintances. People think I just donāt care, but really I am struggling to think so much that I need to see a face twice or hear a name on multiple occasions to remember it, and thatās when Iām trying hardest.ā
14. āLists. I have so many lists just lying around my house with groceries, work, things I want to get, etc. When I am able to think of things I put it on a sticky note and forget about it. Leading to multiples of the same list.ā
15. āSaying things like ātop clothingā instead of āshirtā and ātoast makerā instead of ātoaster.ā Usually people just laugh, and I can laugh it off, but sometimes itās scary when I canāt remember words I know or peopleās names.ā
16. āI only talk about things in depth or detail via text message. I used to love to have deep and meaningful conversations with my friends and family, and was always told how articulate I am. But now, Iām lucky if I can remember what I was talking about halfway through the third sentence. Itās easier to put together a message via text and be able to pause ā stop for a little while ā regain my train of thought and come back to what I was saying before I press āsend.āā
17. āI get snappy. When I lose my train of thought or a certain word I get angry when I canāt remember it, which just makes it worse. It usually just ends with me bursting into tears with frustration.ā
18. āI use Waze for even trips I make regularly. Yes, everything is familiar and I āknowā where to turn but I donāt know by instinct during brain fog.ā
19. āI am forever suddenly trailing off and staring into space. I just forget whatās happening in the middle of a sentence or in the middle of doing something and you can find me just sitting there, zoned out.ā
20. āI do little music sounds or small snatches of whistling without realizing. I tell people itās my brain playing background music while it searches for the thought or words Iāve lost.ā
21. āI put absolutely everything in my phone. Names and descriptions of new people. Times of appointments that are only the next day. I have alarms for daily tasks. Post-its everywhere. People think Iām just super organized. Nope. I canāt remember anythingĀ without a reminder.ā
22. āI get up to do something and then just freeze in space⦠Iām trying to remember what I got up to do.ā
23. āI hesitate in my speech or stutter because I am searching for the right words and get frustrated because I was always known for my eloquence.ā
24. āLosing the topic of the conversation and forgetting what I was saying in the middle of the sentence. Not being able to remember stuff by memory in tests. Forgetting friendsā birthdays and invitations I had previously accepted.ā
25. āWhen my brain fog is bad, the large, grandiose words find their way into my vocabulary. Itās because my everyday words were temporary deleted from my brain and these fancy words come forward from the recesses of my memory.ā
26. āI often tell my husband random things (like if I took my pain medicine, or some random reminder) because I know he will remember in five minutes whether I actually took my meds or only planned to and forgot.ā
27. āI change the subject to cover for my total loss of what we were just talking about. Or I walk away, leaving people wondering if Iām rude, but I really have no idea that we were talking about anything.ā
28. āI watch the same shows and listen to the same audiobooks over and over again because I get lost with new characters, plots or even faces if Iām having a bad day.ā
29. āI stare blankly at nothing. People ask me what Iām thinking about, because they assume I must be in deep thought. Really, I just forgot what I was about to say, and couldnāt remember anything.ā