I don’t even have Covid - this is a side effect of my new medication. Am I just supposed to wait this out for weeks or months? Why can’t I just be sedated until it’s over? Why won’t my neurologist call me back? Death to America.
Any advice on how to cope with this?
I endured brain fog for about 4 years thanks to undiagnosed conditions in my twenties. Working out helped a lot, but it was not fun, easy, or consistent. I eventually was able to take medication which helped tremendously.
Part of the reason I take COVID so seriously is because I never want to experience that again.
Thanks for the advice. Four years, goddamn. Glad it's in the past tense for you now. Did working out help just to get through it, or did it make a noticeable difference on the brain fog? I do have less physical fatigue than I did at first from this medication so that is an option for me.
I had it from a previous medication and, yes, it's a main ingredient in my deathly fear of Long Covid.
Four years give or take. I might still get foggy every once in a while, but it’s due to normal things like not getting enough sleep. I’m so, so sorry you’re experiencing it now.
Working out essentially gave me a couple hours of clarity to do the necessary things to care for myself. Like going to the grocery store or cleaning my depression hovel. Like I said, I was not consistent at all. I was lucky to have a ton of support from loved ones. I ended up working some very physically demanding jobs, which helped a lot with the consistency, save for the toll they took on my body.
Over time those “windows of clarity” got longer. But again, it wasn’t until I started being treated for other conditions that my executive functioning really changed.
What was the condition if you are comfortable sharing.
OCD and a disorder that deals with pituitary functioning.
Sorry for my ignorance, but how did you experience brain fog or what were the symptoms you had? I hear about it often as forgetfulness or difficulty focusing but to me that just sounds like par for the course with people these days. I'm guessing it can get more severe?
Brain fog is kind of a nebulous term. It’s real though. Lots of causes and symptoms. But yeah, inability to focus and fatigue are big hallmarks. It’s just . . . a different flavor of those symptoms. More insidious. Slower and diffuse, affecting your whole body. I always thought of it like I was constantly walking up a slope. Not a super steep mountain, just a gentle uphill slope. Literally everything was uphill from me, my goals, necessities, emotions, everything. After a while you’re so worn through because you’re always climbing. This isn’t only a bodily fatigue. Imagine “thinking uphill.” Knowing that you have to pick up medicine tomorrow is like holding onto a piton for hours. If you let go then you’re falling. You can’t write it down either because fetching a stickie note might make you forget. Those daydream fantasies we escape to when we’re tired become mountains in of themselves. You want to think about them but it’s too taxing. You’d rather let thoughts pass above you than chase them.
Damn, that sounds terrible. I hope you are doing better now!
I'm not sure if that type of thing is permanent but I hope you're okay.
Thanks, I am okay now. Bouts of brain fog don’t count for much to me nowadays.
But it truly its own hell if whatever is causing it is unmanageable. And sometimes the cause can be unknown, like in my case for a long time. Some people do indeed suffer it permanently. Unfortunately a lot more people today with the ubiquity of Long COVID.