What does "brain fog" feel like to you?

OMG, it’s incredibly, profoundly difficult to talk about this.

Here you have such a verbally unmatched phenomenon with so much of that weird colliding context and fluctuation in generic communicability that you might as well explain to a 2D entity how the third dimension works.

It is a miracle I even was able to recognize it by name when I first came across it.

In ancient times, it was said that the Persians would debate their ideas once sober and once under the influence in order to align clarity with perspective, and here you have this thing, which sees this and is like “hold my beer”, fading in and out like old age, flickering the old internal lights without anyone’s planned consent, and misguiding thought navigation.

I cannot speak for everyone, but there are a number of us who will tell you they don’t dare write fiction (or nonfiction?) if there isn’t absolutely every reason to believe they’re in the safe zone, mind’s eye, verbal recall, and comprehension (including that of relevance, which already has a relative nature) be damned, further complicated by the “there are different kinds” which ranks it in the realm of “phases”, “moodiness”, and “DID alters” (my step-step-kids each can attest experience with one of those three).

What does your own mind match it up with?

Crackhappy,
@Crackhappy@lemmy.world avatar

I can quantify the brain fog that I’ve experienced, mostly because I’ve recovered a bit. I experienced a 30% overall reduction in productivity as well as cognitive capability since January 2020 (when my son arrived back from Wuhan). I’ve compensated for the lack of memory capability I was used to by just writing things down that I used to just remember. I’ve also compensated for my general lack of cognitive function by retraining my brain with the basics. It’s not easy, but it’s doable. However, I feel that I’ve been let off easy compared to many others.

A_Very_Big_Fan,

It feels like exactly what it says on the tin, personally.

It just feels like my mind is foggy, so if I have to go off-script while I’m working or doing things at home or with friends, it takes a lot of energy to see through the “fog” and figure out what to do. But when things are going as planned (or “on-script”) I can just kinda navigate blindly.

Kolanaki,
@Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

The title does not fit the content of the body, and the content of the body sounds like someone got a little too high before they got on Lemmy.

This post is what brain fog feels like.

shinigamiookamiryuu,

You say that as if it’s supposed to be sarcastic.

thantik,

This shit was either written by AI, or a highly disfunctional ADHD person on crack.

shinigamiookamiryuu,

If you knew brain fog, you wouldn’t be saying that.

bjoern_tantau,
@bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de avatar

All I know is that my brain fog is too big to read your long-ass text.

shinigamiookamiryuu,

It looks pretty average to me.

bjoern_tantau,
@bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de avatar

That’s my brain fog.

delicious_justice,

For me it’s constantly having that word you’ve used 1k times just out of reach, coupled with feeling like there are two (or more) levels happening in my head: one trying to have a verbal conversation and the other wondering silently when my migraine/headache will go away.

savvywolf,
@savvywolf@pawb.social avatar

What I call brain fog is like “thinking through treacle” or something. Any thoughts I try to make, either solving problems or being creative, take a lot more “brain fuel” and effort to do.

whaleross,
@whaleross@lemmy.world avatar

That’s not brain fog. You’re romanticizing a medical condition. My brain fog feels like my brain is walking through water. I know where I’m going and I know how to get there but every step on the way is slow and cumbersome and takes way more energy than it should. IDK what you are talking about. Delusional euphoria maybe.

shinigamiookamiryuu,

You then try to explain what brain fog is like with brain fog. You’d be the first person to imply it doesn’t manifest differently for everyone. For me, what you said isn’t at all unrelatable.

whaleross, (edited )
@whaleross@lemmy.world avatar

I have no idea what you are saying. Maybe the frustration of trying to communicate but not be able to find the right words in the right order are the perfect illustration of what it feels like with brain fog. Except apply it to everything and a massive headache when trying to force it. It’s nothing to be romanticised. It’s not something anybody would want. Drunken delirium is something entirely different.

shinigamiookamiryuu,

If I come across as trying to romanticize anything, that is not my intention. I never said what I suffer from is desirable or anything, and I’m not going to start now.

tiefling,

You know how your computer grinds to a crawl when that one app decides it suddenly needs 100% of your RAM? That’s what brain fog feels like.

TwanHE,

And somehow only half of what’s currently in memory gets saved on disk for later use.

I feel like I got brain fog a lot after having had COVID and being somewhat diagnosed with long covid. Legit feels like Ive only got half the ram left and a shoddy disk that doesn’t always save everything I put on it.

B4tid0,
@B4tid0@lemmy.world avatar

Dumb. Can see but I am not really able to process it or it takes me a real long time. That’s the simplest way I can put it.

all-knight-party, (edited )
@all-knight-party@kbin.run avatar

Brain fog feels like there's an invisible film over your mind that slows down your processing, like there's a latency to all of your thoughts. It sort of separates you from how you're experiencing the world and makes everything less clear. Sort of like the mental version of trudging through a muddy swamp. You're less alert.

Usually it's also coupled with just feeling generally tired and out of it.

oxjox,
@oxjox@lemmy.ml avatar

This post seems like AI generated content and I half expected it to end with trying to sell me some snake oil.

If you’re actually curious what brain fog is / feels like, it’s very well documented. There’s nothing “profound” or “miraculous” about it. Here’s the first result I found.

Describing How Brain Fog Feels www.verywellhealth.com/brain-fog-8363295
Feeling mentally drained happens to everyone from time to time, especially when experiencing sleeping difficulties. But brain fog is not the same as fatigue or lethargy, although they often go hand in hand or co-occur with symptoms of other conditions. Brain fog can be hard to define since it is not a medical term or diagnosis.

Experts describe brain fog as mild memory loss or:

  • Unusual forgetfulness
  • Fuzzy memory or sluggishness when trying to remember things like names, dates, where you put your keys, and other important things
  • Difficulty paying attention or focusing
  • Confusion or spaciness
  • Challenges with processing information
shinigamiookamiryuu,

People have to cut it out with their obsession with AI sooner or later. I’ve been accused of this multiple times based on articulation, which is hardly fair especially when the subject matter overlaps with those kinds of things.

manualoverride,

Seriously this reply looks AI generated too, maybe it’s “a you problem”?

Just wondering, is English your first language?

shinigamiookamiryuu,

You say it might be a “me problem” as if I’m the only one around (and yes it applies to me) who could possibly have English as her second language.

manualoverride,

OK that makes sense, English is very hard to write like a native speaker, especially when phrases in your first language don’t translate well.

Not criticising, you write English better than I can write any other language, but that is why people think you are a bot. Some of the things you write just don’t flow correctly.

We just can’t tell if your first language is Cantonese or binary.

oxjox, (edited )
@oxjox@lemmy.ml avatar

LOL Well then maybe try not writing like a stumbling misguided artificial intelligence. Actually, I think AI is doing a better job at writing than you have today. I tried reading what you wrote three times and only became further confused.

shinigamiookamiryuu,

One could also, I don’t know, ask what something means if they’re unsure. I, unlike some of you, don’t judge people for not understanding something or for coming across as tripping over words, something my main demographic can relate to. “Stumbling misguided artificial intelligence” sounds like grasping at straws.

oxjox,
@oxjox@lemmy.ml avatar

You’re trying to convince me you’re not a robot by referring to “your main demographic”?

shinigamiookamiryuu,

…and? You say that like that’s somehow unbecoming of a human to cite.

azulavoir,

It’s a hallmark of people who don’t speak perfect English that their English is obsessively perfect.

You’d come off a lot better, I think, if you wrote casually and allowed yourself to make some mistakes.

shinigamiookamiryuu,

Thanks, I may end up doing this. And as some of what I’ve said hints, neurodivergence may be some of it, though that’s more complex to measure.

A_Very_Big_Fan,

“your main demographic”

As in non-native English speakers, moron

A_Very_Big_Fan,

You were absolutely right about their obsession with AI. That’s the only reason they’re so bothered. Someone said “AI” and it triggered a pavlovian response in the rest of them: getting defensive and grabbing their pitchforks.

I guess being a non-native English speaker is a crime here now.

cardboardchris,

For me it feels like complete inability to focus on anything or to recall specific concepts (like not being able to think of a word).

This is a super interesting thread because I wonder if what I’m experiencing is even brain fog at all, or just ADHD. And I also wonder how other folks know when they’re feeling brain fog.

Like, do any of you have a test for yourself to know when you’re feeling brain fog (or inversely, a test to be sure you’re not)?

itchick2014,

To me, brain fog feels like my thoughts are swimming in the subconscious ocean and it takes a lot of energy to dive down and actually comprehend them. It isn’t that the thoughts do not exit, but rather that they are outside of reach of use until significant mental effort is undergone to reach them. Using those thoughts for any purpose then requires even more mental energy…energy that feels like the mental equivalent of walking up the stairs…it seems easy for the first few steps but progressively gets harder until at some point, if you haven’t used the thoughts yet, you just give up out of sheer exhaustion.

Lemminary,

What does brain fog feel like to you?

Reading this post.

shinigamiookamiryuu,

Case in point.

jaycifer,

If I deciphered their words correctly, I think they said they prefer to write while experiencing brain fog-like effects, so you may not be far off.

shinigamiookamiryuu,

I don’t look forward to that, it just happens.

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