Battling with brain fog in high school... PLEASE HELP! :(

Posted , 1 user is following.

I'm a 17 y/o male in dire need of advice or help. I've lived with brain fog for what seems like half of my life. I've had brain fog ever since 5th grade and it's only progressively getting worse, year by year. I have tried every waking thing on Earth and I'm resorting to the internet. It's getting to a point where it feels like dementia. I have terrible anxiety, OCD, and worsening depression to the point of where I'm having frequent suicidal thoughts (the depression is recent, like a couple months). I take medications for the anxiety (Zyprexa and Klonopin) and I was put on Adderall mistakingly and we've tried multiple times to get off it. It helped the brain fog for a couple weeks. I don't feel like the medications I'm on are contributing to the brain fog, as it was much worse before I was being treated for my anxiety. The medications helped in a way... I'm not having panic attacks over the brain fog. But I could be wrong and feel free to correct me. I am also on a multi-vitamin and at a time, I had a breakthrough with this stuff called Pinella. It did wonders for about half a year until its effects started fading away. I've had blood drawn 3 times, I was in therapy for half a year, and I've been seeing the same psychiatrist for years. Nothing drastic has changed in terms of brain fog. When I try to explain brain fog to people, they look at me like I'm crazy. My parents are the only ones that truely understand it and they worry about me. I worry about myself and my future. Luckily because of my severe anxiety, I was put in a program at my school that gives no homework and class sizes are smaller. Even with this, I feel so confused and lost throughout lessons and I'm always bombing quizzes and tests no matter how hard I try. Both sides of my memory are terrible. I struggle retaining important things I've learned a couple months back in school. I've failed almost all of my EOC's as a result. What scares me the most about my memory is that I can never recall the easiest of things such as: "Did I take a shower last night?" or "What did I eat for dinner last night?" Absolutely NO recallation at all. I frequently forget what day it is and what I did last week... I can never organize things in my head, times confuse me, math is impossible to me now, my creativity is slowly fading away, and my imagery and inference skills are out of wack. Every day I hate going to school because I can't think. I used to love exceling in school. I read something and it doesn't translate into thoughts. Along with this, I feel like I lack common sense, my hobbies are diminishing, I slur my words, I can't hold a conversation, and my thoughts are scattered. I have a hard time following directions of any sort. When I do things, it has to be done at a normal pace and if I do it any faster, I get foggy. It feels like I'm a disabled old man. I wouldn't be able to hold a job for the life of me, if I can't pass an easier form of school, what makes you think I can go to college? Seriously, I've asked myself this question a million times, what's the point of living? I feel like an 8 y/o learning about life, when in reality, I'm not. I'm a future adult who needs to get his life back on track, when clearly he can't because of this frustrating brain fog. I have no future unless this is gone, please help me. I'm a huge mess as you can tell and as bad as it sounds, I'm desperate. ANY suggestions would help. This brain fog is destroying my life from the inside out.

Thank you,

-Tony

2 likes, 3 replies

3 Replies

  • Posted

    Hi Tony, You do not have Dementia. I owned assisted living facilities for many years for people with dementia and I promise you, that you do not have that. You are just sick and tired of being or feeling sick and tired. You have major anxiety, that you do not have a grip on. That is all. I have lived with it for many years, did everything u are doing. I think the difference is that I am 50 years older than u and when I crashed and burned at 50 years of age I really crashed. Mine was many years of trying to hold it together, through sick son, dying parents, and being theli the responsible child and worring that my parents were worried about me, etc.etc.I use to think , like I think u do, "OH WHAT WOULD HAPPEN TO MY PARENTS IF SOMETHING HAPPENED TO ME" iI FELT THAT WAY FROM A YOUNG 5TH GRADER. BECAUSE i WAS FROUGHT WITH ANXIETY WAY BACK THEN AND DIDN'T KNOW IT. i HAD A LONG TIME OF BRAIN FOG AND ALL KINDS OF ANXIETY ALWAYS PAYING ATTENTION TO HOW I FELT , WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME, WHY CAN'T I FEEL LIKE EVERYONE ELSE, BUT I FAKED IT. NO ONE REALLY KNEW HOW I FELT, BUT I WAS CONSUMED WITH WORRY. I  AM TELLING YOU ALL OF THIS BECAUSE I UNDERSTAND YOUR FEAR AND THE MORE YOU FEAR THE WORSE THE BRAIN FOG FEELS. THE WAY U ARE ACTING AND FEELING IS ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION, THE ANXIETY EVENTUALLY TURNS INTO DEPRESSION WHEN U CAN'T MAKE THE ANXIETY GO AWAY. I WOULD LOOK AT A NEW APPROACH ONE WOULD BE TO GET SOME SELF HELP BOOKS AND TAPES ON WHAT ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION FEEL LIKE, AND POSSIBLY CHANGE PSYCHIATRISTS AND GO TO SOMEONE FRESH AND NEW. tHERE ARE MANY GOOD MOOD STABILIZORS AND ANTIDEPRESSANTS U COULD BE ON. i SURE WOULD LOOK INTO THE MEDICATIONS YOU ARE ON AT LEAST I WOULD QUESTION THEM I BELIEVE THERE ARE MUCH BETTER ONES FOR YOU THAN WHAT YOU ARE ON. YOU DO NOT HAVE ANY DEMENTIA WHATSOEVER ONLY ANXIETY FEAR AND FEEL HOPELESS, WHICH YOU ARE NOT. I HOPE THIS HELPS YOU. I SURE FEEL FOR YOU. I REMEMBER THAT FOGGY FEAR AND THE FEELING IT WOULD NEVER GO AWAY BUT IT WILL WITH THE RIGHT COUNSELING AND MEDICATION.

    • Posted

      Thank you for taking the time to read and respond to my dilemma, I will definitely take everything you said into consideration. It's so reliveing knowing that I can relate to someone in some form.

      Thanks again,

      -Tony

  • Posted

    YOU ARE SO WELCOME. IF YOU GET FREAKED OUT OR REALLY WORRIED SEND ME AN EMAIL.

    KATHY

Report or request deletion

Thanks for your help!

We want the community to be a useful resource for our users but it is important to remember that the community are not moderated or reviewed by doctors and so you should not rely on opinions or advice given by other users in respect of any healthcare matters. Always speak to your doctor before acting and in cases of emergency seek appropriate medical assistance immediately. Use of the community is subject to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy and steps will be taken to remove posts identified as being in breach of those terms.