Debilitating symptoms. Brain fog...extreme memory loss...spacey 24/7!

Has anyone had a PET scan? I'm wondering if I should have one done. I see a lot of people have done MRIs. Would that include with contrast? Mine was only done without contrast that's why I ask. I'm not sure what the difference is between the two and what without contrast shows versus with contrast. I'm having a lot of these same problems too. It's truly so depressing. My neurologist literally said she doesn't know what's causing it and suggested I should just take ginkgo biloba. Only problem is my psych said ginkgo interacts with a lot of psychotropic medications. It's like I can't win ughh

Mold!!!!

I posted here with the symptoms of brain fog, memory loss, fatigue, etc. last year and just two weeks ago I found out that my rental house was full of multiple types of toxic mold. I moved and the symptoms have subsided! I highly recommend that anyone having these symptoms have their home tested for mold ASAP, especially with a history of water damage.

Hi everyone. We will all have our own methods and techniques to either ease or rid the symptoms of brain fog. Mine took me almost a year to understand and accept. It was all bought on by anxiety. Anxious of how I was feeling was breeding more anxiety. All this anxiety pushes our minds into a protective state.... brain fog. By almost distancing and phasing out reality, the mind is focused on itself. However as an anxious person, I was getting more anxious of this feeling as I didn't understand it!

I have since taken on many lifestyle changes to help reduce. I can happily say my brain fog is at about a 5% level of what it was 1 month ago. I changed my diet. I started eating healthy green vegetables and cutting sugar and processed foods. I started meditating and prana breathing techniques. Controlled breathing to trick your mind into thinking "hey if someone is breathing this slowly... can they really have anxiety??". Having good night's sleep. 7-8hours a night. I also started taking multi vitamins during meals and magnesium tablets each night before i slept.

The main thing I did was ACCEPT it. I was no longer afraid of it. No more googling. No more searching. No more thinking. Life is too short. The amount of moments I missed or wasn't fully focused on because I was TOO focused on my mind and brain fog.

Brain fog thoughts bad worry fuel more brain fog.

Just remember. This is your brains way of trying to protect you from danger (ironically the danger is something you have manufactured in your compulsive thinking).

Cut the compulsive destructive thought processes and make positive changes to your life. :-) it worked for me.

I've recently emerged from a five year struggle with severe anxiety disorder and bouts of depression.  Brain fog was hands down my worst symptom.  I had short-term memory loss, difficulty following conversations, difficulty speaking/getting my words out, couldn't process information well, whether it be spoken or written, and many others.   It got so bad, I feared even having conversations with people, even my family, wife, and best friends.  I nearly lost my job because I was having such a hard time thinking and communicating.  My marriage and relationships suffered.  I basically became a hermit in my house.  It was the most difficult time of my life.

After years of searching though, I found the right help.  I am not an "expert", but I can tell you what I have learned and how I found healing:  Brain fog can, and is often caused by, an anxiety disorder.  Chronic stress can change the way the brain functions. When we behave anxiously, an area of our brain called the amygdala sends a stress response to the hypothalamus, which then secretes stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol to specific areas of our body.  These hormones produce an array of physiological, psychological, and emotional symptoms.  This is commonly known as the "fight or flight" symptom.  Stress hormones can impact the brain.  For example, stress can do the following:

Make the "fear center" of your brain - the amygdala more active and dominant, and suppress the "rationalization area" of your brain - the cortex.  This is why when we are anxious, we are often more alert and aware of danger.  It can become difficult to think clearly and logically.  Also, stress can increase the electrical activity in our brains, which makes it harder to concentrate and can cause "racing thoughts". 

The way I was taught to eliminate brain fog and what worked for me was getting my stress levels down.  Brain fog caused by anxiety disorder is due to chronic stress.  If anxiety has escalated to a disorder, your body can begin experiencing symptoms of stress and sometimes constantly.  When I had my disorder, I rarely ever got a break from the brain fog.  It was constant.  It didn't help that I was a hypochondriac, and when I was symptomatic I would worry, which caused more stress hormones, which caused more symptoms, which caused more worry, and so on - it became a vicious cycle.

The solution to symptom elimination due to chronic anxiety is to reduce stress and frequently relax your body.  When we do this, our parasympathetic nervous system becomes engaged, which produces a "rest or relaxation response".  You can try this for yourself right now - this is what happens when you take a deep breath and let it out slowly.  I was told to deeply relax my body twice a day for 15-20 minutes each time.  I listened to audio tapes of guided meditations, deep breathing exercises, and progressive muscle relaxations.  Other ways that help are listening to relaxing music, take a warm (not hot) bath with Epsom salts, get a good night's sleep, light to moderate exercise, get a massage, walk in nature or in the country, lay by the beach, and many others.  Anything that is relaxing.  I would highly recommend daily quiet times where you unplug and listen to a relaxing audio tape.

In time, symptoms will reduce, and eventually go away.  I am the healthiest I've been in many many years as of today.  It is such a wonderful feeling!

However, if you are struggling with an anxiety disorder, your symptoms (such as brain fog) are just that - symptoms.  They are not the root of the problem.  I discovered that the root of anxiety disorder is learned unhealthy behavior.  When we have adopted unhealthy belief systems, it influences our thinking.  When we think fearfully, our body produces stress hormones.  Too many stress hormones = symptoms of anxiety.

I worked with a trained anxiety disorder therapist who was able to help me uncover my unhealthy belief systems. She specialized in anxiety (having overcame one herself) and truly understood it. I learned a lot about myself.  I learned a lot of unhealthy ways of thinking when I was a very young boy.  For example, I had major health sensitivities.  This was due to my brother being diagnosed with stage IV Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma at the age of 4.  He was given a 1 in 4 chance to live.  I remember as a little boy being constantly worried about him or someone I loved or myself dying.  Since this unhealthy belief/behavior was established (especially at a young age), it became an automatic way of thinking for me anytime I had any type of health issue pop up.  So when I started to experience brain fog, I would worry about it, which just caused more stress hormones and made the brain fog worse.

These behaviors can seem instinctual the more we think about them.  Our brains remember and learn through repetition and reinforcement and can establish things called "neural networks" when we think a certain way for awhile.  The key is to identify your unhealthy beliefs/behaviors and work to change your thinking.  When you begin to think in healthy, rather than unhealthy, ways, you will stop producing constant stress responses, which eliminates the anxiety disorder and all of the symptoms that come with it.  Working with a trained anxiety disorder therapist was instrumental or me as well.  I didn't even realize how unhealthy my thought life was until I was able to get a trained 3rd party to objectively assess me and point out my thought patterns that just seemed "normal" to me, because I didn't know any better.

I hope this helps someone out there who is struggling!  Believe me - I've been there. It was hands down the hardest time of my life!

Jordan

Anxiety and Depression are also symptoms of MOLD toxicity. While living in toxic mold I was also diagnosed and treated for anxiety, but while the meds helped, it didnt fix all of the issues. Be aware, houses that look perfectly fine can have water damage and mold.

The way we think extremely affects our overall health. We have nerves all over our body that is connected to our brain. But not only that, we have our endocrine system that consists of ductless glands which secrete hormones directly to our circulatory system. It functions almost similar to our brain. One of the hormones it produce is cortisol and it should be in NORMAL LEVEL. If level is too high results to agitation while low level results to fatigue.

Doing exercise and eating healthy is a GREAT step for depression.

I've read some studies about the benefits of sun bathing for this. 

Everybody please take this with a grain of salt, but I was finally able to feel like my oldself again - I got rid of my Obsessive Compulsive tendencies. I was online every day and night reading these forum covincing myself something was wrong with me. I spent a few thousand dollars on office visits to find out why I wasnt feeling “normal". Was it stomach issues? Candida overgrowth? Mold toxins? Of course, all the tests came back negative saying I was perfectly fine. “But, that is impossible!!" Fortunately, a few things finally helped me break out of those 6 months of hell and nonstop anxiety. The first thing was a call from my Uncle. Hes 70 years old and has lived a very unhealthy life of sugar, cigarettes, and fatty food. What this made me realize that our bodies know exactly what theyre doing - we are proof of billions of years of evolution and our immune systems are extremely complex and resilient. I decided then and there that I am going to stop trying to “control" everything and I'm just going to let my body operate on it's own because it knows what it's doing. The 2nd thing that happened was when I was in the public library and the “universe" had me come across a book called “Is it All in Your Head?" Which contained numerous true stories of people who had convinced themselves that they were sick. People who literally convinced themselves that they had Multiple sclerosis and became unable to walk or a lady who had a sanitizer accidentally sprayed in her eyes and she convinced herself that she was blind, when actually her eyes were just fine but she actually convinced herself that she was unable to see..after all the specialist doctor visits and test coming back negative her last doctor visit was to a mental hospital...the Final thing that brought me out of those dark 6 months of stress and “never ending searches for answer" was a trip to see old friends in Austin. I drank a few beers, ate some not-so-healthy food, laughed, smiled, and finally realized that when I “let go" and just let life happen I am happy again. I'm my old self again. The person I used to be. The guy that could take on the world and wasn't afraid of anything. So my final message is that sometimes if you want to find yourself and be happy again you have to “let go" and just live. Your body knows what it's doing. If you convince yourself you are sick I gaurantee you will feel sick. If you stave yourself and are afraid of eating x,y &z your body is going to feel weak because it's not getting the calories it needs to give you energy. Unglue yourself your smartphones because sometimes the answer isn't going to be found on there...let intuition and instinct take over. You might find yourself smiling again. I LOVE YOU ALL!! and I hope your find your PEACE!