Debilitating symptoms. Brain fog...extreme memory loss...spacey 24/7!
Posted , 640 users are following.
The last year of my life has been a brutal one. At the age of 22, I am in the lowest of lows and I desperately need some help!
Here’s my tale:
About a year ago, a couple months after an extremely strenuous relationship, I began noticing that I was tired all the time…and all around, I wasn’t really satisfied. Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoyed my friends, and activities…but life just wasn’t as bright and vibrant anymore after a month of noticing this ever-present fatigue, it got a bit stronger. I would wake up each morning completely zombie-mode…and that feeling would remain throughout the entirety of my day, until my head hit my pillow that evening.
Initially, I suspected some form of sleeping disorder. I set up a sleep study, got my thyroid checked, ferritin levels, all the basics. Sleep study revealed I sleep just fine and all my other blood tests came back negative.
The fatigue and the weight of the world slowly got worse over the next handful of months, UNTIL I woke up one morning and everything escalated greatly. I felt completely stoned. I couldn’t think right. I couldn’t concentrate. I felt inebriated. I felt totally disconnected and spacey. I felt as though I had no control over myself. I lost drive and motivation. I lost a lot of confidence. I always had an incredibly sharp memory. It was actually something well known about me to those in my family and friend circles. Yet, on this morning, almost all new information could not be retained. Things that happened earlier in the day, by evening, I felt they happened a day or two before. I could no longer recount the activities I took part in. This is possibly the worst of all the symptoms. The extreme short term memory. I have no context for time and I sort of feel like I’m just floating through life suffering.
For months I visited doctors getting tested by specialists. I visited a neurologist, infectious disease, I had an MRI, & I had about 20 different blood tests. NOTHING. My doctor literally said “I have no idea what this could be. I am beside myself” TOTES reassuring! I tried altering my diet entirely to organic and all natural. I continued my workouts and ran 15 miles a week. I tried sleeping even earlier. I tried all I could think of .
I have scoured the message boards and found a few people suffering from the same, but without answers.
I’m not sure if depression is the culprit, but depression sure has found its nasty venom-coated fangs into my veins. Tired, depressed, failed memory, no drive, scared…it’s no way to live. I want my life back.
PLEASE OFFER INSIGHT! I will be so grateful J
Sincerely,
Taylorsaurus Rex
54 likes, 1428 replies
jin47787 TaylorMason
Posted
maybe look into me/cfs!! aka chronic fatigue syndrome!! it can be caused by stress and anxiety and can explain the severe memory loss!!
dawn98692 TaylorMason
Posted
lyme disease
tj37530 TaylorMason
Edited
Hi,
This exactly what happened to me. I feel like I am impaired every second of every day. I worked for a great company had a great job and I had an epidural steroid injection and overnight I developed brain fog that the doctors all say is dissociation. I literally lost my job as I cannot comprehend anything. I have daily breakdowns because I cannot get back to feeling how I did. I had a great life and now it is all gone.
andrea34248 TaylorMason
Edited
This is my second attempt at trying to post this so, if it's up here twice, sorry. I have been searching for help with this for 3 years now. I have all of the same symptoms as everyone on this thread. Constant dizziness, strange light flashes in vision, memory problems, constant feeling of being stoned and sleepy, cant concentrate on anything, can't think of words, constant pressure in head and ears, high pitched noise in ears, and an overall feeling of just not being in the moment. I can look right at something but still not see it. I am always so anxious bc I'm afraid something is bad wrong with me or I'm afraid others will think I'm drunk or stoned and that's not the case. I hate leaving my house bc of these things. Sometimes I'm scared to drive bc I'm scared I might screw up and hurt someone but, I make myself bc I have responsibilities. All my symptoms started the day after I had a hypertensive crisis and ended up in ICU on a cardiac drip for 3 days back in early 2018. The doctors said it was just a blood pressure spike and that I didn't have a stroke but, I'm not so sure. I have had every test known to man and nothing to explain any of these symptoms has been found. They did find a few things like COPD and coronary artery disease but, nothing to explain the symptoms I'm having. I'm scared to death I have dementia or something and that thought keeps me on edge bc, I'm only 36 and I have 2 kids that depend on me. I just don't want to end up dead and leave my girls alone. I want to be my normal self again. I would also like to mention a few things that I have noticed recently that has been added to the long list of symptoms that comes with whatever this is. I have noticed a strange heaviness to my legs recently, as well as my face staying flushed with what feels like heat coming out of my ears. I just don't know what to do at this point. I'm tired of doctors thinking I'm nuts. This is torture.
jo96364 andrea34248
Posted
in same boat here.. day to day is a huge struggle ive a 2 year old, & im trying my best to try to keep going, but a feeling of sheer guilt as im not able to do things i want to do with him out of fear, fear something is going to happen me. so i dont tend to do much with my son on my own.. i had 2 days where i felt some what normal & it was so great.. but now im feeling so much worse, clammy head/drunk uncomfoable high feeling! absoulty drained from the moment i wake (how after a full nights sleep)& so on.. never ending list of pains aches & feelings.. i do feel weather is a factor..
k08610 andrea34248
Edited
My life's a blur, literally, 17 months and counting..its like brain fog, met ADHD, plus depression, extreme sensitivity and heart wrenching pain in my soul...it sucks!!!!! No one cares, doctors suck, paid over 40 grand for s**t....No one and I mean no one cares!!
jo96364 k08610
Edited
if they dont no what it is they dont want to hear about it.. so unfair!
jo96364 TaylorMason
Posted
so many people on this, but then nobody replys in months.. i wander if anyone has recovered?
lewiss TaylorMason
Edited
Hi all,
i know i am extremly late to this post but i have suffered with this for ages. I know two things that have helped me so far :
give it a try
jo96364 lewiss
Posted
i wear sunglasses anytime im outside look mad at times but it dose help,.
must try that with food cause after eating i feel so unwell.
Capuccino TaylorMason
Edited
Goddamn...
I'm just astonished on how many persons just feel those cognitive symptoms.
As a french guy on french boards about anxiety I was unable to find a similar case. I though I was an unique case or that I had a degenerative disease that was covered by my anxiety disorders.
Two years ago I was in a step of anxiety where I had depersonalization, extreme difficulty concentrating or remembering, loss on sense of time, even loss of meaning of some concepts. It was impossible for me to imagine projects for the next days or weeks as if I would never see them.
I was stuck on my bed almost the whole day, with no appetite, unable to do anything, drive, work, watch a whole movie, talking with someone too long... even take a shower was hard since I was dizzy. I had the feeling I would never be able to become normal again.
I've been put on antidepressers, and around 3 monthes after it was finally gone.
Unfortunately since one week I immersed myself back in this same situation... So I have started antidepressers again some days ago.
At this point I had a doubt about my diagnostis again, but I'm glad to see that I'm not alone in this case.
Hope we all be better soon. I beat this state once, so it is possible. Stay courageous!
alex23430 TaylorMason
Edited
Feel like a zombie. I can't focus at all. Nothing feels pleasurable or fun. No libido. Horrible fatigue all day long no matter how much sleep I get. Feel exhausted from even light exercise and get chest pain. Constant anxiety. Brain gets stuck on certain thoughts and get the urge to repeat doing things over and over, like OCD. Have no desire to socialize at all, I just want to be alone and lay down constantly. Feel lazy with no energy. Doctors either don't know what it is or diagnose you with something but the treatments don't work. Even had multiple MRIs over the past few years and they say I'm fine and just worry too much yet they have no clue how bad this feels. I'm almost convinced this is some sort of brain damage or something causing this. I used to be normal then one day have to live with this nightmare for years on end with no solution. Even typing this felt like a chore.
jo96364 alex23430
Edited
i can relate to all of what you have just said.. because when we explain these things to a doc they automatily say anxiety & depression. but the short of it all is the anxiety is coming because of what we are feeling, need to get to the root of the problem. like wise bloods & mri fine, doctor noted that my tonsils are very large compared to what they should be they noticed this in the mri. & also i get injections for B12, but apart from that they have not found anything else!
jo96364 TaylorMason
Edited
Any updates? is anyone feeling better/worse (not sure if possible)
carl36932 jo96364
Edited
hi ive dealt with this on and off for 5 years, what a lot of people dont realise is they need to get all bloods and hormones checked, you need to get the printouts yourself as doctors ranges in this country are terrible, so youll be told everythint is fine and in range when you can be at the very bottom of there so called range and be very ill! ive figuered out recently that my b12, folate, vit d is all really low but doctors kept telling me its fine! if your low in any of these you can experience all of these symptoms and a lot more! theres a lot of groups on fb with thousands of people that have been let down time and time again by our gp's and they are all self treating and a lot of them have healed! pls pls look into your health and see if can help yourself!! like b12 for example, you shouldnt be any less than 500 you really want to be in the high numbers 700/800 mine was at 190 and told was fine! its not true, levels like mine can make you very unwell! ive had most of the symptoms mentioned and still do! but i now have reasons behind it! you need to look at fixing body as a whole, low b12 can cause serious mental health/physical issues
jo96364 carl36932
Posted
yes this makes sense because going back a few years ago i had really low b12, i was on injections weekly, then monthly, and then my doctor retired, and the doc that took over moved me to 3 months as my levels are good according to him. but one every 3 months i think is not helping me, plus when i was pregnant they wouldn allow me to have it at all, and i feel im gone very low but they are telling me differnent also they put me on vitamin D suppilment but only for 2 months, little bottle you take once a week:.