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

Hey, did you find out what this was or how to fix it? Did it get better?

Hey Taylor! I have sadly experienced all these same symptoms for over 3 years now. I finally went to a dr about 6 months ago and he believed mold was the culprit. Took test and low and behold i had extremely high levels in my body of 5 different kinds, from a house we lived in. Most western medicine drs dont even consider mold so it would be best to contact an integrative or functional dr. You can order the test from home and take it without a dr. look up great plains lab and order it. Just a quick urine sample. Ive been on a detoxing protocol for 6 months and have seen many improvements its slow but its there and i celebrate each one no matter how small it may feel. Alot of these symptoms are related to neuroinflammation due to the mold. Continue to eat a healthy diet i HIGHLY recommend removing gluten and dairy from it. And if the test comes back positive feel free to message me or do your own research for a detox protocol best for you if you choose not to see a dr. I am so sorry your feeling this way, its no way to live, but there is hope.

Much love,

Brit

I've had this for a while now. I have an idea of what it might be but it's very complex. Basically the cells in your brain might be inflamed. Inflammatory cytokines maybe to blame. Basically, stress can lead to free radicals in the brain which causes inflammation. This inflammation can cause brain fog.

Absolutely what happened to me. The biggest thing noticeable is like my brain is covered by a shield 24/7, my vision is out of focus 24/7, and stress worsens this. But it never goes away anyways. 15years.

Hey Taylor and co,

first off- it's comforting to know im not the only one suffering with this shed-load of pain.

My sense of detachment from reality came on around the age of 12 and the 'brain fog'/memory problems at 16. I started with an intense fear of dying of an illness at 11 years old and was convinced i was dying. I was too scared to explain the reasons for this to anyone as i feared they would confirm my worst fears so I lived with this crippling fear right through high school. At 16, I got free from the fear of dying when i told my mum and got some blood tests to confirm id just been believing a load of bull for five years. it was at this point tho that the memory and brain problems started. Almost like my brain could finally relax after its five year state of anxiety. Maybe it relaxed too much.

I'm 36 now, married with three kids and at a point where I can barely function any more in daily life. my cognitive problems have become so pronounced. The usual stuff- short term memory shot to bits, word recall fading fast, can't follow conversations, maths skills fading now. I had to quit my job as a youth worker a few years back as I couldnt cope with constantly forgetting stuff and the stress that came with that. I was smart in school and my teachers said i could have done any job really. It makes me laugh now as i look at people working the most basic jobs and think 'there's not a chance i could do that- I can barely do the house work'

My symptoms have been getting steadily worse for the last 20 years. like someone else on the thread mentioned- there will be a sudden decline every few months/years to a new plateu and then I try and find a way to cope at this new lower level of functioning. the brain problems, mainly memory issues, have been 24/7 for 20 years

Im currently looking into whether neck/spine problems could be the cause- ive heard impingment of nerves/misalignment of spinal column can lead to brain fog and releasing the spinal kink so the speak, can help.

My main curiosity is this though : no one as far as i can tell has mentioned whether a family member also suffers with the same condition. Im curious as my dad has exactly the same thing but for him it came on in his 40s. He's the only person Ive ever met who has the same brain fog problem as me so Id just assumed Id inheritted it from him.

Does anyone else have a parent or relative with the same issue?

Thanks,

Ben

For those out there wondering what this might be... i got help and found put what it was. For me it was bipolar disorder,essentially an irregularity of emotional chemicals on the brain. It can not be cured, but can be learned to live a happy life with. i was diagnosed at the age of 17 feeling the same way you all are now. I hope this helps. please, see a doctor... or things WILL get worse.

To all the people in this thread:

I have been keeping an eye on this thread for a while now and I wanted to first of all thank you all for sharing your stories. It has brought me great comfort in feeling some sort of connection with others who are going through this. For me it all started about 9 months ago when i was driving home from work and i suddenly got "struck" by this feeling in my body/mind. I was frozen. And while I was in this frozen state it felt like something exploded in my brain and i could feel some sort of fluid rushing down from my brain into my body. Luckily for me it was quiet on the road and in between this sensation I managed to pull my car over and let this thing unfold. I think it took about 10 minutes before i felt some sort of control again so i decided to drive home (luckily it was "only" a 15 minute drive from my place). Once i got home i immediately called my parents explaining to them what had happened and they gave me the answer that I probably experienced a severe panic attack. Which in hindsight was indeed the case. After this event I felt so exhausted and out of it that I just curled up into a little ball and fell asleep hoping this feeling of pure dread would leave my body. But... it never did. The weeks after the event I experienced the worst days of my life and all I can say now that I am grateful the severity of the symptoms have decreased. I experienced severe derealisation/depersonalisation; when I looked at my arms they i didn't recognize them as my own anymore. At times when I looked at my family members it was almost like I didn't recognized them. It was as like all was disconnected from all my surroundings and everything was just one big blur. The feeling of pressure in my head and on my eyes was so intense that I thought I had a tumor or something growing in my head. I couldn't recall ANYTHING anymore. It got to the point where my memory got so bad I didnt even know what I did two hours ago, sometimes even 5 minutes. Completely clogged and fogged up. Then one morning when I woke up there suddenly was this intense beep in my ears, which hasnt gone away since. I went to see several doctors who told me my symptoms sounded like extreme stress and that I should take some time off work and try and relax. I mean, I could not work in that state anyway. Attention span was zero. I couldnt read, watch a video or even look at a screen for more than 5 minutes before my brain felt like it was going to explode. And the extreme exhaustion every day.. Unbearable at times.. Now I know this is a long rant and I am sorry for letting you read it all but I want you to understand that the symptoms described by others in this thread are EXACTLY what I felt and still feel. Now 9 long and very foggy months later my dp/dr have severely gone down. I can feel a connection with things around me again some more and I my memory is a little better. But its getting better and I would like to share my thoughts and honest opinion on this dreadful thing that has entered our lives. So.. a little background story on me. When I was 19 years old, I was diagnosed with Body Dysmorphia Disorder (BDD). For about a year I could not leave my house because I was in an immense amount of tension and discomfort if I did. I went through therapy for it and was put on the SSRI paroxetine. For 10 years I have taken the medication because unfortunately the BDD never really went away so I had to stay on my meds. Now last year around this time I was working, had a sort of stable life and felt like I could go off my meds. So I did. I went from 20 mg per day for 10 years to 10 for two weeks and then I just quit taking them. Interestingly enough I didnt feel much more anxious or bad when I did. I did experience fairly severe brain zapps for about a week but those eventually went away. But as you can guess. About 10 weeks after I went off them, I had my panic attack in the car and havent felt the same since. But what this shows is that the culprit for this horrendous feeling is indeed anxiety/severe stress. And don't get me wrong. I KNOW it does not feel like it. How many times I have been angry with my doctor when he told me this is not something more than my body being in a constant fight/flight mode and that I need rest and to de-stress. This thing is about acceptance and understanding that your body is given a clear signal that it doesnt feel safe and relaxed anymore for wathever reason. The people in this thread who have been feeling like this for a couple of years now but are refusing to accept the fact that this is indeed anxiety and stress need to accept the fact that they do need therapy and maybe some medication to help their body to feel safe and calm again. We're all stuck in this vicious cycle where our horrible physical symptoms are keeping us in this stressed and anxious state. For the ones that are going through this longer than half a year; please go see a psychiatrist. I know medication is something most of us do not want to consider but if it can help your body get back to its relaxed "normal" state and I think we all deserve that!! Once you feel a little more like your old self again you can then perhaps try and find the answers for your problems. We all go through so much in this crazy world and it isn't a shame that it gets all a bit too much at times. This is our body telling us it can't cope with certain things anymore.

Conclusion: These are one hundred percent anxiety/stress related symptoms which can only be tackled by either therapy or some sort of medication. You can take all the supplements you want, can get all the scans in the world, but if your mind and body are in a constant state of stress, these might only make things worse since they make you focus on the symptoms which will lead to more anxiety/stress. So please, step out of this terrible vicious cycle and go get some help. Much love ❤

There's so many comments i don't know if anyone has suggested autoimmune disorders. I have so many of the symptoms mentioned here and have been researching on my own to find an answer. There are 80 (i think, lol brain fog) kinds and the longer they go on for untreated the worse they gets and then they start to bring friends along so you might have 2 or more disorders by the time you feel like dying. i pushed for a thyroid ultrasound because i feel the symptoms of Hashimoto's explained quite a lot, but my blood test results were always normal and found out that's it's not uncommon for bloods to be within range (10% ?) and you should get an ultrasound to be sure. I'm still waiting on results after 2 weeks. I also believe Addison's disease would explain 99% of the rest of my symptoms and will work on getting tests for that when i get these results back. i really hope this helps people, I've been diagnosed with so many different things in my life but no one has ever thought why do you have all these things and is something causing it. This recent bout of full body shutdown started with the death of a loved one 2 months ago and very quickly all of my regular symptoms became much much worse and i developed new ones. Currently I have full body weakness and more pain, the worst brain fog, being even more tired but can't rest, struggling to breathe all the time not just nights, worse digestive issues, constant dry and irritated eyes, hives at night, skin thickening and cracking quicker than it already was especially on hands, and the worst anxiety and depressive thoughts I've ever had and this extremely fast and drastic change made me so unbelievably scared of the future and determined to get to the bottom of this. Fingers crossed we all get answers ❤️

Hello! I recently discovered this post when (like all of you) was trying to figure out what this is. I am struggling with many of the same problems and need to find an answer. After creating an account and reading through tons of replies to this post I found people talking about forming a group to do a study of some sort or figure out what this possibly could be. However, I was not able to find anyone mentioning any program or person or steps to take, only that people were down to form a group. Now I have not deeply looked into this, nor does it seem like a group thing, but it is a medical group dedicated to diagnosing the undiagnosed with rare disorders. Its called the "Undiagnosed Disease Network". You'll have to look more into it if you want to apply. There might even be more programs like this out there. My hope is that someone can find answers and even if its one person it could be a lead for all of us. Anyways, thanks for reading this. I'm tired of going without answers and I'm sure you are too. If regular doctors or even specialists don't know what to do doesn't mean there isn't hope.

Hi TaylorMason,

Its been over five years since you've been active but I thought I would give it a shot. I'm a freaking mess and I've been trying to figure it out for a long time. I have Hashimoto's Thyroiditis, insane Tinnitus, chronic pain, fatigue, brain fog, memory loss, depression, anxiety... I'm just a total mess. The brain issues are the worst part, worse than the pain. If I could think straight, get stuff done etc. I could handle the pain. Anyway, I was wondering how you made out, are you feeling better, what worked, didn't work etc.

LMK

hi Taylor,

how are you mate? not sure if you are still using this account platform but i just wanted to see where you are at in terms of your condition. like many iv been through all the same processes. blood tests, ct scans, mri, visits to neurologists for ms, alzeimers etc etc, eye specialists, ear specialist, ent doctor, balance and dizziness specialists, phycologists. The list goes on. Lots of time lots of money. my life basically sucks. Each year i think il go do more different blood tests to try and find something, each year nothing.

After reading this thread and some of the repsonses i think its fair to say anxiety and depression hold the key. i used to have good and bad weeks, some energetic, mentaly clear, switched on driven and focused, others not but i could live with that.

it all literally changed over night where i woke up one morning and it was like i was literally hit by a bus. i had all sorts of symptoms. visual problems, hot flushes, off balance, extreme brain fog and memory loss, no concerntration. things that i used to do easy took me twice as long.

at the same time i was fighting with a life long friend. this sent my flight fight freeze into overdrive as i hate confrontation. i have never been the same. i did see it was mentioned but i beleive we are stuck in the flight fight freeze

mode and that something with our cortisol or adrenal levels (even though blood tests show normal) is not right. let me know what you have found mate but i wont stop trying. iv had this for 5 years now but wont let it win