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

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  • Posted

    I have a similar problem. I'm 19 years old.

    Several months ago (May 2015) I fell into a great state of feeling that life was not worth living. Thus, I injured myself by "shaking" my head violently. 

    It's tough to explain, but the shaking was internal; I wasn't going back and forth. Instead, I applied pressure to what appeared to be an inner part of the head, similar to how one would apply pressure to control the wiggling of your ears (if you've ever done that...).

    Since then, I have felt EXTREMELY fatigued, essentially emotionless, and stupid. I used have a sharp mind, graduated top of my class in high school, won 1st place at a state-level mental mathematics competition, got into some of the best universities in the country, and now my brain is just foggy. Any attempt at thinking beyond superficiality or recalling facts is null. Concentrating to solve a, say, mathematics problem is impossible. My creativity is gone.

    I went to a local family medicine doctor, explained my symptoms, and he just said that it was all in my head. Even then, he gave me an MRI referral, so I did it (non-contrast), and it returned negative.

    What the hell is happening? What part of my brain is damaged? 

     

    • Posted

      Hi Daniel, i think I understand what you mean by the 'shaking' of your head. I think it's possible that you influenced the state of a certain brain region by focussing on it in an intense way. It could have caused a local surge in electrical activity or local release of neurotransmitters.

      Anyway; something got disrupted, it's hard to say which part is affected.

      In general it takes a long time for the brain to recover from damage, regardless the cause. What the brain needs to recover is rest, relaxation and the right nutrients.

      I would recommend to take some time off, learn a relaxation technique  and see that you eat 'brain food'; lots of fish, fresh vegetables/fruits and supplements (zinc, taurine, acetyl-carnitine, vit. B12 and D, omega-3).

      If you are able to find a neurofeedback-therapist that would be great. He/she can help you in re-tuning your brain.

      Most important is rest though, like any other body part your brain can't heal if you continue with putting stress on it.

      My brain also became compromised a while ago, through different causes, and I applied the stategy above for several months (apart from the neurofeedback). By now I've mostly recovered, and am able to continue with my studies (and getting good results). It wasn't easy to let go of everything I was doing and just focus on my health for quite a while, but it was definitely worth it!

    • Posted

      Hello lindathepinda, thanks for replying.

      Actually, over the last few weeks I have been considering a temporary withdrawal from the university. I have not seen a neurologist yet, but I'll try setting up an appointment as soon as I get back on campus.

      I do think something got disrupted.

       

    • Posted

      Ye doctors love to cover up i hear you ...im suffering too ..did you find anything that helps any answer ??
  • Posted

    Hello Taylor, sorry to hear your issues even if this is almost a year old... This maybe a little off topic but, today i've accidently miss work at Walmart that was reschedule by me with the manager... This is not like me at all I never done something like that before! But... I had a question for you, do you have any black mold where you live at or where you use to live at, they sometimes cannot be seen the air we breath in. There is dangerious molds that can not just effect health but also effect our brains. I hope the remendy for your memory loss... -W.R.
    • Posted

      I hope you find the remendy for your memory loss...*
  • Posted

    Hi ive been experiencing the exact same symptoms as you mention, especially the memory loss, not being able to create clear thoughts, and just an overall spaced out stoned feeling. I remeber the day this condition occurred and it just felt like a massive cloud had just come inside my head while i was driving and then couldnt remeber how to get back home. I too had the sharpest of memorys. It really has been horrible these past 18 months. Ive been reading and apparently its got something to do with your brain protecting its self from the stress hormone cortisol, so it shuts down certain parts of the brain to protect itself. I was wondering if you have had any progression with remedying this condition as mines been going for a long time and ive only just hit 20, i havnt seen any medical professionals about this yet.
    • Posted

      Hi David 

      i am having the same issues with memory, it's been going on for me about 3 months now, I have also been depress with Anxiety too. I wish I knew what to do.

    • Posted

      Hi David, sorry to hear this.I have the same condition. Going for more than a year now. Do you think you may be depressed?

      Headaches? Vision problems?

    • Posted

      i remeber having a bit of anxiety at the end of one of my relationships then that anxiety brought on stress, stress brought on the cloud and then the cloud brought on depression. But since it started i wouldnt say im depressed, but defiantly not my old bright larakin self again. I still have issues overthinking and then zoning out about negative things and then not being able to piece construct positive thoughts together. So annoying especially cos im at such a peaking social time in my life.
  • Posted

    Know exactly how ur feeling.I've been like this for last 4 yrs but this year was severe combined with fatigue and low mood(i was usually very active and happy go lucky person),anxiety doesnt help either and being a guy most people doesnt take this seriously they regard this as sleep it of or jog it off. I've tried numerous supplements(still trying) worst part is the mental block/foggy feeling i have.

    Im off to integrated dr. thats also Gp,hoeopath,acupuncture,etc so i will see what happens then. 

    Let me know if u find something thta works faster plz.

    Abrie Fourie

  • Posted

    I have found that fasting for a day or so and only pretty much going on an elimination diet of meat and plant has completely reduced my anxiety. Crazy stuff
  • Edited

    I'm 25 years old and After a night of drinking, I feel funny to this day. The alcohol affected me by making me believe I'm in a dream and I'm not myself. My vision is weird it's like I capture moments of what I see and when I speak, it's like im not speaking or somewhat like that. I feel all round funny, I look at my own body sometimes and think is this really me? It seems that during the day when the sun is out is when I'm at my worst but when it gets dark and almost bed time, I feel better. It's weird living like this, it's hard for me to process things. It's hard for me to put sentences together and hard to remember things I did throughout the day. I'm also forgetful. My eyes are sensitive to sunlight also. It's like I'm half awake and half asleep. I'm also going through a breakup with a girl whom I have a kid with and she's with someone else now but I don't really care now about who she's with. I'm more worried about myself. It's hard waking up every morning and feeling like this throughout the day, I just want to be normal.
    • Posted

      look up something called derealization. it seems scary but common

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