HN Explorer

Ask HN: Severe brain fog and scattered thinking – tips on fixing?

1 points by confoundcofound ↗ HN
Hit my limit today when I was on a call with a new colleague and found myself rambling in circles unable to put together a clear and coherent thought. This is an issue I’ve long struggled with. Every psychiatrist I have seen has blamed anxiety and yet none of the anxiety medications I’ve been prescribed have moved the needle in mending my cognition.

I’m at wit’s end and fed up with the runaround by doctors who aren’t interested in getting to the root issue.

8 comments

[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 30.1 ms ] thread
ChumpGPT
Olfactory problems? What's your sense of smell like?
confoundcofound
Smell seems fine
ChumpGPT
If it's not just exhaustion or burn out, then it could be a million things from allergies, mold, diet, sleep, etc. It could obviously be a medical condition and a good start would be blood work and physical. If nothing comes up, then exercise and diet, if you still feel like shit check the environment your living in or working in, mold, allergies, etc. You have to tackle this in a way that you can eliminate possible reasons.

Disclaimer: not qualified to give medical advice.

akor
Thinking out load but Lymes?
neonskies
In case your diet is not up to par(too much sugary and fried stuff, say), you could try hiring a nutritionist especially given that you have $ for a psychiatrist. Not that diet/nutrition science is all that rigorous, but at least they could optimize your diet to the extent that you start feeling a bit better.

Intermittent fasting is another tool. And the most important one of them all - good night's sleep.

tomohawk
1: sleep

Have a sleep study done. If it turns up something, pursue that.

2: what you eat

Try a gluten free diet for 1 month. This is pretty hard to do. No eating out. No processed foods. Gluten gets into all kinds of things - even things that should not have it if processed in the same factory.

If gluten free doesn't work, take a look at Gundry's Plant Paradox diet and try that for 1 month. This is even tougher. This worked wonders for a family member who went through many doctors before discovering this.

flaptrap
Psychiatrists blame anxiety - everyone starts with their own experience, yet there is a point, as in the brain, the hippocampus reacts poorly (to anxiety) and makes it difficult to organize your thoughts (by interfering with short-time memory). You are going to have your own way through this.

Some recommend mediation. That is a fancy way for saying to train yourself to focus.

Do not ignore nutrition. There are so many additives in foods, different people can respond differently to them.

DANmode
Have intimate experience with this.

Post contact info if you're interested in the various things I did.