Discussion How Do You Deal With Brain Fog?

[LighthouseHermit]

Whenever I start doing something that requires a lot of concentration or focus, my brain just gets foggy and blocks any progression. It drives me nuts. When I push through, my brain feels like it's cramping. Such a strange sensation.

Do you recognize this as well? What do you think causes it for you? For me, I think it's pain, depression, sleep deprivation, and medication.

I've tried breathing exercises, exercising, meditating, changing my diet, and so on. Most things work for a few days, and then it's back to brain fog again.

Anyone have any tips to relieve the brain fog?

Thank you

 

[TBONTB]

I was hoping someone had an answer......

 

[Zeir Anpin 729]

boomers and gen x caused all the brain fog that millienials and gen z feels. maybe we cant undo it, but we can try not to be the same headache on generation alpha.

 

[heywey]

I get terrible brain fog all the time. I don't know if that makes me more or less qualified to give advice lol, sometimes I can push through but it doesn't usually go away entirely.

Things that seem to help:

• Caffeine: coffee messes with my system a lot even in tiny amounts (jittery, anxious, can't sleep), but I've found that yerba mate gives me similar focus/clarity without such extreme side effects. It has caffeine too but the overall chemical composition is pretty different from coffee (it's in the holly family, interestingly), so it could be worth trying as an alternative
• Sleep: lots of sleep, more than seems reasonable
• Routine: little rituals and patterns seem to help my brain find the right groove. It doesn't really matter what, lighting a candle, writing a journal entry, doing a few pushups, just something you can make your brain associate with waking itself up. Make a point of imaginarily dusting off the cobwebs in your mind for best results
• Diet: yeah, this one's pretty obvious, eat some green stuff now and then, take a multivitamin on those days where making anything more complicated than ramen is too much
• Timer: I have a little egg timer I keep going most of the day when I can, not timing anything in particular, I just set it back to an hour every time it goes off. Don't know why it helps, might be an AuDHD thing I guess. It's like it relaxes the subconscious part of my brain always stuck thinking about everything I'm not doing and helps me limit my attention to the next <1 hour. I dunno, ymmv
• Psilocybin [magic mushrooms]: the only surefire cure for brain fog I've found. A medium-sized dose (~2g) zaps away brain fog for days, often weeks (once even a couple months). When I'm not in a good headspace though it tends to open up a lot of buried emotions that I don't want to be wading through, so nowadays I just microdose once a week or so. It's less effective than a bigger dose but helps with brain fog too without being quite as scary

 

[LighthouseHermit]

I get terrible brain fog all the time. I don't know if that makes me more or less qualified to give advice lol, sometimes I can push through but it doesn't usually go away entirely.

Things that seem to help:

• Caffeine: coffee messes with my system a lot even in tiny amounts (jittery, anxious, can't sleep), but I've found that yerba mate gives me similar focus/clarity without such extreme side effects. It has caffeine too but the overall chemical composition is pretty different from coffee (it's in the holly family, interestingly), so it could be worth trying as an alternative
• Sleep: lots of sleep, more than seems reasonable
• Routine: little rituals and patterns seem to help my brain find the right groove. It doesn't really matter what, lighting a candle, writing a journal entry, doing a few pushups, just something you can make your brain associate with waking itself up. Make a point of imaginarily dusting off the cobwebs in your mind for best results
• Diet: yeah, this one's pretty obvious, eat some green stuff now and then, take a multivitamin on those days where making anything more complicated than ramen is too much
• Timer: I have a little egg timer I keep going most of the day when I can, not timing anything in particular, I just set it back to an hour every time it goes off. Don't know why it helps, might be an AuDHD thing I guess. It's like it relaxes the subconscious part of my brain always stuck thinking about everything I'm not doing and helps me limit my attention to the next <1 hour. I dunno, ymmv
• Psilocybin [magic mushrooms]: the only surefire cure for brain fog I've found. A medium-sized dose (~2g) zaps away brain fog for days, often weeks (once even a couple months). When I'm not in a good headspace though it tends to open up a lot of buried emotions that I don't want to be wading through, so nowadays I just microdose once a week or so. It's less effective than a bigger dose but helps with brain fog too without being quite as scary

Thank you for your detailed message. I appreciate it

Sorry you get brain fog all the time.

• Caffeine also make me jittery, anxious, hard to sleep. Will look into yerba mate. No idea what it is. Thanks!
• The timer idea is interesting. Going to try that. I have ADHD and am on the spectrum, so I often lose myself in time when I'm upset or very depressed. The longer you stay in that state, the worse it gets. Thanks!
• Never used drugs or mushrooms before. Not even alcohol (alcoholic stepdad). I'm a bit scared of addiction or it messing with my medication or autism. No idea about it at all, but thanks for the suggestion. Will have to research it.

Thanks again