Fixing Fibro Fog in Your Daily Life. “it’s the difference between being able to hold a job and having to quit. For others, it means no more driving. It can involve severe problems with short-term memory, multitasking, learning a new skill, spatial orientation, numbers, remembering common words, and absorbing what you read.”
My last job was part time and fun for the most part. But I was hurting so much for standing all day, the fog was so dense that I couldn’t follow instructions or remember names of customers. This from a person who had learned to tricks to remember everyone’s name 10 years prior. I don’t drive, I get lost too easily. The worst part is writing sometimes looks like a child rather than and author wanna-be.
Where are you in your pain and fog?
Darswords 
Here’s an example of how bad I am this week, I was at my psychiatrist yesterday(I’m being treated for depression), she wrote out my next appointment and handed it to me on a card, she asked was there anything else I wanted to talk about, I asked what I could do about the forgetfulness and fibro fog of things and we talked for maybe three, four minutes, the appointment came to an end, I realised I had forgotten when my next appointment was so I asked could she send it out in the post because otherwise I wouldn’t remember it. She said that’s ok, but it’s on the card you’re holding. I had completely forgotten she had already written out my next appointment, in the space of asking about forgetfulness. All I could do was laugh at the time!
Thanks for responding to my question. I had to giggle with you. Oh, the fog!
On depression: I believe a lot of us would say we are depressed BECAUSE of the hurting and fog that is keeping us from doing things we love such as going out to dinner with family or friends.
Fog makes me embarrassed to talk to people. I had social anxiety before but I had ways to deal with it then, pretending confidence, for example. Now I am even embarrassed to talk with my husband. I lose words that I used to remember the first letter. It isn’t that the words aren’t there, they are lost in a deluge of other words that I know are the wrong words.
Losing things. ALWAYS. I have and had ADD. As a child, I used to cry when my mother would send me into the kitchen to get three things. I was good with two but that last one would overpower the rest of the list. God forbid she should give me a line of verbal instructions, such as how to do my own laundry. Remember the Lucy in the chocolate factory? ME. Okay, now move this same mental quirk into my present fibro fog and anything I learned to use as tricks in order to remember have flown out the window.
It doesn’t surprise me that you had your answer in your hand. That has happened to me many times. Getting the reminder in the mail? Stop your entire life write post-its and pin that postcard in a most obvious place. Tell everyone where it is. Make calendar reminders on Google or Yahoo calendars. Even so, for me, life and its virtual or actual earthquakes would make me forget or need to reschedule. That won’t get the postcard, and the whole scenario will start again.
Back to the losing things, I had four children (who are adults now, in spite of me) and there was a ton of laundry to fold daily. I blame this on my ADD; I would find myself ‘putting the socks in the underwear pile’ often. I knew I would never work well in a factory. Fast forward to my 60’s and add in the fog and I had to quit work, for the pain, of course, but also for the inability to remember what I was supposed to do next. I couldn’t remember peoples names–I still call my husband my ex husband’s name and they are in no way the same kind of people in shape, size or personality. I used to call my daughter the cat’s name. If someone was causing trouble I called out the most likely. Not fair mothering and I apologized over and over.
So… is there anything you have learned to help with fog issues?
The only thing I can do to fight it is write lists of everything I need to do! I’m currently researching that topic, I definitely find stress makes it worse. That’s awkward because I get stressed out from having the fog in the first place! I was told that the reason for the fog, apart from fatigue etc, is that because our bodies are always in that flight or fight mode, our brains are so preoccupied with looking for danger everywhere, that remembering the name of the fruit you’re currently eating is not considered important enough for your brain to work on at the time. That does make sense, especially if it’s worsened in times of stress, when our bodies are even more sensitive to everything around us.
You’re right. The pain and fatigue cause the fog. The fog causes more stress and the circle goes round once more. I think I have learned something here. It has made no sense, in the past, to meditate when one is tired and sleeping all the time. When I have tried I have felt unsuccessful as I would fall asleep. But maybe that is what is needed to heal, de-stress. And then as healing progresses to continue the meditation to maintain the calm. Okay. The penny dropped hope I get the bubble gum. 🙂