Is this Brain Fog?

[hosedown]

[Trigger warning: I have extreme health anxiety, so please don't chime in guessing I have some terrible disease by name.] I'm experiencing gaps in concentration and cognition. The other day on the way to work I was thinking about where I've put cat litter boxes in all the places I've lived and for a few seconds I couldn't remember where the kitchen is in my current place. (Sounds so absurd when I write it out.) And my cognitive maps get messed up for a few seconds once in a while too - like I'll be driving somewhere in Seattle and all the sudden my mental map of Chicago freeways will get superimposed and for a second I can't remember which one applies where. Then today, I have a pretty complex technical job and I couldn't remember a document path nor why I was looking for that document. For a few seconds just gapped and couldn't remember what project I was working on.

Does anyone know if these gaps in cognition sound like anxiety-related brain fog? I don't feel a general haze but more acute moments of confusion.

Thanks!

[DizzyPixie]

I have this exact thing from period to period and I'm still fine. I was also thinking I had a serious illness, but it passed.

I remember, this summer, when I was camping... I was actively listening to a conversation, a guy was commenting something about a place. When he finished, for some reason I instantly forgot what had been said, I asked him "have you been to ... (place)"? Everybody stared at me like I'd fallen from space. A girl told me "I had lost my bracelet, I was looking for it the whole day and it was in my bag" and I replied "So where was it?". I was forgetting names, dates and phone numbers. They were jokingly saying I was in love or something. I was afraid I was losing it. It lasted some days, and eventually got better. Maybe I was tired from all the work (I was excavating an ancient site, all day in the sun, and I had to wake up at 5am) or stressed but didn't quite realize it (I'm always a bit anxious when I go to remote places for more than a couple of days). Fortunately, I didn't have an internet connection, so I couldn't ask Dr. Google anything.

I had this once again about a month ago. I was forgetting how to go to places where I usually go, I was forgetting the metro stations etc. I was losing my orientation too (not that it's especially good anyway). I went to a friend's house, he had a poster on the wall. I saw it, crossed the room, returned, noticed it again, and asked him why he had bought it twice, because somehow I thought I was in another room, with the same poster. I saw a funny video with a guy asking pedestrians silly questions like "for how many years to come do you think Fidel Castro is going to rule Cuba?" and I was seriously thinking the question, it took me about a minute to realize that Fidel Castro is dead and that I've had elaborate conversations on this matter.

I think it's some kind of temporary anxiety-related silliness.

[Teafrenzy]

Absolutely sounds like Anxiety.

When your anxiety gets going, one of the functions is to cloud your higher learning centers in your brain. Basically make you "run" not "think". Because if you stood around and thought too much in prehistoric times, you would be the first one eaten by that sabre-tooth tiger while all your friends ran away.

[RoadToRecovery]

hosedown, this is a very common anxiety symptom. I have been in the process of recovering from a four year long anxiety disorder, and this was hands down my worst symptom.

I just finished writing a lengthy post on Jaylaree213's post titled "Help!" that goes into depth about the severity my brain fog got to. I think it would be very helpful for you to go read it if you have 10-15 minutes of time.

It's important to know that stress responses cause changes in your brain (not permanent). But they suppress the cortex of your brain, which is responsible for reasoning, critical thinking, and others. They also make the amygdala, the "fear center" of our brains more hyperactive and suppress the hippocampus, the area of our brains responsible for learning, comprehension, and memory.

Please check out my post. I think you will find it helpful.