Clarification:No, I wasn’t sick before this started occuring. It was a gradual onset.
Feeling really tired all the time. I can sleep well above the amount of hours you need, and wake up feeling like I’ve been drugged up. If I wake up at 10 AM, I feel almost awake by around 8 PM. I don’t have as much of an issue typing but when I’m talking it’s like I’ve had brain damage or something (I haven’t, to my knowledge.) My movement and metabolism seem slow but my doctor says my thyroid function is in acceptable limits.
I used to give massive presentations where I was speaking without a script, I couldn’t even manage a single sentence without suddenly slurring, mispronouncing a word I know the pronunciation of, fumbling grammar, getting a word back to front or “buffering” for 5+ seconds. I don’t know, I just don’t feel as “present” like I used to, and everything seems dream-like. I have a bit of anxiety about talking to people in person now, because talking seems to use up 100% of my brainpower (same with remembering how to make coffee and use the machine), when before it was an automatic thing.
There’s been several occasions where a sentence will come out perfect but in reverse.
I don’t know if this is related, but people have noticed that since then, my movement has also been slow, as if my arms are underwater and are facing water resistance.
I forgot to clarify that. No, I wasn’t sick. It was a gradual onset.
Your doctor (with all due respect) may not think to consider that something in your environment has pushed your body and immune system into “Chronic Inflammation.” It has very weird effects.
Were you sick any time before the onset of this? It sounds like the some of the symptoms of long COVID or chronic fatigue syndrome.
I forgot to clarify that. No, I wasn’t sick. It was a gradual onset.
Doesn’t even have to be an illness you remember. A mild Corona case, a flu, EBV could all lead to this.
What happens if you overexert yourself? Do you feel sick 0-3 days later with flu-like symptoms? Try to look out for that. That’s the most prevalent symptom of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Long Covid. The worst about it is that the really bad symptoms turn up with a delay from the trigger, making it harder to notice.
Hope that’s not the case and that you manage to find out what it is.
PEM is the pits. Also, this exertion can be mental too, so you might have read a really difficult book or done a course and whammo, here we go.
Between Fibromyalgia and CPTSD this is my brain now for ~8 years.
I feel so much less intelligent/responsive then before.
And knowing how I thought/felt then vs now, makes me more sad.
🥹
R.I.P. my nervous system.
Dissociation is fun.
Don’t ask Internet strangers for medical advice
Definitely see a doctor.
And hope that they know their stuff and don’t just tell OP that they’re just imagining it.
I’m gonna be the donkey with the obligatory “please talk to an expert”.
Joke aside, you might wanna consult with a psycho/speech therapist. The other symptoms you are described might not be related but they could be and you always wanna tackle the problem, not the symptom.
Agreed. OP is really asking: do my problems rise to the level of needing to see some sort of medical professional? The answer is yes, OP is describing medical problems that interfere with their daily living. There’s no way strangers over the Internet can tell what’s going on here. If you don’t think one medical professional is taking your symptoms seriously, get another opinion.
Severe depression and/or burnout can have similar effects. I’ve been in a brain fog for years and it only started getting better with antidepressants. However, first you’ll need to make sure that there is no physical cause. Any good doctor will check your blood more in detail with those symptoms. There’s also the chance that there are several causes, not just one. You could have e.g. sleep apnea and also some other issue.
Are you taking any medicamentation? Even if it’s a common one like allergy meds, you could be one of the unlucky few with severe side effects.
That’s really good to know because i had the same problem and people were telling me i was burned out and then i had to take a year out of uni and resit some modules. It’s a lot better now
Whatever it is that causes this runs in my family. My grandmother is like this, my mother, and so am I.
Don’t discount IBD as a potential cause. Some forms of IBD can produce tons of brain fog and confusion with few other symptoms at all; even if your digestive tract is quietly getting all messed up by your immune system, you might not feel much of anything for a while beyond the neurological effects.
The normal range for TSH is between 0.4 and 4.0 mIU/L. However, if my TSH is 4, I’d barely be able to move. I do better with it as close to 0.4 as I can manage. You could have a “normal” TSH and still have symptoms.
Also, did they check for thyroid antibodies? After my wife and I were both diagnosed with Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, we started pushing to get our three kids tested. They were young, and had “no symptoms”, so the pediatrician didn’t want to test them.
My wife chose to be a pain in the ass and harass their doctor until she gave in and ordered the tests. Imagine her shock when the two older kids had high TSH and our daughter, who was in the normal range, had positive thyroid antibodies (showing that she also had Hashimoto’s even though her TSH was normal).
Also it turned out they all did have symptoms. They all experienced personality changes when their thyroid levels were off. The oldest would get mopey, middle kid would get weepy, and the youngest would get angry. It was wild.
Did you/they have the thing about talking? I’ll mention testing for thyroid antibodies next time!
Definitely. When we’re under-treated my wife and I both struggle to find words that we should know. Sometimes saying the wrong word without realizing it.
I started always using Google maps on my phone when I was driving because once day while I was driving home from work I found myself at an intersection and didn’t know where I was.
I typically don’t realize I missed a pill until the next morning, then when I see it all the crap I went through the day before makes sense.
Very likely ME/CFS.
Also, you apparently don’t want to hear this, but this is also very compatible with long COVID. A huge percentage of sufferers of long COVID had no acute symptoms, have no positive test, and otherwise have no reason to believe they ever had COVID except a) chronic symptoms consistent with long COVID b) which came on in 2020 or 2021. Nothing about “I wasn’t” (acutely) “sick” or “gradual onset” sways me in the slightest away from the possibility that this sounds very much like long COVID. Both are entirely consistent, even typical, of long COVID.
This is happening to me, or something very similar!
Tired beyond belief. Sleep doesn’t matter, or at least doesn’t seem to help. Everyday, it takes hours to feel awake, and only lasts for a couple hours at best.
Slow to find words when speaking, though I know what I want to say. It coupd take seconds to think of a simple word. I’ve started speaking in very broken, sometimes reversed, sentences. Someone said it was like listening to a slow version of Yoda, but worse.
The world feels off, as if experiencing everything through a memory rather than actually being there. The best way I’ve been able to describe it is, it’s as if being far back in my head. Everything is at a distance, like my eyes are binoculars turned around, or like looking through tunnels.
I used to have a great memory, now I’m lucky if I remember a conversation from a week ago. Not just what was said, but I might be only vaugly aware that the conversation even happened.
Movement isn’t sluggish exactly, though slower than I used to be. Doing anything, even routine tasks takes a ridiculous amount of concentration.
I’ve also developed weird ticks. I’ll sometimes speak outloud as I’m thinking of a sentence, or lyric, or whatever, but its just one or two words. I then repeat the word over and over without realizing it. Once I notice, it takes me a second to stop. I’ve also started geaturing with my hands without meaning to, when not even talking or anything. Like I’ll randomly point or gesture like I’m speaking.
None of it was sudden, it’s been a slow build up to the point that I don’t know when any of it started. The symptoms are finally enough to overcome my anxiety of talking about it, and I’ve scheduled an appointment with my doctor. Whatever is happening, I figure it will be better to know than not.
I’m not saying we have exactly the same thing, it just sounds like we have some similar symptoms. Whatever it is, know that you aren’t alone. Take care of yourself random internet stranger, and please call a doctor.
Likely long covid.
Probably >10% of the global population got long covid. I think that’s one reason why we’re sliding further into fascism. People are literally loosing their ability to think clearly.
Lyme disease?
Not a doctor and you may want a doctor’s opinion on this stuff…
But I’ll mention what you’re describing is very much brain fog like symptoms. It’s more well known as a long covid symptom nowadays however it did always appear as a symptom of other infections. I have an older family member that went through an intense encephalitis infection (for him it started out with a viral mosquito infection, west nile virus to be specific) and since encephalitis affects the brain he eventually recovered with brain fog symptoms among other things.
Thing is that healthier/younger people can be infected with viruses leading to encephalitis and be asymptomatic (no symptoms) during that time, but down the road long term symptoms can show up like brain fog. Yes, like long covid, but other infections can lead to the same result is what I’m getting at. Getting some blood work done with a doctor would narrow down or rule out stuff like this.
