08/01/2010 - "The Fog"

Greetings,

Ever had one of those days where you had great things planned? You sit down, pull up a document or something and just sit there and look at it. Your brain will just not engage, all of the stuff that is written seems jumbled, you have to read everything three times, you just can't think straight. If you didn't know better you could have sworn that you were drunk. Well, for the fibromyalgia sufferer, this is more frequent than a person would like.

The brain fog is one of the mental symptoms of FM and it can be one of the most annoying. For a person who tends to write most of the time, aside from the pain and movement restriction, this is one of the most annoying. On days with "the fog", as I have named it, comes in; thinking seems to take more effort than it should, words just do not make the sense that they should, and even words you have written yourself seem to be less meaningful than they should. This makes getting any sort of work done a true chore.

On the worst days dealing with this symptom, about the best that I achieve is to sit in front of the TV and watch DVDs or play some mindless game. Something where I can be passive and do not actually have to put much thought into it. Of course the result of this is what could be called a "wasted" day. Nothing is really achieved and as such frustration sets in as a result. This of course leads to negative feeling and even some more physical symptoms.

On days when "the fog" rolls in, I tend to avoid contact with most people. This is because I have enough frustration thinking for myself, let alone dealing with other people. On days like this I might as well not bother to think about much as most of the time it is pointless. It is only with a great deal of persistence that it is possible to cut through this fog.

"The fog" is really annoying and can hamper a person's existence, especially when they have things they need to get done. For those sufferers who are studying this can lead to some real problems, especially with deadlines for assignments and other assessment items. In my case, I usually battle this particular symptom with caffeine. This allows me to be able to think at a normal sort of level again, and does stave off some of the lethargy which tends to be associated with it. On other people's part, all that is required for the person with FM is a little patience, they will get through, it may just take a little more time.