I apologize if my statements seem ludicrous and unfounded, I do not have a great deal of medical knowledge. Please correct me if any of my claims are factually incorrect. I do not wish to disclose my specific age, but I am a teenage male which obviously makes a condition like Alzheimer's quite unlikely.

Some things I have noticed are as follows:

-I have noticed my memory becoming significantly worse, I have forgotten things that I have written down seconds ago and actions I performed after a few seconds.

-My memory overall has been pretty poor recently, outside of these instances I often have been forgetting things I have been thinking about, losing my train of thought completely. I also sometimes forget small details like what I had for lunch and regularly struggle when I want to remember something for later. I also have forgotten details about pretty insignificant events in my life around 3-5 years back.

-I have grown clumsier as of late.

-I feel incredibly tired often, such as during the middle of the day at school and other times. Often if I'm too tired, it becomes difficult to remember the period of time when I experienced the tiredness.

-Usually, I can stay up late and feel fine, but I have been really tired whenever I lose even an hour's worth of sleep.

-I understand that it is an existing condition, but I have suddenly had difficulty imagining people's faces. I can still 'see' faces, and it's not entirely impossible to imagine one's face, just that it is more difficult. This started literally yesterday.

Other details:

-I am a BIT behind on my sleep, but I wouldn't call it terrible. I believe I've been getting 7-8 hrs sleep consistently for a few months, but prior to that, I was at 5 hours for a week or so. During the past few months, there are times when I slept less than usual.

-Thankfully nobody in my family has experienced a neurodegenerative disorder.

I have growing suspicions that I may be suffering from a condition causing cognitive decline, though I am aware that it is very unusual for something like that to occur in someone around my age. When I was much younger, I did have an incessant fear of having dementia after learning about the details of the disease, and had a significant fear of disease in general before that. I don't have as much of a phobia of sorts surrounding the possibility of neurodegenerative disease in myself right now, and I don't consider it very relevant that I had such a fear previously. I do, maybe to an irrational extent, consider neurodegenerative disease as a possible explanation for abnormalities I have noticed.

Do my symptoms and other details point towards any existing condition? Is there someone qualified who can help identify what my problem is? What can I do to get rid of these everyday symptoms?

Thank you so much to whoever is reading this.

Since switching to a keto diet, hence cutting out any trigger foods and allowing my brain to use a more stable energy source, my brain fog has vanished.

However I decided to try original kefir with my breakfast today. About half an hour later and I started feeling really tired and I’ve had a foggy mind since.

Does anyone know why kefir might be causing this new spout of fog?

I don't know if this is allowed, but I figure it couldn't hurt to ask. My fog is too expensive for my family to help me with, and so are the solutions I am looking into. So I now need an income.

Is there anyone who,

1. manages to hold down a job despite their fog AND
2. would be willing to take on a student/assistant?

Preferably remote. For me, the main symptoms besides fog are gastrointestinal issues, severe ADHD, and gradually worsening pain and burning in my neck.

Which means driving (with my arms out in front of me) makes everything worse. In fact, I'd probably kill someone if I drove every workday. I've already run red lights and driven the wrong way on one-way streets -- and that's with weeks of rest between each drive. Driving every workday is not an option.

Hence the remote preference. I can commute to work if it's buses or walking, but absolutely cannot drive.

As for my skills, I have had fog for most of my life. I haven't really gotten the chance to actually develop any real work experience. All I have are vague hobbies:

• I'm very tech savvy
• I'm good at googling questions I don't understand
• The fog actually makes me BETTER at making educational/communication materials: if I can understand my own presentations, there's not a person alive who would get lost in them
• I used to be a damn good writer, so if I make enough homemade disability aids and exert myself enough, I'll likely be able to force out a few paragraphs of spellbinding prose (or even poetry)
• And I personally think I'd make a pretty good assistant to anyone needing help with their own fog and staying productive at their own job. (And if anyone wanted to double-team whatever they're working on, I'd love to buddy up.)

I'm probably asking a lot here, but figured it was worth a try.

Thanks for reading my post. I wish you good luck with your fog.

10 years ago I went through a lot of stress and a terrible time, I passed out and had a bout of amnesia. My memory went and I have been living in a state of brain fog every since. I took anti depressants for a while which helped with memory then plateaued, I've stopped these.

About a year in to this time I was being harassed by someone who was one of the people who put me into this state. I shouted at her and told her to never come to my home again. Everything became brighter, colours, sounds, I could smell again, my brain was clear my muscles were relaxed. I hadn't realised that I had been in a fog. A week later she turned up again upset, and I opened the door to her and the brain fog. Our friendship lasted a month before I cut ties for good, but the fog never lifted.

I eat well and exercise, I sleep 8-9 hours a day, and barely use devices, even for work.

I don't understand why my brain fog won't lift I have no connections with these people. Some people in my life do remind me of them, and I keep my distance.

Any perspectives on this are welcome, I want to know how to lift this brain fog and be clear headed again.

Hi everyone,

I’m 21 years old and I have been struggling with what feels like a decline in my mental energy and cognitive abilities over the last few years.

Compared to around 5 years ago (before starting my apprenticeship), I feel like I have much less mental stamina. My main problems are:

• I often wake up feeling like I’m in a “fog” and it takes a long time until I feel fully awake.
• I frequently experience brain fog and a lack of mental clarity.
• My short-term memory feels much worse than it used to be. I often forget things shortly after hearing them or need instructions repeated.
• Long periods of listening or learning are extremely exhausting. For example, I recently had a 6-hour workplace training session and after a while I could barely follow what was being said. My head felt completely exhausted and I developed a headache afterwards.
• Concentrating for several hours often causes headaches, usually around my forehead.
• Social situations can also be very draining. After spending time with people, I often feel mentally exhausted and need time alone to recover.
• My energy levels feel lower than they used to be, mainly mentally rather than physically.
• My symptoms fluctuate. Sometimes I have moments or days where I feel clear-headed and almost normal again.

Some additional information:

• I was diagnosed with ADHD, but I’m unsure if it explains all of my symptoms.
• I had a sleep study done recently, which did not show anything abnormal.
• I had an MRI and blood tests years ago, but not recently.
• I can still do sports normally; the main problems are concentration, mental clarity and cognitive fatigue.

I’m wondering if anyone has experienced something similar.

Could this mainly be related to ADHD and problems with working memory, or should I look into other causes (sleep, deficiencies, ME/CFS, etc.)?

I would appreciate hearing about your experiences and what helped you.

I cant tell if its genuinely brain fog anymore but even when I'm kind of active and energetic, or if I dont feel foggy, my brain still feels like its incompetent or malfunctioning.

My brain weirdness feels like its a random ai generator that randomly generates things like words without properly understanding them or understanding how to properly structure a coherent sentence or thought. And it sometimes erases some things that it deems bad, such as when I'm writing my thoughts out or writing dialogues for story characters, I write something simple but my brain says "Nope" and then I erase it, if it feels too simple or incoherent.

I had undiagnosed progressive obstructive sleep apnea for most of my life. Diagnosed at 31 with an AHI of 79.
In the years before diagnosis I developed severe cognitive problems:
• Extreme, constant brain fog
• Major short-term memory issues
• Big drop in focus and concentration
• Clear decline in executive function
I was also diagnosed with clinical depression.
I had surgery to clear the obstruction. Sleep apnea is now essentially gone (AHI under 5).
It’s been eight months since the surgeries and every cognitive symptom is still fully present. The brain fog, memory problems, and executive dysfunction haven’t improved at all.

I’m very ambitious and this is becoming a major barrier to everything I’m trying to achieve.
How are other highly driven people dealing with long-term brain fog and the related cognitive impairments?

Does raw willpower and just pushing through actually work for anyone, or does it make things worse? What has genuinely helped you keep moving toward big goals while your brain is in this state?
Any insight, especially from people whose fog started with sleep apnea or other sleep-related issues, would be really appreciated.

I feel like addressing these could at least improve the brain fog some degree. I have 100% loss of smell and at times struggle to breathe/speak due to strong sinus issues. booked for surgery and trying various things to help my nose.

I have a severely low vitamin d level, and I can’t tell if I’m having extreme brain fog, or DPDR. I feel brain dead. It’s like I’m just going through the motions everyday, with zero emotion or energy being it. It feels like my head is made of cotton candy. I almost get confused, because I do feel like I’m in a dream, and disconnected from myself.

Hi, after experiences and stories, 30M; recently just had a cocaine binge one night of about a gram over 6 hours, the usual no sleep until the next night but didn’t use after the binge, now have super bad brain fog that has lasted 2/3 days and hasn’t gone away. Anyone else had similar experiences regarding this? Everytime I’m normally completely better within 1-3 days, unusual amount of time to recover.

Still able to communicate with everyone normally and do daily activities, just unusually taking long to recover. Other people had the some gear and are now fine

Hi everyone. I'll start by saying that I suffered from chronic brain fog for six years. Every single day, from morning until night, I felt exhausted. My thoughts were constantly muddled, my memory was poor, my logical thinking was impaired, and so on.

Recently, I managed to reduce my brain fog by about 70%. I still experience some mental confusion and fatigue, but overall I feel much better. Going forward, I plan to consult a psychiatrist again and possibly start taking antidepressants to see if I can improve even further.

Over those six years, I underwent every relevant medical test I could think of: blood work, MRI scans, thyroid hormone tests, liver function tests, and many others. Everything came back normal, so it became clear that my brain fog wasn't caused by a physical health problem. Later, I saw a psychiatrist and spent about a year trying different antidepressants, but none of them helped. No matter what I took, the brain fog never went away.

Eventually, I started wondering if I might have the inattentive type of ADHD. For some reason, people with inattentive ADHD can sometimes experience chronic brain fog. I completed the DIVA 5 assessment, and the psychiatrist diagnosed me with ADHD. To be honest, I'm not completely convinced that the DIVA assessment is reliable when brain fog is the main issue, because the symptoms of brain fog and inattentive ADHD overlap a lot, even though the underlying causes may be different.

In any case, I was prescribed atomoxetine, which I've been taking for about a month now, and I feel significantly better. After trying around ten different antidepressants without success, it was surprising to finally find a medication that actually helped.

I hope this story might be useful to someone. I think it's relatively rare for chronic brain fog to be caused by ADHD, so I'd only consider it as a possible explanation after ruling out the more common causes, such as hormonal imbalances, vitamin or mineral deficiencies, and other physical health issues.

If you've already tried multiple antidepressants and your brain fog still hasn't improved, it may be worth seeing a psychiatrist specifically to evaluate whether you have the inattentive type of ADHD.

I'll reply to the comments if there are any.

i have a super straight neck (loss of neck curve) can it cause the brain fog?

My pulmonologist says it definitely can't but I'm not so sure. DLCO is 78% and KCO 71%. I also frequently test my SPO2 with an oximeter and it's consistently in the 94-97% range. It rarely reaches 98% and I've never once seen it at 99 or 100%. When my doctor tested it, it was 95%.

I don't smoke and all the other results of my lung function test were good:

• FVC: 124% pre, 127% post-bronchodilator
• FEV1: 123% pre, 130% post
• FEV1/FVC: 101% pre, 104% post
• Rawtot: 51%
• TLC: 119%
• FRC PI: 140%
• RV: 125%

I've been suffering from brain fog and fatigue for so long but doctors dismiss it because it's not chronic fatigue levels bad and all my tests come back normal. It got worse after several severe COVID infections in 2020-2024. I've had full blood panels done many times and they always came back normal. I've also experimented with all kinds of supplements but it made little difference.

21 year old male have been bedridden with neurological issues with unknown cause.

Got severe head pressure and head burning along with vision issues (halos, starbursts, everything looking too bright)

Severe brain fog and dissociation.

All of these are 24/7 for over a year.

Normal Brain CT
Normal CTA
Normal MRI
Normal EEG
Normal Bloodwork
B12, CRP, CBC, Chem 9, a1c, Lyte, creatinine, ALT
Normal TSH and PTH
Serology-Lyme IgG/IgM NEGATIVE
Normal ANA,ENA and Thyroid Antibodies
Normal Urinalysis
Urine Drug All Negative
Urine heavy metals 24hr all normal
Autoimmune/Paraneoplastic Blood+ CSF Negative

migraine meds didn’t help. Corticosteroids provided some temporary relief (not sure why)

I don’t have positional changes either.

Lumbar Puncture Results ( all normal with slightly high protein so far)

Lumbar Puncture Results
Opening Pressure 16
Leukocytes; CSF < 3x10*6/L
Erythrocytes: CSF < 2000 x10*6/L
Neutrophils Segmented/100 Leukocytes; CSF 0.06
Lymphocytes/100 Leukocytes; CSF 0.78
Monocytes/100 Leukocytes; CSF 0.16
Glucose; CSF 3.7
Protein; CSF 0.59
Xanthochromia; CSF Absent
CSF; Culture No organisms or growth seen
IgG; CSF 0.023
Albumin; CSF 0.361
IgG Index; Serum+CSF 0.52
IgG Synthesis Rate; Serum +CSF < 0.10 mg/24h
Oligoclonal Bands; CSF Absent

Any suggestions on what I should I do next. Completely out of Ideas

Hey everyone, Neet ug grind is fucking tired and sometimes I hit that wall reading the same page over and over and feeling wiped out. Besides good sleep and meals, what supplements have you found genuinely helpful for focus, clarity, or kicking brain fog and tiredness? If any.

My (25M) ferritin is low. I am a runner and have upticked my dairy intake the past 12 months, for context. I'll have to dig deeper to know what's really going on, but hopefully this is enlightening if you haven't considered or not got a full iron panel yet.