♪ This is how we do it ♪
♪ This is how we- ♪
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- What was I doing? (crickets chirping)
Mended Light.
(upbeat music)
Hello, folks, we are gonna talk about brain fog today,
what brain fog is.
It sounds made up, doesn't it?
If you ever saw Joe Versus Volcano,
and his doctor diagnosis him with a brain cloud,
and it's like a BS thing that's not even real.
Brain fog actually isn't a medical condition.
It's more of a construct.
It's what we use to, I mean, it's right there in the name.
When your brain's cloudy, when you can't think clearly,
when you can't remember things,
or you're halfway through a sentence and it just trails off,
you get confused, disorganized,
have a hard time putting your thoughts into words.
Web MD actually had a really good, not an article,
but a slideshow called "Reasons Why You may Have Brain Fog."
And I wanna go through one by one,
they give some reasons,
and then I'm gonna talk about what to do about them,
what the solutions are.
I had brain fog last night. (Jonathan laughs)
Okay, this is a true story.
I had been working all day
without really giving myself a break.
I took a break to go to Best Buy
to buy myself an MP3 player to load music onto
so I could take it jogging.
I'm at Best Buy.
They ask if I wanna be on file.
So like, if something happens to it, I can get it replaced.
Sure.
So I'm giving them my contact information.
He asks for my address, and I gave him my phone number.
I wasn't staring at a phone.
I wasn't like distracted.
He asked for my address, I gave him my phone number,
and he says, "Could you gimme that address again?"
And again, I repeated my phone number to him
while staring him straight in the face.
And he says, "Sir, that's your phone number.
I need your address."
And I went, "Oh, oh, that's really embarrassing."
And the rest of the purchase,
he was like looking at me, looking for indicators
that I was under the influence of something.
I wasn't.
I just had brain fog.
So let's talk about how we get it and what to do about it.
So number one is pregnancy.
Pregnancy affects different women in different ways,
but the chemicals and the nourishment
that your body sends to the baby
can pull nourishment and chemicals away from your brain.
Actually, this was my favorite time of our marriage,
at least from my ego, is whenever Alicia was pregnant,
she got kind of dumbed down.
(Jonathan laughing)
And actually put us more on equal footing,
because usually she's so far,
like way more advanced than I am
in how quickly she thinks the things,
makes connections, makes decisions, remembers things,
and I always just feel like left behind in the dust.
And whenever she got pregnant, she'd say,
"Can you hand me the-"
And I'd be like,
"You see, this is what it's like to be me every day!"
And she says, "Except for you're not throwing up
and with a terrible backache."
I'm like, "Except for that."
So what's the solution for brain fog
brought on by pregnancy?
Being done being pregnant.
So you have the baby and then it starts to get better
slowly over time.
The second way is multiple sclerosis or MS,
which affects the way the brain talks to the body.
That's what the slideshow says,
the way the brain talks to the body.
And so things that can help with that,
I mean, multiple sclerosis,
at least at the filming of this video,
there are treatments for minimizing symptoms
or managing symptoms, but there's not a cure.
And so a lot of this is, okay,
if this is how my brain and body are interacting,
what can I do to increase my brain function,
to increase my learning, my ability to learn,
and memory exercises, how I remember things,
mnemonic devices, things like that,
or telling yourself stories that stitch together
all the things that you're trying to remember in a unique
or unforgettable way, these types of things.
A therapist can guide you through that
because that would be very, very helpful.
Next is medications.
Medications can actually help with brain fog,
but other medications can bring it on or make it worse,
can cloud your judgment, can cloud your thinking.
So if you're taking a prescribed medication,
your recall's not what it once was,
or your ability to make connections, or to make plans,
or you're having a hard time, or you're confused, right,
talk to your daughter.
Talk to your daughter about doing drugs,
or talk to your doctor about the drugs
you're currently doing that have been prescribed.
(Jonathan laughing)
Be sure to let your doctor know
what medications you're taking.
Make sure they're fully aware of everything,
and you might wanna switch some things up.
Next is cancer and cancer treatment.
Some cancers, particularly brain cancer,
obviously, directly affect your neurology
but chemotherapy has been known to slow down brain functions
or diminish the efficacy of neuro pathways up there.
Oftentimes in between treatments,
or when the cancer has subsided,
or the treatments have subsided,
you have a return to functioning fairly quickly.
But if not, something to discuss with your doctor.
Menopause.
Most women experience menopause
about a year after their last period.
And everyone talks about hot flashes or other experiences,
but brain fog can be brought on by menopause,
and that can be treated with hormone supplements
or other types of medication,
as well as, all of these, literally all of these,
learning exercises, and memory exercises,
and meditation exercises can help.
'Cause the brain, if you consider it like a muscle,
the more you use it, the stronger it gets, right?
And so you can strengthen your brain
with these types of exercises and these types of challenges.
Chronic fatigue syndrome is just your body and your mind
are tired for a long time.
Chronic fatigue.
There's not a known cure because there's not a known cause.
It varies from person to person.
But talk therapy, changing your nutrition,
changing your exercise, getting more rest,
getting less rest.
These are all things that you can try,
as well as some medications could be helpful as well.
Brain fog can be brought on by depression
as a side effect of depression.
With depression, obviously you lose interest
in things that you used to be passionate about.
You have a loss of energy, loss of motivation.
It drastically affects your self-esteem.
And physically you may feel like
you just don't have a lot of get up and go.
The mind and body are so connected.
Obviously the brain is part of the body,
but the mind and body are so connected
that it makes total sense when the rest of you is tired
and doesn't want to want to do anything
and is struggling to function,
that your brain's gonna do the same thing.
So talk therapy, medications.
For so many things I recommend improving your diet,
improving your rest, improving your nutrition.
Which brings us to the next one,
which is are you getting enough sleep
or are you getting too much sleep?
We've all had the experience of getting too much sleep,
and then waking up groggy,
and feeling like that defeated the purpose.
I don't feel rested.
And obviously not enough sleep.
It's amazing how most people will sacrifice sleep
for other things when sleep is one of the most
important things that you can do for yourself
to improve your functioning.
So going to bed earlier, not having a phone,
or a tablet, or a laptop with you in bed
or by the bed can help you to fall asleep easier.
Don't have caffeine or alcohol after,
well, don't have caffeine after lunch,
and watch your alcohol intake.
These are all things that can help you to sleep better.
And for me, like when I have brain fog,
last night when I was at the Best Buy, for example,
I knew I just needed to get some sleep.
And that's exactly what I did, and it did help.
It did.
And then last but not least is lupus.
Lupus is a disease that causes your immune system
to attack your own body
causing your immune system to attack its own cells
as if they were foreign invaders.
There's no known cure,
but medication and talk therapy can help with the brain fog.
to some extent, guys, brain fog is unavoidable.
It's part of the human experience.
But how long it lasts, how bad it goes, how bad it is,
is largely a factor.
Well, and I would add to this, they don't have this on here,
but stress, stress and overwhelm.
And for me, for stress and overwhelm,
the thing that's helping me the most,
I make long and short-term plans of course,
but focusing on today.
When I worry about stuff that's next week or a month out,
and there's a difference between planning and worrying.
It's good to plan,
but when I worry in fret, I'm not present.
I'm not focused on the here and now,
and then things go bad here and now.
So focusing on this day, or this hour,
or this 15 minute block,
can help you to diminish stress levels,
which can help you to think more clearly.
So this has been what has brain fog and what to do with it.
What else would you like me to address in these
Ask a Therapist segments?
Let me know in the comment below.
If you enjoyed this, I invite you to check out our video
how do you know if you have dissociative identity disorder?
And as always, keep shining.
We need your light.
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