Describe your "brain fog"

[hurray]

Most of us, especially those of us who suffer mainly from cognitive POIS (like me), would say that they suffered from "brain fog". But what is brain fog? Whether we all agree on the same definition, or there are different "sub-categories" of brain fog, it would be very interesting to know how each of us are affected.

My own major cognitive symptoms in order of effect are:

1) Extreme social anxiety - the urge to stay in a darkened room by myself rather than (say) go to work.
2) Lethargy, a great unwillingness to do any kind of productive work
3) Difficulty focussing on any mental activity

[Daniel]

Good point you made here hurray.

The most prevailing for me are:

1. Mentally I am totally absent. Feels like I am living in a dream.
2. Very hard to focuss on work, severe lack of concentration.

[b_jim]

Daniel gave a good description of my brain fog. It's a dream-like state. I feel like sleeping. I can't concentrate and I avoid people and noise.

[Vincent M]

I feel I have a pretty good description of what brain fog is for me. I've never included my social anxiety as being part of my brain fog although the anxiety certainly makes thinking more difficult.

If you consider a person of the typical intelligence required to get a good paying job, for instance, their mind is capable of a number of functions that make up their overall intelligence level. Here's an attempt to list those functions:

function 1: Thought speed. How fast one can create and process one stream of thought. (while in POIS my thought speed sometimes slows so much that I have no thoughts at all for a few moments and zone out, forgetting what I was doing or about to do)

function 2: Number of streams of thought you can maintain at the same time. Those who are good at multi-tasking can maintain many streams of thought at once. (While in POIS I have zero ability to muti-task or hold more than a single thought in my head at one time.)

function 3: Memory, including both short term and long term. How many of the thoughts going through your brain actually stick themselves there for you to recall at a later point.(While in POIS I can read a whole book or watch a whole movie and maybe only be able to recall 3 or 4 events that happened and I can never remember exact quotes.)

I find that my brain fog is a loss of all three of these functions that are necessary for the intelligence required to function normally in a middle to upper middle class society. Of course my social anxiety, my physical exhaustion, and other POIS symptoms distract me even more causing a further loss of these three functions of intelligence. In conclusion, my definition of brainfog is a loss of the three functions of intelligence I listed above.

[Jon]

Interesting guys.

For my my symptoms are constant even outside of POIS but they started after sexual activity 8 years ago.

An unexplained paranoia (Not quite anxiety) which makes for extreme discomfort around people. Almost feels like theres a threat but theres not. Also not Schizo.
Trouble thinking, speaking, voice tone is off.
Emotionless, Feel mentally almost 'weak'.
Trouble understanding words, Taking in the scene.
...And many others.

[Habibou]

I feel a huge pressure inside the brain and I feel my head is very heavy.
When I try to focus on something, it is like I try to solve  "528*15 =?" in my mind while it is only to remember the date of the day...
I take so much more time to learn for my studies and I get easily tired of it. Only 5 minutes of intense concentration is enough to take off all my energy of the day !
When I wake up in the morning, It is like I did not sleep for 24h and I try to resist sleeping all the time.
I try to be sociable cause it is my only way to feel better mentally  but my physical condition makes me naturally avoid people/work/physical activity.

[Observer]

Trouble thinking, speaking, voice tone is off.
Emotionless, Feel mentally almost 'weak'.
Trouble understanding words, Taking in the scene.
...And many others.

I can share with you 100% this quote, jon. I feel like a "pressure"( i cannot find another more appropiate word) in an area of my brain that is just behind my eyes.

I think that being void of emotion is worse than feeling sad. It is the most hard thing and  i know that this is a hard sentence but if you are not able to feel emotions, life is meaningless. What is not meaningless is to know that we are going to beat this ugly monster called POIS once for all.

[omen]

I feel that I can not decide anything...I feel confused and scared to take a wrong decision...no facial expressions...even people whom I know well if they come infront of me there are no gestures..just a formal hi...and there's always a negative feeling for everything when I am in pois...

[vetrofragile79]

my mental fog involves a significant memory deficits, nervous, I'm like in a glass case and I can not get out of this bell, I feel different, much less emotionally reactive and instabile.Can't support a face-to-face speech with people, my eyes are tired and the vacant look, I can not concentrate and are very slow study work.
I feel mentally tired as if I had the flu.

[Going less Crazy]

Trouble thinking, speaking, voice tone is off.
Emotionless, Feel mentally almost 'weak'.
Trouble understanding words, Taking in the scene.
...And many others.

I can share with you 100% this quote, jon. I feel like a "pressure"( i cannot find another more appropiate word) in an area of my brain that is just behind my eyes.

I think that being void of emotion is worse than feeling sad. It is the most hard thing and  i know that this is a hard sentence but if you are not able to feel emotions, life is meaningless. What is not meaningless is to know that we are going to beat this ugly monster called POIS once for all.

I am with you guys, mostly the day after O I also feel the "pressure" behind my eyes.  Than if I look into a mirror at my eyes it looks like I have been up all night.

[Nightingale]

Love this thread.  Super useful, thanks for starting it!

[alphaq]

Seems like we're all having similar symptoms, here's mine, very descriptively:

Chronologically:
- Feel the effects after 30-1 hour of O
- Within the same day, pressure in head increases and feels like something is obstructing blood flow
- 3rd/4th day, worst cognitive symptoms of POIS at this point
- 5-7th days, start getting slightly better
- 10 days, feels like more blood/oxygen is reaching the brain, symptoms get better

Qualitative Aspects of the "Brain Fog":
- Cognitive decline combined with increase pressure in the head, feels like there's some type of obstruction (possibly caused by cerebral vasoconstriction)
- Can't seem to focus on work/anything productive
- Have trouble thinking about concepts normally
- Slow speed in processing and understanding information and calculating things
- Feels like I'm in virtual reality, my surroundings seem foreign, weird, and out of place
- Long-term memory isn't affected as much, but short-term memory there's a noticeable decline

[demografx]

Look for our latest mailout! If you haven't received it check you should check your SPAM folder

Time to blast POIS! Let's Go!

[Daveman]

Seems like we're all having similar symptoms, here's mine, very descriptively:

Chronologically:
- Feel the effects after 30-1 hour of O
- Within the same day, pressure in head increases and feels like something is obstructing blood flow
- 3rd/4th day, worst cognitive symptoms of POIS at this point
- 5-7th days, start getting slightly better
- 10 days, feels like more blood/oxygen is reaching the brain, symptoms get better

Qualitative Aspects of the "Brain Fog":
- Cognitive decline combined with increase pressure in the head, feels like there's some type of obstruction (possibly caused by cerebral vasoconstriction)
- Can't seem to focus on work/anything productive
- Have trouble thinking about concepts normally
- Slow speed in processing and understanding information and calculating things
- Feels like I'm in virtual reality, my surroundings seem foreign, weird, and out of place
- Long-term memory isn't affected as much, but short-term memory there's a noticeable decline

Yep, sounds very familiar!!

One of our BIG problems is the subtle and almost hidden effects that the brain fog and cognitive symptoms have on our perception of reality.

I notice it much more now that niacin basically has removed the cognitive symptoms.

For one, the cognitive effects seem to make any physical effects feel worse. I believe that I have the same physical symptoms now with niacin, but they don't feel half as bad. I often feel normal, but maybe old (aches and pains) Of course I AM old, but not as old as I get to feel!

I find it difficult to explain the symptoms. When they are there and strong, we are in POIS and we don't have the cognitive capacity to understand and describe how it feels. Yet once the POIS subsides we are at a loss to give it a good description because our brain fog riddled brain "forgets" the details. We know inside what it feels like but it's always difficult to put it into words.

I think it is very hard for us to make an objective opinion of what is causing it, because it involves mind altering neurotransmitters, hormones and the like. Like trying to describe a color to a blind person, we can't really see what POIS is, less describe it well to someone who hasn't been there!

[kurtosis]

For me, it starts with a feeling that pressure is building in my head and a blankness. All thoughts subside. There is nothing but a feeling of unease but for a minute there is emptiness. Then my brain starts to recover and I'll notice something or remember something - effectively it's like "thinking" has restarted but it's slow and not particularly subtle. There is a feeling of displacement. The line of thought I had earlier, before the O, is often gone. I repeatedly lose trains of thought for the next few hours. I forget things, am fatigued and feel low level irritation.  It is obvious that my brain is not working correctly. The feeling of anxiety continues. After a few hours it subsides but then I find myself with memory gaps - things I remember learning but have no idea of. I cannot marshal my thoughts nor create integrated pictures of abstract concepts in my mind. My thoughts are diffuse, slow and I am easily distracted.

This is often accompanied by restless legs and other minor tremors. I have difficulty focusing my eyes.

That's what POIS feels like to me. I have not had a bad episode of POIS for many months.

[demografx]

I have not had a bad episode of POIS for many months.

Congrats, kurtosis!

"Many months" is extremely promising.

[kurtosis]

I have not had a bad episode of POIS for many months.

Congrats, kurtosis!

"Many months" is extremely promising.

It is and it's genuine but I've modified the Kurtosis method quite a bit since I first talked about it. I stopped various supplements to see which worked the best. I did so because I've changed my view of how to deal with my own symptoms and decided that the cold hands and other symptoms that seem like a thyroid issue are related to POIS.

I've given up on krill oil for a while. The last batch I got smelled awful and I think the product is just too variable. The health food shop says I could get less variability for twice the price. Well, it would need to 100% cure POIS to pay twice the price for krill oil
If you want the anti-inflammatory effect of prawns or krill then just take astaxanthin. It's cheaper and less variable.

I use a lot of coconut oil during the day. I'm no longer very cold.
I'm only using the b complex vitamins every 2nd day and half the dose (1 tablet). They never made me feel sick but there's vitamins in the muscle milk naturals so why take more.

Apart from the lecithin in Muscle Milk I'm trying to remove all soya from my diet. I've also cut down dramatically on gluten. I've been wonder about glutamate sensitivity and orgasms. I've wondered whether the memory wipe was the result of excito toxicity of some neurotransmitters (e.g. glutamate)
See http://www.jneurosci.org/content/26/6/1699.full
And similar comments about vision problems due to excessive NE and glutamate.
http://cure-erectile-dysfunction.org/vision-problems-eye-floaters-and-sexual-activity
I'm not suggesting that we're having excessive O's, I'm just saying that the symptoms of POIS including fatigue, inability to concentrate and eye problems occur with other NORMAL people when they have too much sex.

I wondered whether we might have a glutamate decarboxylase deficiency (leading to too much glutamate following an O) but the treatment is b6 or active b6 which I''m already taking... It's possible that this treatment only works when the glutamate decarboxylase deficiency is due to b6 deficiency or malabsorption. See analysis at http://www.biopku.org/pdf/gaba_diag.pdf

This disease is normally spotted in childhood but it's interesting to imagine that there may be a variant such that the synthesis of glutamic acid decarboxylase in the liver is not so low as to lead to childhood epilepsy but too low to cope with the demands of an orgasm, which really pushes the body to deal with excess glutamate like something not experienced before.
It's an interesting idea as, if POIS is related to glutamic acid decarboxylase deficiency, it may have a genetic marker in some sufferers. Some variation in the genes for GAD expression...

Excess glutamate after an O (without it being adequately converted to GABA) could lead to a tonne of problems including over anxiety, tremors, excess norepinephrine and stress hormones etc. The sufferer would also be very sensitive to MSG. Again, it's an interesting theory as some of us have noticed "chinese food syndrome" when we get too much MSG. Decreased GAD expression leads to schizoid symptoms and it's possible that there's a spectrum of glutamic acid to GABA conversion illnesses rather than just those that don't have it and those that obviously have a problem because they have seizures from a young age.  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22036037

I still take ginkgo 120mg every day.
I still take the carnitine complex every day. Studies show that acetyl l-carnitine increases dopamine levels and promotes neurogenesis. Either way, I like it and I feel better when I take it.

I'm taking pregnenolone. I had to remember what it was like. Great is the answer. I'm taking it 5 times a week. I'll stop in another few weeks but not for long.
Pregnenolone is potentially a good treatment for excess glutamate leading to nervous system excitotoxicity.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1573207/

In the interests of full disclosure, I also take piracetam for my eye condition (nystagmus). The eye condition is probably brought about by POIS. Its benefit is consistent with an excess glutamate and diminished GABA theory.

I have no memory holes nor trouble thinking. I may try that Russian noopept as it's even stronger than piracetam. A software programmer I know picked some up over the counter while in Moscow. He said it was fascinating. It's incredibly cheap over there.

The biggest problem that I had with POIS was losing my memory, particularly of things I've learned since POIS got worse a few years ago. I'm happy so long as that isn't a problem. I don't care that much about "flu like symptoms". I can cope with the flu but I can't cope with having to relearn complex textbooks after an O or 2.

[demografx]

Your memory doesn't return when you are in a non-POIS state?

[kurtosis]

Your memory doesn't return when you are in a non-POIS state?

I had a very detailed memory as a child and young adult. I could recall pretty much everything I read or encountered. It was odd. I'd hear a song once and remember all the lyrics.
In college, so long as I didn't have an O, I'd remember lots of details about each page of notes I took. I never worried too much about exams. I only got 2 bad results in 4 years and that was down to NE's.

Compared to that, my memory now is ok but it's a lot better than the low point before I found the forum. I'd started to try piracetam before then and that helped but not as much as it could have. Preg & piracetam together are a much more powerful combination.

When POIS was bad, I'd forget some simple things, appointments, shopping lists, even emails but mostly the problems were the recollection of complex ideas requiring holding multiple things in my head at the same time. The threads were often lost after an O or 2. I think that the O caused over-excitement which affected potentiation of memories.

Almost all of these memories are coming back but there's a period of a few years which just drifted by with minimal learning despite lots of activity. It's difficult to explain but I think there was 2 years from 2008-2010 where I never left the POIS state

[demografx]

My "condolences". I've experienced  longterm POIS effects, but thankfully not as long as you have, kurtosis.