I have a pretty bad case of brain fog, and I'm only 18, so something's gotta be wrong here.
I remember mild symptoms when I was very young, maybe around 9 years old, and I remember it from this mental arithmetic class that I used to take that taught how to do simple arithmetic functions like multiplying dividing adding and subtracting big numbers, multiple times, fast. It's based on the abacus and trying to imagine an abacus inside your head while doing the calculations.
When I first started the class I remember feeling really sharp and I learned everything real quick. I felt like I could advance very swiftly. But eventually, I started to feel like my calculations were slowing down , and in addition, I was second-guessing myself much more often, and I was becoming inaccurate while calculating as well.
At the time, I attributed it to lack of sleep because the class was on saturday mornings and I'd stay up late on friday nights after a language class and watch tv.
I remember feeling "dumbed down" after that, and I have never achieved the same level of cognitive function again. I'm also chronically tired, so fatigued that I don't even feel like going out to have fun with friends. A big reason contributing to this is that I often find myself trying very hard (too hard) to converse with others. I keep on forgetting that word that I'm looking for and instead I usually end up pausing for a moment to think of the word, and then not coming up with it and using a simple, universal substitute word like "stuff."
As you may imagine, I probably come off as being pretty unintelligent. I don't even like to meet new people anymore.
Even after getting about 10 hours of sleep, I find myself with hardly any energy, and definitely no motivation. Simple cognitive tasks like reading a few pages will overwhelm my brain so much that I'll have to lie down, close my eyes, and rest for a few minutes before being able to read some more.
I usually just stay indoors near my bed and computer, laying down every so often to rest, not having any motivation to go out and do something unless I really put my mind to it. This is just a bit exaggerated, as I am still somewhat functional physically, but I get mentally fatigued extremely easily.
I don't even have an imagination anymore. In my younger years I dreamt of becoming a scientist or an inventor and I would always think up of vivid and imaginative things. I could also imagine complex objects like how a 2d or 3d object would look if revolved , and manipulated in many different ways ( I think this is a test used in measuring IQ).
Now, such a feat would be just impossible. I don't even get closed-eye visuals anymore. What I mean is, physically, I don't even have an imagination anymore. I don't pictures things in my head with ease anymore, and if I try really hard, I can get at most a very grainy low quality picture in my head. I used to be top of my class in math in like 4rth grade. Now I'm failing every math class I take, and I'm about to be kicked out of college because I can't handle any of my classes.
I have developed a slight stutter in these past few years, often occuring when my brain doesn't feel like it's functioning right. An example would be during a hangover. Sometimes my brain feels so foggy that I even have problems pronouncing words correctly. An anxiety makes this even worse. Ironically enough, I'm guessing that a lot of the anxiety comes from realizing that I have a serious cognitive deficit.
I also have problems hearing words correctly ( i mistakenly think that they say another word), maintaining attention on one speaker when I'm focused on something else, and listening to two speakers at once.
I was diagnosed with ADD recently, and put on adderall. The adderall helped with the mental fatigue, and it really helped with motivation, but I still felt like something was missing. I was still unable to solve problems and such involving complex thinking.
I suspect my dopamine system is one of the culprits because of the lack of motivation. Reading school readings is so hard for me to do, I'll read 2 lines and not comprehend a single thing of what I had read. Reading things that excite me, like this forum, is much easier and doesn't take as much effort, although I still do get easily mentally fatigued. Listening to lectures is also extremely hard. Most times the lectures just go into one ear and straight out the other. I also usually start yawning within 10 min of the start of the lecture. Extreme boredom starts building up , which then makes the fatigue worse, and sometimes I'll have to try very hard just to stay awake, which is ironic because I have bad insomnia and can't fall asleep unless I'm exhausted.
So I thought maybe this had something to do with hyperthyroidism, as I had trouble sleeping when I was young because the pillows or blankets would always feel too warm for comfort.
I still have to get this checked out with an endocrinologist, but I read that hyperthyroidism would at most only exhibit mild brain fog symptoms.
When I was young, I adopted my mother's vegetarian lifestyle, except without the same foods. I was a really picky eater and in fact most of the foods I ate were probably junk food. Really bad carbs, hardly any protein. Now, I eat a much more balanced diet but the brain fog and everythign else is still there.
i've tried piracetam, alcar, and choline. I don't think piracetam helps me at all. I think I read somewhere that piracetam doesn't help people if their blood flow isn't fast enough.
I'm going to try deprenyl and vinpocetine and see if they are of any help to me.
this problem has always been extremely frustrating, but now I feel like I'm going to fall into an unending chasm if I don't find the solution to this problem soon. The multitude of problems this problem has caused for me have been very stressful, and even paralyzing. I don't function like a normal person anymore, I don't like to talk to people anymore ( probably partially due to lack of motivation or something wrong with my dopamine system, and also because I usually find myself more anxious and stressed out about what I'm going to say then enjoying conversation, my anxiety has shot up through the roof, and I'm about to be kicked out of school. I really don't know what to do with myself anymore. i've tried a bunch of different things, and none of them have very much effect on this situation. in the past few years i've also developed a dyslexia and I switch around words pretty regularly now when I type and write, and in certain phrases too.
i'm in dire need, please help me.
