One day, while sinking in the deep mire of brain fog, I gave a valiant attempt at building an acronym to describe what it is like.
Blender jammed with
Roasted walnuts
And pecans. A
I)
Nut butter hunk
Floating about in
O)
Green pea soup.
I try to revise it, to make it better, but Brain Fog insists on showing its true colors. It misses things, leaves gaping holes in the middle of thought flow, awkward empty spaces where words belong. Cohesion, clarity, and consistency have catapulted through the cracks.
Sleep does little for it. A brisk walk in the forest may blow a breath of fresh air through the dinginess, only to have the Saran Wrap tighten again. Research has been done, doctors paid, and diet, probiotics, hormones, and certain vitamins have all been accounted for. There is little else to do but wait: wait until the door opens from the outside and Healing steps in.
Note: Until then, be gentle with the slow ones. No matter the name or nature of one’s ‘nut butter’, know for certain that plowing through it is frustrating at best and debilitating at worst. While waiting on them for a response, give them more time than you think they need. And then wait some more. If and when they do find the word and it comes out with incorrect punctuation pro-nun-cia-tion, save your laughter until alone in bed tonight. (Unless, of course, they start laughing first. Then by all means join in, because it may be the first and last laugh of the day. Especially if you’re the spouse.)
Brain Fog steals memories, long-term and short-term alike, the good along with the bad. It ruthlessly wipes out a mother’s ability to recall much of her child’s first years of life. When reading a book, Brain Fog demands sentences be reread multiple times without the promise of retaining it and breaks the recall button completely.
Brain Fog is a byproduct of deeper issues, a frustration that ‘nobody needs to put up with it’. Only when the Deeper Issues are found can they be properly named. Once named, it may still take years of wandering in the wilderness until the Healer introduces a healing process.
It all hangs on the Healer.
And that is the only cure I know for Brain Fog.