Hello everyone,
I’ve been struggling recently with mental fog and focussing at work. It seems such a mental effort to complete one task, I get distracted super easily, read and read again the same sentences to be able to understand what it’s written, start searching for something and forgetting half way what it was. I’ve never had these kind of problems. I’ve read that MS can lead to cognitive problems in the long term, but I’m 33 and was only diagnosed 3 years ago. Not sure what to do about it, any advice or personal experiences?
Thanks,
Giulia
Hi Giulia, MS does often cause brain fog…as we around the forums call it.
Have you tried CBT or Mindfullness…? They help with organising how you cope mentally.
Not everyone is affected by brain fog, but hope you can find some relief from it.
Boudsx
This was one of the hardest things for me in the early days of my MS when I was still working (as I did for about 8 years post-dx). How much of it is the sheer darned increase in stress and cognitive load caused by having a chronic progressive neurological disorder, and how much of it is a direct consequence of MS activity, I never could figure out. Anyway it doesn’t matter much - it all comes down to the same thing whatever the cause, and whether MS is the direct or the indirect cause scarcely matters.
Having said all that, it is worth thinking about whether anything amenable to improvement might be going on. For instance, if you are chronically anxious or depressed or sleep-deprived or stressed out, those can all affect cognitive performance in a pretty major way. And those are all things that have the potential to get better, and hurrah for that. So it’s worth thinking seriously about your own self-care routine - something that is more important to your well-being than it is to the average young person.
Over time, you may find, as many of us do, that you need to make some changes ot your work life to fit better with the energy and other resources you have to bring to your working life. But many people find that they function perfectly well at work for the long term - not everyone finds, as I eventually did, that they just don’t have enough oomph any more.
Good luck
Alison
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your message was grammatically perfect and totally understandable.
My guess is somewhere along the line you’ve lost some confidence and you’re making what are probably small issues more important than they really are??
I wonder if you tell people about what you describe as ‘brain-fog’ - not sure if that’s a good idea as they may think you’re losing your marbles.
Keep things in perspective - you’re doing o.k.
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