While training at the gym, I accidentally looked at the sun reflecting off a windshield and that triggered my scintillating scotoma. I spent the final third of my gym time minus about a third of my vision. A bright circle of electric blue-white light, like sparks from an arc welder, strobed across my field of vision. I was afraid I wouldn’t be ok to ride my bike home, but thankfully it went away after about fifteen minutes. I guess I’m going to have to wear my sunglasses at the gym.
Whenever this strikes, I’m always scared it will not go away. At its worst, I’ve had it 24/7 for four months across about 75% of my vision. Because it’s such an unusual disorder, most folks have no idea how incapacitating it is. I usually get a sort of hangover afterwards which leaves me with increased brain fog.
In the absence of a brain that can process novelty, I've been re-watching my favorite shows, which has been a nice opportunity to slow down and observe things like plot structure and what makes these shows so good.
I have apparently been doing so much of this I woke myself up critiquing the plot unfolding in my dreams.
I have a truly horrid sore throat (thanks for sharing, son) so I took a couple of paracetamol earlier. When I got the sleeve out, one pill was gone. So I know I've taken one dose of two tablets. I can remember thinking about the 4-hour dose timings: 7pm, 11pm, then sleep. But I can't remember if 7pm is when I took the first, or when I was due the next.
This is why #BrainFog is a big deal. It's just paracetamol for a sore throat... this time.
Severe COVID-19 that requires hospitalization or intensive care may result in cognitive deficits and other brain damage that are equivalent to 20 years of aging.
#IDMastododon@TheConversationUS
From the very early days of the pandemic, #brainfog emerged as a significant health condition that many experience after #COVID 19. 🧠 fog ( a state of mental sluggishness or lack of clarity ,haziness that makes it difficult to concentrate, remember things & think clearly) Fast-forward 4 years & more evidences that being infected with #SarsCoV2 can affect 🧠 health in many ways
@lonelinesscorps
The thing I struggle the most with loneliness wise is my cognition. I often just don't have the words for banter and especially miss having deep chats on a variety of topics. This is particularly frustrating when I am physically isolated and online stuff is my main way to connect.
I long to be in a room full of people all quietly not talking, just being physically present.
Brain fog is one of the most common, persistent complaints in patients with long Covid. It affects as many as 46% of patients who also deal with other cognitive concerns like memory loss and difficulty concentrating.
A new study from Sweden 🇸🇪 suggests that mild COVID-19 can cause several years of "brain fog"
Nowadays, many people see COVID-19 more like a cold and not as something you need to worry about so much. But new research from Danderyd hospital that even mild infections, without any need to seek medical care, can cause long-term impairments in memory, attention and ability to learn new information.
I think it's 1 in 3 people will have Covid by the end of Jan?
People are pressured to go back to work while they are sick.
I don't know about you, but I DO NOT want someone doing maintenance on an airplane I will be in, while they at best, are not at 100%, at worse are struggling w/ #BrainFog
I’ve been trying to figure out how to describe brain fog to those who have not experienced it, using things they might have felt. The closest I can get is:
It’s like being high on cannabis without the pleasurable part.
It’s like being hungover without having had any alcohol.
It’s like the way you would feel after pulling two all-nighters in a row and not drinking any coffee.
It feels like you have traumatic brain injury (“concussion”) but from the inside out.
Anyone else have any foggy thoughts?
I’m crashing today after having to over-exert myself this weekend and last night with snow removal and the fog is thick today.
Daily life feeling foggy, bleak and cloudy. Sometimes it clears, usually a little each afternoon but the clouds soon gather again and it's the same the next day.
ALT: abstract colour photo of tinfoil, with a stain that looks like fog/cloud.
Ik liep rond 11 vanochtend de kelder in om de gourmetbakjes en het brood uit de diepvries te halen. Ik leg ook meteen de mini magnums uit om boven in de diepvries te leggen.
Klaar met gourmet wil de man graag een ijsje. Maar...ik vind de magnums niet.
Ow. Ow nee! Nee!
Jawel! Beneden in de kelder op de plank laten liggen. Hele doos was pap.
We hebben dan maar wat chocomousse gegeten als toetje.
#brainfog treatments like BrainGain ®️ contain luteolin - a naturally occurring chemical in olive oil, oregano, parsley, rosemary, thyme, and green pepper.
It's also in artichoke, celery, broccoli, carrots, navel oranges, dandelion, chamomile tea, and peppermint.
#Friday (I think) #GoodMorning (maybe) I can drink #Coffee today, throat isn't sore now but voice isn't properly back yet. Fluffy cat woke me this morning by standing on my ass, that got me moving. I'm still feeling really odd, #BrainFog is in overdrive, migraines have increased the past couple of days and it feels like body parts are missing - I know it makes no sense.
Ah well, no matter, coffee, a few chores and lots of time to chill today.
Have a lovely day folks ❤️
Getting stoked for next week's Neurodivergent Burnout webinar, about writing with Executive Dysfunction!
It'll be 2023-12-05, 11:00am Eastern US time. #AcWriMoND
Here's @FractalEcho's announcement. (This is a manual boost particularly for folks disconnected from the Kolectiva instance):
> The next Neurodivergent Burnout webinar will be about writing with Executive Dysfunction. Tune in December 5th, 11am est. Register for more info: https://tinyurl.com/dysfunctionalwriting
> This session is going to be unique. I will walk you through my writing process while using my writing guide to write a writing guide luve on Zoom. We will incorporate attendee interactions, thoughts, and testimony. Come Write with Me!
Can anyone please recommend a good text-to-speech app?
I have many epubs. I also have brain fog from long covid, making concentration difficult, so I can't read them.
Must:
Work nicely on Android
Play epubs as audio
Ideal:
Not malware/spyware/other ethically terrible thing
Not a subscription
Easy UI with obvious way to make it find and play a book on my phone
Not too bad a voice (I know it won't be good)
"Scientists are confident they will have a treatment for COVID-19 brain fog in 5 to 10 years following successful trials on mice and human brain tissue."
"Researchers from the University of Queensland said they had found a way to kill senescent or "zombie" cells that grew faster in a COVID-19-affected brain."
I'm copying a public post below from an interesting Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Data Science at UNCC (not a medical doctor or psychologist).
Everything he is discussing is TENTATIVE but very interesting. I'm sending this out now because there is so little in the popular press about what can actually be done to help people with brain fog and other Long COVID symptoms. The research is still very early, and of course medical professionals should be consulted.
The article link from Nature Magazine describes brain damage caused by SARS-CoV-2 related to cell death and especially to synapse loss, leading to cognitive impairment.
The study in Bioelectric Medicine is extremely small, yet shows the potential of nicotine patches in the treatment of Long COVID symptoms including brain fog. (Another paper from the same publication also goes into why nicotine might help with Long COVID: https://bioelecmed.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s42234-023-00104-7 )
He then points to a study on the NIH PubMed site reporting the encouragement of synapse growth from psilocybin.
A comment in the discussion thread also links to a British Medical Journal article on Metformin improving Long COVID symptoms ( https://www.bmj.com/content/381/bmj.p1306 )
There's further speculation in the discussion thread that other psychoactive substances might be helpful. There are perhaps AI bots in the discussion thread discussing psilocybin microdosing, so be aware of that and maybe not get excited that so many "people" are discussing it.
From: <https://ourislandgeorgia.net/@Wolven/111412769611401616>
Dr. Damien P. Williams
@Wolven
…HUH. Long-COVID destroys synapses, and is a major contributor to the brainfog. <https://www.nature.com/articles/s41380-022-01786-2>
This goes some way to shining a light on the promising results they've been seeing in testing nicotine patches as treatment for long covid: nicotine effects synapse formation and receptivity (tests using patches because they don't habit-form and aren't, y'know, SMOKE [<https://bioelecmed.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s42234-023-00104-7>]).
But what's super interesting to me is that another thing that's also been shown to encourage synapse growth? Is psilocybin.
<https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34228959/>
From: <https://ourislandgeorgia.net/@Wolven/111412769611401616>
~~~
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy #research @psychotherapist@a.gup.pe @psychology@a.gup.pe @socialpsych@a.gup.pe @socialwork@a.gup.pe #Vaccines #COVID #longcovid #science #medicine #hospital #brainfog #sarscov2 #metformin #nicotine #nicotinepatch #psilocybin