Brain Fog

[shellhoo]

I was wondering about the whole brain fog everyone occasionally lists as a symptom. Last night, I had something really weird happen. I don't know if it is associated with my celiac or not. First I got a bad headache and then I was talking to my kids but it was like what I wanted to say and what I was actually saying were 2 different things. i was making no sense when I was talking. This freaked me out soo bad that I ended up having an anxiety attack. Besides feeling a little dizzy today, I am okay talking. Would you say this is brain fog? I've had celiac for a long time now and have never experienced this... your comments are appreciated.

[StrongerToday]

For me, Brain Fog is like a spaced out (or stoned - if I knew what that meant ) feeling. I do get the occasional tonge-ties and brain farts (like looking in the fridge for the dinner I just heated in the microwave)... but hard to tell if it's from anything or it just is.

[carochip]

I was wondering about the whole brain fog everyone occasionally lists as a symptom. Last night, I had something really weird happen. I don't know if it is associated with my celiac or not. First I got a bad headache and then I was talking to my kids but it was like what I wanted to say and what I was actually saying were 2 different things. i was making no sense when I was talking. This freaked me out soo bad that I ended up having an anxiety attack. Besides feeling a little dizzy today, I am okay talking. Would you say this is brain fog? I've had celiac for a long time now and have never experienced this... your comments are appreciated.

I just found out I had celiac disease and for the first time today I felt dizzy!!! I didn't know if I was just going crazy or what. I also can't seem to think straight. I wonder if eating rice pasta everyday is not good. Maybe we are missing something???

[rmmadden]

I've had the brain fog, tongue tied thing the past two weeks. It feels like someone has placed a rubber band around my head. Never experienced this before and I've been gluten-free for 17-months. It's hard to concentrate especially since I work on a computer all day.

Cleveland Bob

[francelajoie]

I work about 45 minutes from home so I know how to get there and come back. I don't know the surrounding areas.

A couple weeks ago I was driving and all of a sudden I thought.."Where the h@#L am I?"

I finally figured out I had taken a left instead of a right out of the driveway

[mmaccartney]

I feel "brain fog" quite a bit. Less since I went gluten-free and DF.

for me, it is a "stoned" feeling as described previously. Also I'll be in the middle of a conversation and *snap* the train of thought and the next words are completely gone. Makes for an interesting situation when I'm speaking to a group of people!!

Other then that, trouble remembering dates and times. My wife hates this! She'll tell me "the party is on Tues at 1pm." and on Monday I'll say "the party is at 2pm today, right??" This always always happens, but has gotten much better since going gluten-free DF

Been wanting to start a thread like this for a while now. Thanks!

[elonwy]

Its like I haven't woken up completly. You know when you first wake up and you're kinda fuzzy and groggy, its like that but it doesn't go away. And I'm stoopid. I'm a really smart person, and I can't find words, remember how to do simple things, or find anything. I haven't had brain fog since going gluten free except for the few times that I've accidenlty ingested stuff. That was probably the worst part of it all. I can take stomach pain, weird bowel movements, joint pain, all that, but leave me my brain functionality. I also used to get crippling migraines.

Elonwy

[shellhoo]

Its like I haven't woken up completly. You know when you first wake up and you're kinda fuzzy and groggy, its like that but it doesn't go away. And I'm stoopid. I'm a really smart person, and I can't find words, remember how to do simple things, or find anything. I haven't had brain fog since going gluten free except for the few times that I've accidenlty ingested stuff. That was probably the worst part of it all. I can take stomach pain, weird bowel movements, joint pain, all that, but leave me my brain functionality. I also used to get crippling migraines.

Elonwy

Do you think maybe the migraines and brain fog are connected?

[elonwy]

Possibly, since I have neither now that I'm gluten free. I don't know that I noticed a direct connection, but I also wasn't exactly looking, and I'm not really willing to go back to eating gluten to investigate

I also had bad insomnia, which is also gone. All that brain stuff is probably connected in some way.

I haven't taken my Sonata in months.

Elonwy

[CarlaB]

I also had insomnia and now only do when glutened.

My brain fog is also gone unless I get glutened. It's usually like I'm stoned. A week ago last Sunday, though, it was different. My husband was talking and at first I was answering back, but comments that made no sense. I would constantly think he said something completely different than he said. Then I started understanding nothing at all. During this time I also was freezing and wearing a heavy sweatshirt when everyone else was wearing t-shirts. I was glutened the night before. I don't know if this was because I was dehydrated, or if it was a low-blood sugar problem. Has anyone else experienced something like this? I couldn't really function for two days, then it was another three days after that till I felt good.

[ianm]

It is like an out of body experience. I can see and hear everything going on around me but am completely unable to connect with reality. The words are in my head but nothing or something completely inapropriate comes out. I try to make my body do something but it won't move or does something very different than what I intended. Have not experienced this in over a year and I don't miss it. Brain fog almost caused me to lose everything.

[judy05]

I also had insomnia and now only do when glutened.

My brain fog is also gone unless I get glutened. It's usually like I'm stoned. A week ago last Sunday, though, it was different. My husband was talking and at first I was answering back, but comments that made no sense. I would constantly think he said something completely different than he said. Then I started understanding nothing at all. During this time I also was freezing and wearing a heavy sweatshirt when everyone else was wearing t-shirts. I was glutened the night before. I don't know if this was because I was dehydrated, or if it was a low-blood sugar problem. Has anyone else experienced something like this? I couldn't really function for two days, then it was another three days after that till I felt good.

My brain fog is still here but less pronounced. I sometimes have to check my blood sugar, it is the same feeling as being hypoglycemic. I feeled "spaced out". Physically I feel like I am walking in a "gray fog",

I usually have to lie down for a while. My migraines aren't bothering me much anymore but I used to get scared and felt like I wasn't ever going to come out of it. I take a med called Imidrine and they are less severe, usually only when I get glutened. I also sometimes feel chilly even if it is a warm day. My MD said anyone one with thyroid disease reacts differently to the weather. These symptoms all seem to be related.

I have hypothyroid and type 2 diabetes.

[Clark Bent as Stupor-Man]

francelajoie - I got a laugh out of your driveway incident...

I agree with most of the sentiments above, namely IanM... I've had incidents of brain fog for years.. I used to think it was strictly blood-sugar related due to my hypoglycemia but now I"m assuming it was a combination of that with food allergies... when I get brain fog now, it's a sure sign I'm either reacting to a food or having a blood sugar reaction... moreso, the first especially if it lasts for more than a couple hours... I've improved overall the past month or so but had my worst day since March yesterday... couldn't think the entire day and had to take a half day at work as a result..

my brain fog probably affects my speech the most.. I've always talked a lot since I was a kid but can barely hold a simple conversation when I get bad brain fog.. reading comprehension goes way down and I often reread straightforward sentences 10-20 times.. it's not necessarily that I can't understand the sentence, but that I need to read it that many times to finally get it processed and stored in my mind... a couple weeks ago I couldn't figure out how to spell 'strict'... I was spelling it 'strick' and couldn't figure out what the correct spelling was ... needless to say, not the best sign considering I'm trying to write a novel...

and there may be a connection between the brain fog and headaches but I'm inclined to think that if there is, it's just that the root cause of both is the same and not that one causes the other... I've had both for years (headaches much more frequently) and used to lump them together more than I do now... either way, I think in my case that both are the result of food allergies/blood sugar and may frequently occur together but do not cause one another.. naturally, if a person has a headache it may become harder to focus/process information but I think the brain fog is an entirely separate symptom..

if I rambled at all, just blame it on the brain fog

[Canadian Karen]

My brain fog is alot like an out of body experience also. It's like I am just "not there"..... Totally blank. Sometimes it will happen right in the middle of a thought or sentence......

Also, growing up, my Mom used to call them "Karenisms" - where I was in another world......

Karen

[chick2ba]

For me I get sudden bursts of dizzyness and everything goes kinda shimmery, like my eyes can't focus right. Things that normally take little thought require great concentration to do correctly. It is very "out of body".. that's a good description. I'm studying to be an engineer, so I normally can't talk too eloquently (extreme number bias), but during those times I literally cannot think of any words. My mouth moves but no sound comes out.

I also feel extremely cold for days after a glutening.. it's as if my body cannot retain any heat. We are all so bizarre.

[Lister]

its like beeing stoned like everyone has said its the only way i can discribe it im a cronic smoker of MJ because im on medical and if i have been glutened for 2 days i have to stay away from it becasue i feel like i am without out it and im scared as to what it will do to me if i use it. I usaly only feel brain fog for about a day after beeing glutened but yesterday i ate nothing unusawal and i was feeling glutened today minuse the pain just brain fog blotation and i feeel like i never woke up

[gfp]

It is like an out of body experience. I can see and hear everything going on around me but am completely unable to connect with reality. The words are in my head but nothing or something completely inapropriate comes out. I try to make my body do something but it won't move or does something very different than what I intended. Have not experienced this in over a year and I don't miss it. Brain fog almost caused me to lose everything.

Absolutely ... I am interpreting "Brain fog almost caused me to lose everything" to mean you have honesty problems with what other's say? Is that correct... ? When I have Brain fog I just want leaving alone even if I want company .. but if someone says something not completely honest I react very badly. This can be trivial like "Its going to be wonderful weather next week" to which I might reply "Predicting the weather is an inexact science so please don't pretend to know what the weather is going to be next week" ... or my boss asking me what I think of his project to which I might reply that he is "completely unqualifed to be running it and would do better to stop lying to people about understanding it" ...

For me, Brain Fog is like a spaced out (or stoned - if I knew what that meant wink.gif ) feeling. I do get the occasional tonge-ties and brain farts (like looking in the fridge for the dinner I just heated in the microwave)... but hard to tell if it's from anything or it just is.

Yes but this is where the analogy ends for me if you are talking about MJ (as someone nicely called it later)

In the above examples if I was 'stoned' I would say nice things... they might not make all that much sense but they wouldn't be quite so straight. If my microwaved food wasn't in the fridge and I was stoned I would laugh at myself but if I was glutened I would hate myself for it.

The out of body experience is the closest for me but its more of an inbody-out-of body exerience, not that I ever had the other type...

Its like I am controlling my body by remote control but every so often it will do something of its own accord, often as many have said speech related. Its almost like watching and listening to someone else saying things that are making you cringe but you just can't stop them. ... but that person is yourself. On one level you are fully concious of what you should say but on another level you are completely unable to prevent yourself saying what you really mean.

People calling me on the phone or trying to engage me in conversation irritates me, in fact its almost like being in another place doing something really important and someone interupting it, except that something "really important" is simply being aside from everyone else. I am fully aware that what I say is inappropriate but in most cases unable to do anything about it .. it just comes out. If anyone "lies" to me it leaves me seething and unable to stop thinking about it until it becomes an obsession. It doesn't matter to me if the person lied through omission or ignorance because I am unable to rationalise the difference.

On my side the most control I can exert is to try and hint the person doesn't want my opinion, like telling my boss "you don't really want to know what I think of......." and if they persit I will just tell them in the fewest words possible. If someone pretends not to understand something or acknowledge something I find it very hard not to

tell them, for instance something trivial like taking my seat and pretending they didn't realise ... I am just completely unable to "play the game"

For example going to the loo and getting back and someone has taken my chair ...

ME "Excuse me but I was sitting there"

THEM "Oh sorry I didn't realise"

ME "well I was sitting there and that is my jacket and that is my coffee ...so I find it pretty hard to imagine that when you sat on my jacket and pushed my coffee and book aside you didn't realise someone was already sitting here"

THEM "Oh I just missed it"

At this point the issue of the seat is unimportant, what is important to me is the person acknowledges they are lying to me and tells the truth. It doesn't matter to me at all if its a group of 6 guys and Im on my own and i know they are going to beat me up I will not back down ... unless they admit the lie but at the back of my mind I know I am going to get in serious trouble and I should just accept they have my seat and have lied but I just can't force my remote control self to do it, its like the batteries are going on the remote and it stops responding and reacts autonomously.

The thing is i know full well I shouldn't be saying this and I know full well I could just walk away but the damned batteries are gone and the out-of-body self can no longer control the autonomous self any more than you can exert a voluntary control over your body relasing antibodies against gluten...

[penguin]

I turn into a stoned goldfish.

I feel like I'm stoned (no other way to describe it) and I have the 3-second attention span of a goldfish.

Really.

I would have a lot of blonde moments. A lot.

For example: Once I spend half an hour looking for my keys. I looked high, I looked low, and I was half an hour late for work. You know where I finally found my keys? IN MY HAND! Top that.

I'll ask someone a question and then I won't remember the answer 5 seconds later. Or I'll say something and it doesn't make any sense. It's a lot better now. I don't get so distracted by shiny things

[Becky6]

For me I would say that I felt like I was behind a screen. Watching what was going on but not participating. I could barely get words out and would stumble over them. I would forget what I was saying and feel really groggy and out of it. I forgot things all the time and would get confused. ChelsE- I was on my cell talking to my sister when I was getting ready to leave. I was all ready but could not find my cell phone any where! I was looking around the house for about 20 min while still talking to my sis. Finally I told her I am going to be late because I can't find my phone! She said um Beck it has to be in your hand! I thought I had lost my mind!!

[BoulderEm]

I agree....my vision goes blurry for a few seconds and then is fine, all day long if I've got the brain fog...it definitely feels like I'm stoned....

and the dizzy thing is definitely related....ataxia is a balance disturbance...I used to get horrible episodes of dizzyness and sea-sick feeling...hasn't happened once since going gluten-free

[eleep]

I'm in graduate school and the brain fog was what made it impossible to focus on my writing once I was out of coursework and supposed to be doing dissertation work on my own. I actually thought I might have ADD -- although the drugs did little for me. For me, it's like walking into a wall of liquid stupid -- comes with this weighty feeling in my head and a lot of anxiety. I remember a particularly bad period when I would forget my next word in the middle of a sentence.

[elonwy]

We were in the car once leaving a restaurant and I started freaking out because I couldn't find my sunglasses. My boyfriend turns to me and says "the ones on your head?" and I reply. "Yeah I can't find them. We have to go back." to which he repeats "the ones on your head?" I stared at him for a full minute before I realized what he was saying.

Elonwy

[ianm]

Absolutely ... I am interpreting "Brain fog almost caused me to lose everything" to mean you have honesty problems with what other's say? Is that correct... ?

Not exactly. I was days away from losing my job because I was incapable of doing anything. I was such a basket case that I would not have even been able to do the most menial of tasks. I lost my marriage but that turned out to be a good thing.

[Lisa]

Brain fog is more serious than we make lite of it. I have two serious months of nothing feeding my brain and I do see results of that. It has changed my life. I often wonder where I am driving when I am going to the grocery store. I constantly remind myself that I am in the mist of traffic and I need to pay attention. I use my computer to write personal notes, because I can rely on spell check, and I don't remember what I cooked last night for dinner. I ask my children to repeat conversations and it pains me that they don't understand. They try.

I am a different person since Celiac entered my life. I will be ok and I am well cared for. Alot of me is lost and I don't feel that it will come back.

So..... a message to the newly diognosed, be diligent and do the things that you need to to to regain your life again.

DON'T LET THIS TAKE YOUR LIFE AWAY.

Lisa

[gfp]

Not exactly. I was days away from losing my job because I was incapable of doing anything. I was such a basket case that I would not have even been able to do the most menial of tasks. I lost my marriage but that turned out to be a good thing.

Yes I can identifiy with both of those ....and yes the marriage breaking up turned out to be a good thing

Workwise things were a bit more complex with a whole load of celiac disease related issues and my job involved a bizarre mix of boring repetitive project work that brain fog would make impossible to concentrate on with time in 3rd world cesspits where lack of concentration could get me or a colleage killed. The irony being when you get stuck on a series of flights to some far flung place at short notice and can't get anything safe to eat was the most frequent cause of glutening and hence brain fog and the total lack of acceptance of my condition by my heirachy excepting a beurocratic acceptance that I mightest well have told them I was allergic to moon dust ...

I think a defining moment was a departmental conference at some hotel in the middle of nowhere where the 'organizer' asked beforehand if anyone had any dietry requirements and I thought I would give the system a try.

Basically on the day of departure I received an mass eMail (along with everyone else who had any dietry requirements) saying I would be able to bring up my needs to the hotel once we arrived...

Luckily I had packed enough self made gluten-free ration packs to survive the weekend but the real kicker came when the department paid for free beer at the hotel. I of course asked if I could get something else, afterall a good quarter of the conference had religious reasons for not drinking beer and were given alternatives but I was relegated to "If you don't want to drink what we provide then that is your problem!"

At the same time I had cautiously mentioned my diagnosis to the departmental doctor hoping to get some support and perhaps even be distributed gluten-free ration packs when in the field, this was at a post field posting medical we all had to have because of the nature of the work and the Dr. was luckily a bit pushed for time and discussed briefly "assesing my suitability for field postings".....which is basically a euphenism for being laid off and suggested I made another appointment to 'deal' with this issue. Needless to say I 'forgot to make the appointment' but I suspect things went on behind my back which pushed me into me being sidelined and then offered an extremely dangerous job which no one else would take or taking a severance package to go peacefully.

Of course the infrequent but notable outbursts of honesty also contributed to this ...as I say its raher complex