Brain fog/Cognitive fog

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  • Reduced mental clarity and feeling mentally confused
  • Feeling as if you’re observing everything through a cloud or from underwater
  • Feeling spaced out, lacking in focus, forgetful
  • Unable to focus on or absorb conversations, writing, or other sources of information
  • Feeling like your cognition is trapped in sludge, slowed down, delayed

 

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What is withdrawal-induced brain fog?

Experiencing brain or cognitive fog during psychiatric drug withdrawal is common. Typically, people report a lack of focus or mental clarity, mental confusion, or a feeling of seeing things through a haze, or of feeling lost in a thick fog. Forgetfulness, short-term memory loss, mixing up of words, loss of speech, or an inability to complete a sentence are also reported. Many indicate an inability to read a book or understand simple instructions. Some people say they notice that brain fog gets especially bad after eating a meal; others feel like it’s there all the time. 

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Photo courtesy of Matthew Kirkland and Flickr Creative Commons