I have been looking at this as one of the main symptoms of finasteride problems but I have never really thought about what it is exactly. How do you know you have ‘brain fog’? for the record, I don’t think I am effected by it, although when I was taking it there were times when I would forget a lot of things, and even slurr my words, but surely that isn’t enough to diagnose yourself with ‘brain fog’?
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If you don’t think you’ve got then you haven’t. If you did you would know about it. Loss of personality essentially - humour, spotaneity, joy, ambition. Also problems with concentration, drifting off, less converstaional skills. It’s a shite term cos it covers so many different things.
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The question wasn’t just about me, I wanted to know in general. I did get concerned I still had it, but considering the circumstances I’m still happy and my humor and conversational skills are still there.
Then you most definitely DO NOT have it. Consider yourself very lucky. IMO, it’s the worst one you can get.
Don’t worry I do, I have found my memory a bit off and some slurring recently but thats it. One mental side effect I’m having at the moment is this horrible dizziness and rushing feeling going through my arms chest and legs, it occurs most when it disturbs my sleep and carries on the next night.
JOE - did you do the study? it is the most important thing you can do, especially if your doctors are unable to provide the answers you seek.
Its like something is blocking your brain from your senses…puts you half a second behind
I agree
Here’s how I would describe it… I’m curious if this aligns with others…the “new brain” is the foggy brain (though I have actually dealt with this and I should perhaps say my “new brain” is somewhere in between these days…but for this post “new brain” = fog):
Old Brain: Quick witted, funny, always had a come back or quip
New Brain: Still trying to understand the joke I am supposed to respond to… default to the same lines because creativity is gone.
Old Brain: Articulate and concise when speaking
New Brain: Cannot finish a thought - forget what I am saying in the middle of a sentence
Old Brain: Could write pages and pages of articles / research papers
New Brain: Write a few lines, get lost, need a break, don’t understand what I wrote previously or forgot what I wrote
Old Brain: Could remember who told me what facts and when they told me
New Brain: Can remember facts - but cannot remember who told me them or when I was told them.
Old Brain: Could read like a normal person
New Brain: Find myself spending an hour reading 1 paragraph of something…and realize I spaced out and read the same sentence 100 times
Old Brain: Felt related to people - connected & part of the group
New Brain: Feel oddly disconnected - like a cardboard cutout - or invisible… can’t relate socially - feel less alive in social situations.
Old Brain: Would go to bed at night
New Brain: Tired all day but mind races at night and can’t sleep.
Old Brain: Could conceptualize, execute, and analyze data for a research project
New Brain: Gets lost about 20 times in the process…forgets stuff from a few weeks ago, analyses are weak and limited to simple measures - univariate… cannot deal with multiple variables or complex statistics.
These are slightly extreme examples but this is the general pattern… and there’s a lot more- but these came to mind first.
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During my crash, my brain fog was severe. Like others, it is as follows:
Numbing feeling in pressure in head stemming from frontal lobe of brain just above and in between eyes.
Inability to feel emotions good and bad - lobotomized - nothing emotionally, except sporadic panic
Erratic speech because brain is a step behind
Inability to concentrate, read, carry on conversation longer than a minute
Quick fatigue after trying to act normal for only a few minutes
I am sure there are varying degrees, but one knows when one is suffering from it.
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you seriously have to experience it to have any idea.
I try to explain though.
a feeling of “not-sureness”. not sure about what? not sure. you consantly feel like you’re in a half-sleep half-awake state. you start to question EVERYTHING. your identity, your goals, your opinions, life, death, everything. strange episodes of “disconnection”, little amnesia. nothing serious but enough to scare you in this state. You’re forgetting what you were trying to say in the middle of a sentence. Your thoughts sometimes just STOP. You repeat the same words in your head for 10 times without being able to move on.
orion describes it pretty good.
if it’s caused by finasteride, then I’m the biggest idiot on Earth for taking that shit.
I don’t agree with the thing about hmour and conversational skills. That’s still there for me, but i definitely have brainfog, i know because it has come and gone and come back again like most of my symptoms. I can still have a conversation, talk and laugh, it’s when i’m on my own trying to concentrate on something that i really notice it. Someone once wrote that it’s like watching your life on a tv screen, like you’re living virtual reality or something, it’s like you taken a step back inside your head and everything is one step less immediate. The simple test is this. Look in the mirror. Then you will know straight away.
I have experienced / am currently experiencing the following symptoms, which I have defined as “brain fog”.
- Time acceleration.
It seems to take more time to accomplish anything (read, write, do any form of work, etc…). Since the conversation moves fast with respect to my verbal ability, I try to accelerate my own speech, resulting in slurred speach. I just feel slow, boring, cheerless…
- Loss of focus.
Reading comprehension is compromised. Verbal comprehension is compromised. Reading and typing text is more challenging (increased typos, etc). Lack of motivation. Issues with word selection and sentence construction I also place in this categoy. This has made me lose self-confidence in my verbal communication skills, and as a result, I have become much less social / talkative.
- Detachment of mind from body.
This one is tricky to describe. I find that it is most apparnet while driving. I will be focused on the road, then all of the sudden I will feel as if my arms are detached from my body. Someone else described this feeling as a desire to pinch your skin to make sure that you can still feel it. You will definitely know if you have this one.
Honorable mention (since this has resolved): Freeze Frame
I used to get this while reading. My eyes would track from left to right, then they would lose focus on text and almost take a snap shot. It’s almost like I would have 1-2 seconds of visual and mental focus, then I would just lose it. I am happy to report that this one has been gone for about 4-5 months now.
It’s also pretty devastating how brain fog can set off anxiety attacks, and vice-versa. Between brainfog, anxiety, and testicular pain, I feel like the battle of Stalingrad.
I took Fin (1mg) for about 10 days back in November 2010, so I’m almost 14 months out.