Concentration/reading problems
 

Hi guys, ever since I got sober 5.5 months ago my concentration levels have been dire! Same with reading, if I read more than a few sentences at a time my head hurts! lol, during my drinking days I could read for hours, this is the one thing that reminds me I'm in recovery, my head is so muddled up, my cognition is very weak, I worry that I've messed up my brain binging on alcohol for so long, will I get my mental abilities back?

Thanks.

As with many parts of the body, I saw a documentary about how the brain can regenerate, it was believed that it couldn't but some research has shown some parts of it can repair neurons!!

But on a lighter note, the fogginess does subside with more time, when I first quit I sometimes thought I had better mental ability when drinking or hungover, as for the first few weeks I was forgetting things all the time, which I never had done before!!

Give it time!! :)

Hi Always,

Hope you are doing okay apart from the concentration aspect, I also find that my mind tends to wander when reading etc, but I didn't think that was down to sobriety, maybe it is though.

So how are you doing these days?

Hi stoogy, I'm not too bad thanks for asking, just wish I had a clear head! Lol, I feel like I was mentally sharper when drinking, now I have a lot of memory problems, problems with clarity of thought, if someone asks me a question it takes me twice as long to answer, typing this message has taken me a good 5 minutes! Lol, overall very foggyheaded, feel mentally sluggish, spaced out a lot of the time.

A lot of those symptoms are very common with sinus troubles, I have issues with sinuses which causes me the very same issues, have you thought about that? You have done great so far, 5.5 months is awesome buddy.

Yeah, I definitely have that issue. I'm only 6 days sober right now but when I've quit for longer in the past, sometimes it feels like my brain just isn't firing on all cylinders. Of course, when I was drinking, I was sure I was a whole lot sharper than I probably really was. We have a tendency to think we're large and in charge when we drink, when in reality, it's probably not the case..

We gotta be patient, I think we tend to want results tomorrow morning, the problem is many years of pouring a poison into us isn't going to heal in a day, the body needs time to fix itself mentally, physically and emotionally.

Hang in there and the results will come!! :)

No I haven't thought about sinuses, i don't have any pressure or pain in face but I suppose it could be a possibility?

Not just reading though, whenever someone is talking to me or I'm listening to the radio or watching TV I struggle even following a conversation, my concentration levels are just whacked! Its frustrating to say the least!

I hope everything comes back eventually.

Very true purpleknight, its just I think almost 6 months without a drink is a good portion of time to heal, but I guess it takes longer?

I don't mind waiting as long as it all returns eventually. :)

PAWS symptoms can easily last a year.

This should resolve itself. I certainly had memory issues for a LONG time. Still do, a little, but they got a LOT better.

They used to say drinking gave us brain damage. Now its usually described more politically correct, but the end result is the same.

Yeah, its scary when you see the facts, I didn't think about brain damage when I was enjoying myself a little too much with the beer, all I thought about was the liver, sobriety has certainly been an eye opener!

Hopefully another 6 months I should see improvements.
Thanks for your reply.

I wouldn't be that surprised if this isn't one of those sneaky tricks your alcoholic subconscious brain pulls on you to try and lure you into a drink.

If it can convince you that you'd be better at something by drinking it will. It's like how we decide to take a different route home for some innocuous reason only to find that route also takes us past the door or the old watering hole or off-licence!

Or how we engineer a fight with the missus so we can have a drink and blame her. Anyone who's 'quit' a few times eventually gets to spot the alcoholic brain's sneaky ways.

Hang in there. If necessary buy audio books, or books with bigger type. Get a stonking bright daylight lamp <-- this will help. And give yourself time.

Oh, and don't drink!

I learned to write down EVERYTHING that was important. I went on a huge organizing spree of all my papers, bills, calendars, all that.

It helped then, and I still take advantage of it now.

I am guessing if you are able to concentrate while drinking, the brain cells are still there. Your brain just needs to recover and learn to use those cells again while sober. Sounds like PAWS.

I had this too around ten months. B12 vitamins helped me.

B Vitamins made a massive difference to me too. I took them for a couple years after quitting - still do from time to time. I would feel like my brain had been put in a vice and all brain functions were happening in a tar-pit.

Yeah a foggy mind is kinda par for the course. In my case once the fog started to lift I felt like superman with how my mental compacity just went off the charts in comparison to what it was. That being said I'm still not the same person I once was. I think there are certain things about me that either always where this way I just never new and drank to cope or got worse becuase of the drinking and will never get better. IE I can only handle so much stress anymore now and I buckle pretty easily. To combat it I try and keep my load light and easy since I cant just drink my brains out to ease the stress etc...

Thanks for your replies,

I'm just going to struggle through this year, concentrate (or should that be try to concentrate lol) on just not drinking, because it gets overwhelming to try and be productive, I dont feel anywhere near functional, low energy etc....just got to get through this year. :)

Low energy days are just something I have learned to deal with since quitting alcohol 7 months ago, there are days when I simply don't have energy to do much at all, the paws thing is a bit of a grey area in my opinion, but if you can stay properly hydrated with a decent multi vitamin too you can battle the fatigue that bit better in my experience.
Take care AlwaysSober.

Thanks stoogy, my honest opinion me going with the PAWS thing is the only thing keeping me sober, if PAWS isn't the case then honestly I feel worse than my drinking/hungover days (even though I never got hangovers because I drank water after alcohol) and I don't think I can do this because I dont feel good at all..