person197

Just wondering how you guys would describe "brain fog" during your withdrawal?

GlassPrisoner

Inability to concentrate, loss of memory, distorted sense of time....

And actully it really sets in AFTER withdraw is over.

barb dwyer

I had to train to do this job three times before it set in ... and I've done this kind of work for ten years prior to my drinking ....

CarolD

I felt like I was thinking in slow motion.
It improved slowly too... by 3 months it was gone for me.

Mongo

As Carol says, it took about three months for the fog to lift.

For me, it was memory access, very slow. For instance, to remember a name from the past, I knew it was in there somewhere. I would concentrate as hard as I could and it would not come up immediately. If I concentrated a long time, sometimes very long, eventually it came to me. The information was in there somewhere, just slow access time.

Also, any current task involving complex thought tended to also produce a low level of anxiety. On a busy day, several tasks would overwhelm me and my anxiety level would hit the roof.

It helped to try to cope with only one issue at a time. Once that was solved, on to the next. If people overwhelmed me with too many things at once it always was very unpleasant. Kind of like multitasking Windows as opposed to a DOS operating system.

I found myself using SMARTRecovery tools such as the ABC to help focus and solve the daily problems. These tools are very useful, not only for recovery issues, but also to develop a process of thought that reduced anxiety.

Good luck and keep well

Ron

Rusty Zipper

hiya pers... did you ever go to the NYC Hayden Planitarium?...

a show called, Lazarium"... whew!!!

for me, the first few months were, and our stil fuzzy... i just had a hard time staying focused...

that has passed...

now its just plain old, old age set'n in... ha!

good wishes pers...

xxoo, rz

ohoh, GP... Dammit zip, your a alcoholic...

Astro

That pretty well nails it. I've always described it as having cobwebs on the brain. I had no short-term memory, and couldn't focus on anything I was doing.

teej

This is whats happening to me. Sometimes just the easiest of words or a name that I 'should' know right off the top of my head, just isn't there. Bugs the crap of of me until i remember too!

Astro

I'm sure it's different for everyone, but even after two years of sobriety I have pretty frequent "brain farts". Not like the old days when my co-workers called me "swami" because of my excellent memory. But hey, I'd rather give up a few brain cells for the life I have now!

Pilgrim

I find it very frustrating and it is maybe a bit like an Alzeimer sufferer would feel in the early stages. I have a very short attention span. I will start a task and find myself, without consiously thinking about it, doing something else a few minutes later. Off task. Also, memory. I make lists. I lose the lists. I find even the simple things at work take all my concentration. I used to be able to do the accounts without thinking (often even drunk) and not make mistakes. At the moment, doing the accounts is like writing a paper for New Scientist!

SaTiT

That's funni...new scientist...i like that.

yeap, at one piont I was Mr. rolodex and
I can tell every thing you need to know just by looking
at part numbers or vin #. All the specs...etc to whatevre
Micro chip. From the top of my head.
I was the damn inforamtion center for my boss and co-workers.

Just a total lost of focus no matter how much i try.
yeah like throwing a new formulas to old scientist.lol
Now, I constantly have to ask for phone # over and over again
and i lack the ability to just copy it to the damn address or contact.lol

Debaucher

I am not sure I am still in withdrawl... but since I quit I am stuck in this fog... not sure how long it has been here but it has been worse the last couple days...

and I would liken it to when you have a really bad head cold and you take some antihistimine/decongestant... and you get medicine head...

kind of like the first 3 or 4 times you try to grab a thought it is like trying to grab smoke... and once you get a grasp of thought #1 linking it to thought #2 is tough since you are using both hands to hold on to thought #1 so you put the phone on your sholder and pin it to your ear... and try to hold onto that thought with one hand and prop the other side with your knee hoping it wont go falling to the ground and at the same time try to get a key out of your pocket but it is in the other pocket... and then you get it... and you finally open the door... just to forget why you went there...

my job is a mental job... I sure hope my ability to focus and think comes back soon before my lack of productivity gets me in trouble...

hope3

wow, the topic has pretty much been covered.

However, to add to that lot....

Some things I did besides, not be able to think, at all, was......

Put my dirty laundry in the garbage and the garbage down the

laundry shoot..

Put the milk in the microwave, and the pizza I wanted to heat up

in the refrigerator....

Go back in the house 5 or 6 times in the am, because I

forgot everything I need to bring to work, one at a time, the

list goes on...but, its getting better...

Hope3

Pilgrim

Hey Ayla,

Have you got the Depends there sweetie? These last two made me almost wet myself laughing.

teej

I do that too a lot since I quit dubs!

Pilgrim

person197

Too funny--yeah I just can't concentrate or find the right words. And, yes I too have been doing things like start to put milk in oven instead of the fridge, etc. Hard to even concentrate on driving... I don't feel I react as fast as I need to and very paranoid about everything.

GlassPrisoner

I put the milk away in the pantry the other day......

Pilgrim

Hehe. Did it go all goopy with lumps? Ick!