Thoughts about brain fog 🧠🌫

Disclaimer: I'm going to talk about brain stuff, but by no means am about to say that CFS/ME originates in the brain or is psychosomatic. This is something different.

For fun and curiosity, I've been researching a lot about the human brain lately. There are so many interesting things the brain does that are confusing and illogical if you try to dig into them and understand them plainly. A book that really discusses this idea well is Alchemy: The Dark Art and Curious Science of Creating Magic in Brands, Business, and Life by Rory Sutherland. He talks about the distinction between nonsense and non-sense. Basically, this quote by Dumbledore from Harry Potter hits the nail on the head:.

“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?”

Our brains do a lot of things we can't understand.

It's got me thinking about brain fog. I have massive, insane, beyond terrible fog right now. Even typing this feels like I'm in a dream, and I can't quite read the words on the page (note: the service "Grammarly" is a lifesaver for this).

I've been wondering if brain fog is partly a way of relieving our consciousness from the pain in our bodies. I get brain fog the worst when I'm heavily crashing. Usually, right before I have tons of body aches and my throat is sore and I want to cry from the way I feel. I'll nap and wake up numb and foggy. It feels like I'm a little drunk, like there are a few seconds of delay between mind and body. It reminds me of being a touch fever-y, where things have a fuzzy edge and I can't connect as well.

Is my body spending so much energy on "healing" my body that it sends my consciousness on vacation? "Hey, we need all hands on deck. We can't have you using up your energy on anything tricky. We're going to make you feel a bit doped up and disconnect you from your senses. YOU'RE WELCOME. It's a shitshow in here."

I have no idea if there's any basis for this. It's been kind of helpful for me to think about it though. It makes me grateful for my body's dedication to protecting itself in whatever way it can. It allows me to forgive my foggy times. My body is just giving my brain a break.

TL;DR: Is brain fog the body's way of disassociating from pain for a while? A foggy thinking-out-loud post. Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.

Submitted August 05, 2019 at 02:37AM by candidburrito https://ift.tt/2KrUG5I