Are you always forgetting where you left things?

If you find it hard to concentrate, or always forget where you’ve left things, or feel like you’re operating at half-speed all the time, you may be suffering from Brain Fog, according to an article in Platinum magazine.

Of course, there are multiple reasons why this may be. Working long hours, lack of sleep, stressful situations, or being a woman of a certain age. Apparently some 600 million people worldwide suffer from this to the extent it disrupts quality of life, despite there being no formal diagnosis, disease or disorder.

The term Brain Fog comes from a collection of symptoms giving rise to mental fatigue, lack of concentration, confusion and general inability to process information. You may see slower reactions, trouble remembering things, difficulty in finding the right word, exhaustion or irritability. There may be underlying medical reasons including some autoimmune diseases, inflammatory diseases and thyroid disorders, hormonal fluctuations or side effects to medication. Some have sited Long Covid as experiencing similar symptoms. With 75% of the brain being made up of water, even the slightest dehydration may have a negative effect on your ability to focus and think clearly.

As a woman of “a certain age” and heading into perimenopause, I often have times where I can’t focus, or remember something that only happened a short time ago. This is typical of my #bellringing where I can’t remember a method five minutes after having rung it. However, I think I’ve experienced that most of my life, I don’t think I can put it down to perimenopause.

According to the article two thirds of women mention some sort of brain fog during and after menopause and there is growing research suggesting cognitive decline and memory problems associate with menopause are real and linked to fluctuating hormone levels. The effects of reduced levels of oestrogen and other hormones on the brain are still not yet fully understood.

The article’s menopause expert suggested four ways to help ease menopausal brain fog:

Take regular breaks away from whatever task you’re tyring to complete to give you the opportunity to think clearly and rationally;
Start the day with a to-do list, but with a maximum of three things on it so it isn’t overwhelming;
Exercise regularly to help release chemicals that can sharpen your focus and help you concentrate;
Boost your intake of vitamin B12 through food including egg, salmon, liver and sardines to help improve brain clarity and memory.

A different expert offered six sure-fire ways the help you cope when brain fog starts to serious impact everyday life:

Avoid multi-tasking if possible;
Remove distraction – turn the tv, radio, phone etc off;
Focus on what you can do and not on what you can’t;
Keep a list of easy or repetitive tasks to do so you can still be productive even when brain fog hits;
Move around = aerobic exercise enhances alertness and makes learning easier.
Try not to catastrophise thinking brain fog is dementia.

So next time I can’t remember where I’ve left something, or why I walked into a room, I needn’t be too concerned, I can put it down to my hormonal fluctuation and open a can of sardines.

What’s the strangest thing you could put down to Brain Fog?

It’s like riding a bike, you never forget

R has been home with us for the last few days in order to attend my brothers wedding and do her duty as one of the Ushers. It has been lovely having her home. She has been well fed and watered and entertained. She has had to “endure” the Sunday morning ritual of #bellringing though.

I taught her to ring when she was about eleven years old and she carried on until she was about fifteen when school exams started to require more attention. She managed to get to a point of ringing plain courses of Plain Bob Minor, Triples and Major and was ringing simple touches of Grandsire Doubles and Triples at one point. She could also plain hunt to pretty much anything without too much trouble, including Double Norwich Court Bob Major. As she got older her heart wasn’t really in it and I don’t feel that anyone should be pushed to continue with something if they really aren’t enjoying it. We always hoped that she might return to it later in life and she had a good grounding.

She is fully aware that every time she comes home and we go ringing, that it is what we do, and more often than not she comes along too. In recent years, her only ringing has taken place if she’s been home for Christmas, or for the annual family quarter peal. Every time, she manages to ring very well without too much bother.

Obviously there hasn’t been much opportunity to ring over the past 18 months, and for two Christmases she hasn’t been home, and we didn’t get to ring the family quarter peal in 2020, so she probably hasn’t touched a bell rope for two years.

She did say that she wasn’t sure if she could remember how to do it and what to do. We started off with some call changes. She took hold of the third bell and rang very well with good striking and style. We then rang some plain hunt triples and plain bob triples with her on the treble. Again, she rang without error.

It’s a saying that experienced ringers say to those who haven’t rung for a while that it’s like riding a bike, you don’t forget. This was clearly evident as she rang with good style, rhythm and remembered what she needed to do. She didn’t need to be told at all which bells she was over or when to lead.

She may not ring again until Christmas, or even next year some time, but I’m sure next time she’s on the end of a rope, she’ll have no trouble at all.

It’s just like riding a bike!

How reliable is our memory?

Image by Sayeed Sabit Zihan from Pixabay

I have a rubbish memory at times. I can recall things that happened months or even years ago, but often can’t remember what happened yesterday. There are also incidences where someone recalled something that happened when we were all younger, but I remember it differently, or not at all. According to Sheila Marie Orfano’s TED talk this is because as we form memories, we interpret visual information influenced by our own previous experiences and unconscious biases, and when we recall it we tend to reshape it in either a more positive light, or negative way, depending on our own feelings about the memory. Typically recalling with embellishment instead of the original experience.

The Rashomon effect argues there is no singular, objective truth to memories, offering different but equally conceivable versions of the same event. It is often recited in trials to discredit testimonies of eye witnesses. It can also explain the impact on public perception of national or global events.

In 20 years’ time will we remember this pandemic as a time when communities came together to support each other and clapping on our doorsteps for the NHS? Or will we remember it as a time when we were restricted by movement, being kept away from our loved ones, or getting angry about those who seemed to have ignored the health guidance?

When we hear from certain generations they recall times in “the good old days” and how things were better than they are now. Is that actually true or do people recall memories through rose tinted glasses? Are there those who are predisposed to look at life in an overly optimistic view? Are there those who do the opposite? Who is to say which is the real truth, or maybe they all are?

If someone tells you their version of the truth of an event, given their own biases and experiential influences, it may already be a version of the truth, and add the listeners experiences and biases, by the time the story has been retold a number of times, does it bare any resemblance the original? It’s a bit like playing Chinese Whispers where a simple message is whispered from person to person along a line of people, then the person at the end of the line retells the message they heard to see if it was the same as the original message. Of course there are those in the line who might deliberately change the message in order to change the outcome.

In the same way there might be some people who change what they believe to be the truth either to show things in a better, or worse light, either for them or others. Do people remember things in a deliberate way to block out having to remember the actual truth?

Sometimes people embellish the truth simply because the truth is boring and they want to bring some excitement to the story. There’s a difference between an out and out lie verses making a story more attractive by adding fanciful detail. Some embellishment can be harmless as its only intended to make the story more interesting rather than having an intent to deceive.

The truth hurts when it makes us confront something we have denied, or leaves us feeling exposed to our own failings, but isn’t that how we learn, or is it better to hear a version of the truth?