Thanks for asking.
I often feel quite ok when I wake up in the morning, but as the day goes by, I often feel foggy. If I eat breakfast, the brain fog starts around 20 minutes after breakfast. If I don't eat breakfast, I've noticed it may go hours before it starts, normally when I eat lunch or when I start feeling extremely hungry.
if I work a lot, I get foggier. If I work out, it seems to get better, unless I work out too hard, then it gets worse.
If I get triggered, or fight someone, I get massively worse.
Aspartame, coffee, excess sugar, chocolate and alcohol can put me in bed for days. Thus my migraine diagnosis.
I react to most FODMAPs, but it seems I have grown more tolerant to milk products the past two years.
the brain fog problem came on very suddenly one day in 2017. Totally like flipping a switch. I just woke up one morning, still feeling rather normal, had breakfast and 20 minutes later I was stumbling over words, my vision got blurry and I felt faint, sick, dizzy and very scared, as I started walking into walls and otherwise look drunk to my employees. They laughed and asked if I was drunk. I didn't drink at all, so that wasn't it. I was really scared for a while until the doctors did a brain scan and told me I didn't have a tumor. I am no longer scared, and I push through the brain fog by not eating breakfast, eating oats for lunch (doesn't affect me too much) and then after work, I tend to lie still on the sofa with eyes closed to get rid of the brain fog creeping in on me.
Hmm... I think that covers it.
Edit:
I plan to ask about:
* NECK issues, as I notice I feel a bit of relief if I get neck/shoulder massages,
* TBI, as I don't know enough about it and
* perimenopausal causes.
If I have autistic traits, I do not plan to talk about them, unless relevant to a treatment plan.
I reread your questions
@joeylittle and I realize I didn't really answer what you asked:
I'm curious to hear more about the brain fog, @lillesnille - since 'brain fog' is one of those concepts that is often hard to describe - I'm wondering, what does it feel like physically?
1) It feels like umm.. as if my brain is swollen, sometimes even my face feels swollen, and people HAVE commented that I look swollen or very white, though I am not sure it is true. It feels as if there is "too much pressure" inside my head. I feel it particularly as pressure from inside onto my temples and side of my head.
2) my scalp on the outside is feeling a similar pressure, but lighter and not painful. It feels more like I have some sort of rubber band around my head and more than once have I tried to remove whatever is pressing on my skin, only to realize there is nothing there.
3) WHen it gets bad on the inside, I often feel very faint in my body, and dizzy and at times I feel as if I'll vomit, but I seldom do, unless it is really severe.
4) I gradually get foggier and foggier vision as the brain fog gets worse. At times to the point of not being able to see anything but light grey light. No objects or colors left. it is scary.
5) My head can feel simultaneously like goo and like a cloud, so it's hard to describe. After a while, I get very tired and exhausted from this, and I go to bed. Normally it lasts for 4-5 days if it gets really bad (as in, I feel like lying down for 4-5 days) I do feel pressure inside my scalp all around, but particularly on both sides of the head, not so much on the very top, actually nothing at all, and only at times in the back, though at times it is bad in the back too. I wonder if it moves around, and changes from day to day, though. Can't remember.
Also am curious to hear more about your food sensitivities and how they affect you physically.
I get the brain fog if I eat certain foods, imo, though my dietician doesn't trust that I am right about this, so I don't know*.
* I am not totally fine when I don't eat.
* I am not totally fine when I eat the strict diet my dietician gave me to try. I am however much worse if I don't follow that diet.
* I can get symptoms from other things than food, too, like inactivity I think. I feel better if I go for a walk. I don't feel up to doing a real work out when very foggy, though, since I feel so dizzy and faint.
* Stress causes worsening of symptoms, I think, though I'm not totally sure. I think I remember getting triggered causes really bad symptoms, but I don't always assess my state while triggered all that well. I forget to think about such things.
The worst is aspartame, it causes me to be super sick, if I drink it, particularly if I ingest it for days or weeks. Aspartame in addition makes me emotionally weird, otherwise I do not have emotional symptoms, unless triggered. Aspartame gives a bit other emotional symptoms than triggers though. Aspartame makes me feel like I am too weak to cope with life. I just feel despondent. Triggers make me feel like running off from my own body and I just want "out". a bit different emotions, though negative. I normally feel happy, even if extremely foggy, but if I am very foggy, I often get so exhausted, I don't want to cope with other people. I obviously stay away from aspartame these days, and I don't get triggered all that often anymore, luckily. I thus generally feel stable emotionally, I just have the other symptoms, but they are actually worse anyway.
My gut seem ok-ish, but if I get very foggy brained, I tend to get diarrhea too.
EDIT: oh, there is one thing, the seems significant. When my boyfriend massaged my legs for a long time, I could suddenly feel better, as if something just clicked in place. My eye sight would just - as if flipping a switch - "fall back into place" and the fog would let go, often one side at a time. This took forever, though, like he'd massage my feet and legs for hours while I slept, as he knew I'd be better afterwards. I can't remember anything else chasing the fog away as fast, not even sleeping.
Thank you!
