I have experienced brain fog from long COVID. It’s scary, but I think it’s mostly just from being tired.
The brain fog I have noticed is that when I’m tired, I can’t think straight. I notice:
- I can’t remember the names of things or people.
- It’s hard to process a lot of sensory input when driving.
- I make attention mistakes like addressing my son’s Christmas card to “Forester” rather than his name. (He drives a Subaru Forester, so my brain made some kind of odd error.)
- I can’t think through a problem.
This feeling is very similar to before COVID when I got too hungry and had trouble deciding what to eat. It’s also similar to when I’ve been concentrating on a work problem for a very long time and I stop making progress.
If I’m in a crash cycle, then I have brain fog most of the time, but once I pace myself by establishing a baseline, then I can have moments of clarity that build over time.
I also remind myself that mental exertion is exertion, which is why a day writing code before COVID could make me tired.
Mostly I just remind myself that my brain is not damaged, I’m just tired.