I want to talk about an MS symptom. This is one that I experience a lot and I am gonna try to explain it the best way I can. I really would like to know if anyone else has experienced this and...what do you do with it?
There is brain fog...the slowing down of reactions and cognitions. Then there is feeling off balance. But the symptom I am going to talk about exists somewhere between those two.
There are times I feel as though I am in an altered state of consciousness. Maybe I am describing "brain fog" but I am not sure. It feels as though I am on the way to passing out but I don't. I almost wish I would so that the feeling wouldn't linger and would have a logical conclusion. I am not quite alert and not quite out. I get into this limbo state which isn't entirely unpleasant but it isn't a place I want to be for any length of time. I have never done drugs but I imagine it to be a similar experience. Sometimes when it takes me over I find myself staring. At anything. One object or stream of light or shadow becomes my focal point and I feel so absorbed.
It isn't like when you really feel like passing out as in...room spinning, clammy, sweating, sick to the stomach. It isn't like that at all. Yet I definitely do feel altered and I have been wondering if I will lose consciousness in this state. It seems to proceed the brain fog....where I can't think clearly or quickly....and sometimes it comes before my losing balance and falling....and it definitely happened before I lost my ability to speak that one summer day.
I guess I am focused upon this symptom because it seems to come before all others. It is the feeling I get when I know more symptoms will begin. And I worry that I will pass out. But if it isn't so harmful and I know that I am actually not going to lose consciousness...well...maybe I will just go for the ride of where my mind wants to go.
I am still getting used to all of this MS stuff. This is all new to me. You think you know your body well and then you wake up to these alien feelings and sensations.
Has anyone else experienced this particular symptom and...how do you deal with it?
Come sit a spell and shoot the breeze. Sweeten the day with a little synchronicity...
9 comments:
I know the "Brain Fog" all too well. I call it my "swiss cheese-itis". Like my brain is full of holes. It brings an entirely new meaning to "Think before you speak". It seems like sometimes I have to think sooooo hard just to get my thoughts out in a clear and consise way. Frustrating indeed.
Before I was Dx MS 17yrs ago, I useed to get that same feeling/thinking when driving. It was as if my mind was pulling me off the road...funny now, but I attributed it to the devil. Yeah. (I was like 21) Then right after DX I would be crosing street and stop in middle, not sure what I was doing. Then, I also sometimes felt like stepping out in traffic off the curb. All including that, not quite dizzy, not quite sicky, but not right. As with most of my RR symptoms, it finally ended afer some years. I learned to cross streets with others, drove with another in car, and I talked about it with friends, family and co-workers. I talk to my brain a lot, it helps. My brain wants to do the best thing for my body. Don't be afraid. It is just yout brain trying to work for you.
xo..
This seems to be a symptom that is a warning before others begin.
Ironically it went away after a couple of years, and other things now point to a symptom coming on.
Though scary, it never brought about unconsciousness.
sorry, have only experienced it in a minor way, getting stupifyingly drunk one time in my 20s... so really cannot compare it to what you live with :(
I experience this pretty regularly. It is indeed hard to describe. It's certainly not as if you are unconscious, but you're certainly not altogether conscious either. It seems to be typified by 'staring' into space, or at some object, then you come back to yourself, as if you had gotten left behind and then had to catch up.
I had something similar, which was described as a "prodrome" for a migraine...haven't had it again since this spring. Also haven't had another headache. Unfortunately, still DO have MS. :)
Linda D. in Seattle
Sounds a bit like what happens when your blood pressure is too low and you move quickly
D. XXX
I don't have MS, but I do have fibromyalgia. The brain fog that you mention is a very common symptom. I insisted on a series of neurological tests when it first started about 10 years ago because I swore I was either going crazy or had a brain tumor! The forgetfulness, difficulty concentrating or following conversations, forgetting what I was trying to say, etc. etc. is very disturbing and embarrassing, but knowing that it is a normal part of the disease makes it a little easier than not knowing.
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