Have you ever heard the term fibro fog before? Take the time to google what are the symptoms of fibro fog. Fibro fog comes from people who have been diagnosed with fibromyalgia experiencing cognitive issues.
At the time I was familiar with brain fog from my postdrome migraine phases. However, I found with time that my fibromyalgia symptoms with brain fog did very well compared to migraine symptoms.
Fibro fog in short can feel like you’re experiencing technical difficulties in your brain, but it’s mainly cognitive problems. It can impact your quality of life, and fibromyalgia patients can struggle to find ways to reduce the impact of cognitive symptoms they experience. So let’s dive more into fibro fog and how it impacts cognitive function.
This post does not provide medical advice, and all concerns related to your health and fibromyalgia should be directed to a healthcare provider for evaluation and diagnosis of fibromyalgia.
What is fibromyalgia?
Fibromyalgia is a complex and chronic long-lasting disorder. It causes pain and tenderness throughout the body, affects the nervous system, and impacts fatigue, and sleep problems.
A common feeling those with fibromyalgia experience is the feeling of a lack of sleep even after a full night’s sleep. It can also mimic sleep disorders for some folks with sleep disturbances and irregularities.
It can also be seen in some people they have a heightened sensitivity to pain. This is because fibromyalgia syndrome can impact pain signals, and joint pain and can be a long-term condition. Fibromyalgia needs to be managed and diagnosed by a medical professional, this article is not medical advice or in place of speaking to your health care providers.
Every person with fibromyalgia experiences a different range of symptoms and impact energy levels. You can read additional information about fibromyalgia fatigue here!
Common symptoms of fibromyalgia can include:
- Exhaustion
- Difficulty sleeping
- Muscle cramping
- Itchy skin
- Numbness in hands and feet
- Anxiety
- Memory problems
- Difficulty concentrating
- Headaches
- Depression
- Gas/ Bloating
- Nausea
- Weight Gain/ Weight Loss
What are the symptoms of Fibro Fog?
Fibro fog is a nasty fibromyalgia symptom. Fibro fog is a cognitive impairment that can impede your ability to concentrate, working memory, impact your brain function, and create cognitive difficulties. For some people the symptoms can feel like not enough sleep, it can feel like a sensory overload, it can make regular exercise difficult, increase sensitivity, and the ability to manage emotional stress to be more challenging than usual. As with most chronic pain conditions, symptoms vary per person as well as the degree of cognitive dysfunction.
As mentioned above fibromyalgia brain fog symptoms vary per person however in most folks, they can be seen in the following ways.
- Impaired mental processes
- Difficulty accessing information from memory
- Not feeling alert
- Increased forgetfulness
- Difficulty remembering new information
- Difficulty thinking quickly and responding to interactions
- Fuzzy head feeling
- Easily lose things
- Losing train of thought
- Mixing up words or word meanings
- Feeling disoriented
- Not liking bright lights
The duration and severity of symptoms varies per person. For some people their symptom of fibromyalgia can last a couple hours, while others can be impacted for days or weeks. Speak to a healthcare provider about treatment options if fibromyalgia is impacting your daily life.
Ways to manage Fibro Fog
There are a couple ways to help you with learning how to treat brain fog at home on your own. It’s important to note that working with a medical professional on medication, supplements, heat and vitamin options can also help with working through the fibro fog. Check out these 7 creative ways to raise your energy!
Here are some ways that you can try to help your fibro fatigue naturally.
Move your body!
Moving your body with gentle exercises. If you’re looking for some simple and gentle exercises that are perfect for fibromyalgia pain check out these at-home stretches!
This doesn’t have to be a big production, it can be as simple as a quick walk around the neighborhood or around your living space. It can be stretching while watching tv, water aerobics, tai chi, resistance training, or biking. Be mindful of tender points and gently approach physical exercise.
Moving your body helps with reducing stiffness in the body while at the same time mentally stimulating your brain.
Brain Teasers & Puzzles
One of my favourite things to do is puzzles! Doing a small number of daily brain teasers, word puzzles or physical puzzles can help with keeping up mental stimulation that can help reduce fibro fatigue.
I also find these puzzles and brain teasers help with overall pain management as they keep the mind busy and focused!
Plus, these types of activities help with increasing your chances of getting a good night’s sleep and reducing poor sleep at night.
Sleep Schedule
When asking yourself what are the symptoms of fibro fog often it’s answered with fatigue and feeling tired. Some people even liken it to chronic fatigue syndrome and chronic fatigue.
It’s important with any fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia to create a sleep schedule to help get regular sleep.
When thinking about what causes fibro fog, bad or poor sleep can be one the main contributing factors. It’s important to try to build in a regular sleep schedule and try to get a full night’s sleep. This can include creating a good sleep environment with black-out blinds, a cool environment, comfortable pillows and bedding, and a quiet area for sleep.
What causes fibromyalgia brain fog?
When it comes to fibro fog symptoms and what brings them on there can be a plethora of reasons. Most of the most common include stress, pain, traumatic events, changes in sleep, changes in environment, weather changes, and hormonal changes.
While some of these can be controlled with healthy living, others are factors to be aware of and work with a medical professional on to help manage.
For example, weather changes can be something you and a doctor discuss as this may be something out of your control. However, stress can be one of the fibro fog symptoms you can work on at home by finding stress-reducing activities to do to help improve your main symptoms!
Summary
I hope this blog post gave you some more information on what are symptoms of fibro fog and fibro fog examples! As mentioned at the beginning please speak to a medical professional about fibro fog medication and overseeing your health. Check out my blog about fibromyalgia fog and working tips here!
[…] sleeping or feeling rested when they wake. This lack of energy can often then lead to the symptom of fibro fog which is when patients have a difficult time concentrating or remembering things that commonly would […]