24/7 Brain fog?

I hadn't meant to break any rules by posting so my apologies if it's felt by moderators that I have been in breach of these.    I'm not a dr, I just mentioned what was helpful to me.      

I can't offer you any medical advice, but I can at least commiserate.  I have this a lot.  Constantly forgetting things is my biggest issue, but other times it can be simple things like, say, when I want to set my computer into sleep mode, and the 'sleep' button is right there in front of me and yet it takes a few seconds of me staring at it before it finally penetrates that, yes, this is indeed the button I intend to press.  I get this sort of weird "micro-confusion" a lot.

This is definitely a thing. Coupled with short term memory loss. 

it could be a symptom of SAD or depression. Vitamin D and walks outdoors help also
Not over doing certain things which you may see as helpful or productive, this may be sitting in front of screens for too long or not reason.

I not a doctor or a lawyer but I believe it is related to autistic fatigue and burnout. Before 2025 I didn’t even know what these were.

For me, it often a mix of autism and fibromyalgia, I had it bad when I had the menopause too.

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Many thanks,

ChloeMod

Hello Naruto_2025 

I am sorry to hear that you have been struggling with brain fog and possible burn out. You may find it useful to have a look at our page on autistic fatigue and burnout, which includes advice around ways to cope: https://www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/topics/mental-health/autistic-fatigue

I am glad you have sought support from your GP.

I hope this helps,

ChloeMod

I agree with you. If only Society can catch up and put prevention in place to stop those on the spectrum from suffering said environments and burnout we would have a much more accepting and understanding society.

In the past, I've found taking several supplements helpful (c, omega 3, b) combined with rest and access to nature.    Hope you find some of the ideas here helpful.   

That sounds great! I think so many problems come from being in unsuitable environments and trying to do things everyone else seems able to do. 

I had brain fog when I was suffering from burnout. One thing I did find helped was to go for a walk every day, where possible somewhere quiet with grass, gardens or trees. Some days it was hard, but did help. I also found it helps to have a project such as art, craft or something that interests me without being too challenging, for the days I have enough energy.

I used to suffer bad with brain fog due to burnout.

Back when I was still accepting and learning about my Autism I was working long shifts in a fast paced environment.

Ever since taking myself out of the environment and recovering I'm much better. 

 I don't try to keep up with a job or environment anymore, just because others can but take myself away from such environments or deal with them in my own time and pace to prevent burnout.

For me being an introvert and accepting my recluse nature has helped alot! 

Naruto_2025 said:

Has anyone found anything that helps?

Meditation has been a lifesaver for me more times than I can count.

I learned about it probably 25 years ago when I was working as a front line IT support engineer, spending most of my time with end users who had computer problems where I had to deal with upset people, sometimes tricky technical issues and social interaction attempts all going on at once so I was in a maelstrom of stress.

With practice it gives you the ability to identify when you are getting really wound up by stress and you can use various techniques to rapidly lower this. Some can take seconds, others 10's of minutes and others take longer (such as windinng down to be able to sleep well).

It isn't necessarily all hippy stuff. I use a technique that lets me use my physical senses to feel how my whole body is responding and can force relaxation of just the shoulders (for a quick unwind), the whole core of the body (the 10 minute version, great for after lunch before heading back into the office battlefield) or top to toe for bedtime.

It is surprising how much sensory info you can tap into with practice and can feel every inch of skin, your muscles and even some internal organs and be able to exert a level of control over these.

By doing these things you are soothing the effects of the anxiety / stress mechanism and it allows your body to relax, which in turn encourages your brain to relax too. The focus of doing these steps also draws the mind away from what is stressing it so also helps.

Combine this with mindfulness to be able to take what is stressing you and steal its power - an awesome combo. It has served me well for many years and allowed me to thrive in very high stress jobs.

Those are the tools I find work best to clear the fog, prevent burn out and give much better quality of life.

I think it could be chronic burnout. I thought I had long covid (and maybe that was part of it) as I was chronically exhausted and had constant brainfog and even resting didn’t seem to improve it. I had essentially given up and thought I would have to somehow muddle through in this incapacitated state, but then huge changes happened in my life and I took better care of myself and rested more and in a different way and now I have moments where I am alert again and I am convinced the brain fog is due to chronic stress exhaustion and burnout. It has been worse again lately probably because I have felt very overwhelmed with work and life in general. Not sure if this helps but I think it is easy to underestimate what an impact chronic burnout can have. In the past I was even off work for months but I never really improved in terms of brain fog- not sure if I just wasn’t allowing myself to rest (I hate not doing anything so keep trying to push myself) or if it was because I was not in a stable situation or if it wasn’t long enough. Don’t give up it can get better

Have you considered a psychologist?

I searched on https://www.psychologytoday.com/; read about 100 profiles with my partner's help. We narrowed it down to 10, finally talked to 2 (normally 15' free call). Finally we selected 1.

For me, it was important to be face-to-face since I find the impact on my health is much deeper and real.

In my family, most have not had luck with psychotherapy, but for me personally my second attempt has been successful.

It is expensive, but it is the best help in my view.