Four years give or take. I might still get foggy every once in a while, but it’s due to normal things like not getting enough sleep. I’m so, so sorry you’re experiencing it now.

Working out essentially gave me a couple hours of clarity to do the necessary things to care for myself. Like going to the grocery store or cleaning my depression hovel. Like I said, I was not consistent at all. I was lucky to have a ton of support from loved ones. I ended up working some very physically demanding jobs, which helped a lot with the consistency, save for the toll they took on my body.

Over time those “windows of clarity” got longer. But again, it wasn’t until I started being treated for other conditions that my executive functioning really changed.

OCD and a disorder that deals with pituitary functioning.

Brain fog is kind of a nebulous term. It’s real though. Lots of causes and symptoms. But yeah, inability to focus and fatigue are big hallmarks. It’s just . . . a different flavor of those symptoms. More insidious. Slower and diffuse, affecting your whole body. I always thought of it like I was constantly walking up a slope. Not a super steep mountain, just a gentle uphill slope. Literally everything was uphill from me, my goals, necessities, emotions, everything. After a while you’re so worn through because you’re always climbing. This isn’t only a bodily fatigue. Imagine “thinking uphill.” Knowing that you have to pick up medicine tomorrow is like holding onto a piton for hours. If you let go then you’re falling. You can’t write it down either because fetching a stickie note might make you forget. Those daydream fantasies we escape to when we’re tired become mountains in of themselves. You want to think about them but it’s too taxing. You’d rather let thoughts pass above you than chase them.