Everyone knows about amphetamines being fed to people with ADD/ADHD, theres mass controversy about the disease and its treatment. Recently people have been suggesting stimulants to cope with “Fibrofog” a type of brain fog (cognitive dysfunction) from fibromyalgia. Other types of chronic pain, arthritis or neuralgia etc can cause similiar cognitive dysfunction, a never ending fatigue.
Personally day by day concentration, my attention span once endless now seems mudled almost confusing, like i’m reaching through mental space made of jellow opposed to air. Many have linked this to the various sleep disorders apparent with various forms of pain.
The sheer amount of cold water and caffeine I need to work with to be mentally ‘sharp’ is absurd, brain fog is completely hellish, I definatly would support off label perscriptions to deal with brain fog/fatigue of chronic pain with stimulants.
I feel everyday like while I was sleeping I was awoken once per ten minutes all night, ( some days I drink like 14 cups.)
Its like after studying 12 hours for an exam and sleeping poorly, the type of deep fatigue thats right in your face. Its a very strange sensation like running on sand opposed to pavement. I even get coffee groginess from coffee or caffeine addiction but when I quit for months the overall ‘foginess’ is worse.
What else besides caffeine, some chemical compounds in apple, and blue light wakes/makes people more alert?
I don’t want to go off-topic, so tell me if I am doing that.
I’m a believer in modern medicine for trauma and emergencies. I’ve seen drugs help people with “psychological” disorders. Generally, when a condition has become very serious, modern medicine can be terrific.
But for some chronic stuff - forgive me if i haven’t been paying enough attention - have you thoroughly explored “alternative” medicine?
I have had the experience that some “holistic” practitioners are just quacks. But are they all?
Diet, meditation, yoga?
Have you tried this approach?
I am always sorry to be reminded of the constant pain you are in. Wish I could say something constructive and helpful.
Most alternative approaches for this that i’d try aren’t truly alternative. Stretching, diet and exercise all seem to help me with mental fatigue but besides that truly alternative approaches like meditation doesn’t seem to work.
Some green teas or so forth may be high caffeine though.
My problems with mental fatigue or fog doesn’t generally reach the almost crippling levels seen in fibromyalgia or other conditions, those patients tend to even forget things commonly where-as I generally only have a weak alertness.
Meditation may work for many but I must be borderline neurotic, if I try and meditate or whatever my mind is filled with racing thoughts about biology or evolution. My mind is almost never clear or at rest in a way that would help meditation. Like if I tried i’d just end up thinking about the last book I read.
I couldn’t imagine dealing with the bad fibromyalgia cognitive dysfunction and certainly think amphetamines should be a legal option if they work as well as preliminary results suggest.
some potential causes
1.decreased blood flow to certain brain regions
2. sleep disturbances
or 3. chronic pain uses a lot of brain activity the constant influx of CNS/PNS activity may jumble neuronal communication.
I think the very hope to fix it (in the sense getting rid of it) interfere with the possibility of accepting and letting the pain signal to pass through.
And when we try to ignore, to block, or to dissipate pain, the energy can get trapped in somewhere and causes further ailment.
From my personal experiences and that of a few other people, I think arthritis and muscle/joint type pain can be the easier one to accept. And our body can adjust and fix the state IF we spend enough time in relaxed state (both physically, emotionally, and mentally).
However, in practice, it’s very very difficult because not so many people know how to relax, and also it hurts a lot when we let the pain signal to pass different part of our system. It really hurts, til we get used to the level of signal strength.
In the alternative field, there are some people who eat the pain of others and thus eliminating their pain.
If the pain was caused by one time accident, it won’t come back. But it may come back if it was caused by other reason such as repetitive stress of daily life.
I don’t think there is easy painless way out of pain, unfortunately.
And false hope often helps us suffer even more.
Cyrene, have you ever been prescribed Provigil? I have no idea if it would be appropriate in your situation, but it’s mentioned a lot in articles about neuroenhancers as an aid to improve wakefulness. It might be worth asking about if you haven’t already. (Although I’m guessing with your knowledge of neurobiology, there probably aren’t many options you haven’t asked about.)
Actually I’m only so aquainted with the effects of meditation on biology, I know a lot about anti depressants and some other medications because they conspicuously alter certain cognitive adaptations that i’ve studied, so I knew nothing about Modafinil until your post, thanks i’m going to look into it and discuss with my gp.
Getting an allergy screening might be helpful. Brain fogging can be caused by allergies.
Getting an evaluation about heavy metal poisoning might be another thing to check out. mercury can do this. If you have amalgam in your mouth it can easily migrate up into the brain. And this happens with some people more than others.
In terms of getting stimulants, it is super easy. Not that I condone this sort of behavior, but read the symptoms for ADD, go to a doctor and say, “Geee doc, I think I have a bad case of the ADD.” It is very important that you state you have always had these symptoms because otherwise it would be ‘adult onset ADD’ which many doctors don’t believe in. They’ll probably kick things off with a non-stimulant one. Take it, eat the $20 co-pay or whatever. Research that drug and look for some side-effect (erectile dysfunction is a good one) and say that the drug works great! but the side-effects are too much to handle. Then they’ll give you an Rx for one of the stimulants.
This is all hypothetical, of course.
Edit: Another bit of food-for-thought – I was amazed at how much clearer my mental processes became when I stopped smoking marijuana. After about a week of not smoking, my mind became substantially clearer and more focused. While it is sometimes justified, treating what are common symptoms of one drug with another drug might not be the best path. Far be it from me to suggest clean living, but that may be part of the problem. Perhaps switching to schwag or other lower-quality weed may be in order?
Cyrene, what about adrenal (cortisol) issues? A blood test will show cortisol levels - I think there’s a wide “normal” range, even if you are on the low end of normal it may be worth self-treating. That could definitely account for the fatigue and foggy head. The stress you are under because of your ongoing pain could easily result in reduced adrenal function.
I’ve quit weed for months at a time, with much much more chronic pain and less sleep and a lot less food my mental function/state was much much worse.
I don’t even smoke that much, but part of it is definatly smoking too often. It creates a sensation of not being clear headed but the other option is being all fucked up or even more stoned on medication.
Which I might need to do anyway as puking from pain is unappealing. What I want is a strong pain killer with limited cognitive effect. I’ve taken a lot of meds and have done a lot of research and can’t really find anything.
When i’m not smoking my inflammation requires treatment like celebrex or a related drug as well, marijuana is quite a immuno modulator and anti inflammitory.
Thats another thing I need an anti inflammitory/pain killer, both fairly strong. (stronger than codeine or celebrex)
either combined or that can be used separately without interaction.
Try looking up adrenal disfunction or adrenal fatigue. For instance has a list of symptoms, including “brain fog”. Also, given your anti-inflammatory comments above, this seems reasonable as anti-inflammatory cortical steroids are secreted by the adrenals.
I like your avatar. Have you tried shamanism?
If that is not alternative enough for you, try this: http://www.orgonise-africa.net/zapper.html
Or this: http://www.annawise.com/, your problems may for example be related to a dominance of theta waves. You can ‘discipline’ these waves through neurofeedback.
May not hurt to look beyond the culturally accepted with such a serious burden.
