Lupus fog and memory loss are quite real in lupus. Unfortunately, we cannot pinpoint exactly what causes it. Lupus can affect the central nervous system. Medications can affect our cognitive abilities. The constant stress of knowing you have lupus for life, experiencing pain, fatigue, stiffness and having to deal with the medical establishment leaves little room in our minds for remembering. Lack of quality sleep makes everything worse. We play our very own mental horror movies about what COULD happen to us in the future. Is it any wonder we have trouble concentrating?

At my worst, I could not remember how to get home from places. I became withdrawn. When I got lost, I pulled the car over, sat and cried for a while and then tried again. This was before we had the luxury of GPS on our phones. Sooner or later I would get home. I told my doctor that I had some cognitive problems but I was afraid to tell him how horribly awful those problems were.

This was in 2003. I ended up on disability until 2007 when I managed to put an acceptable work life together. I was 55 when I returned to work. I am 66 now and have been working since. My mind is working just fine. I have published two books and numerous articles. I am still working. I don't get lost going to routine places like I once did.

Here are some things you can do:
1. Find out if your medications can cause your concentration issues. If they do, ask for a change.
2. Deal with difficult emotions. You will think better and sleep better. One of the best ways is to journal stream of consciousness, longhand first thing every morning. Buried emotions don't die, they come back even worse. Writing your feelings down gets them out of the mind and concretizes them. When you do that, your brain stops thinking these thoughts as much.
3. Develop good sleep hygiene so you get better quality sleep. A quick Google search will give you tons of ideas.
4. Practice mindfulness meditation. It's easy. Just sit quietly and pay attention to your breath. You will think. Minds think. That's what they do. Don't hold onto the thoughts, just notice them and let them go. Get back to the breath. You will find that there are tons of thoughts, many of them quite negative, swirling around in the back ground.
5. Develop strategies to help yourself remember. Use the alarm and memo functions on your phone. Carry a little note pad. Put things away in the same place all the time. Post reminder notes. Take pictures of where you parked your car.
6. Do some positive reading every day.

All the best,
Linda

Yes I get it too. My brain fog was really bad when I had a flare but has gotten better since I am not so sick. I find too much stress and stimulation causes it for me. To combat brain fog I decrease stimulation, meaning I don’t watch much tv, I limit time on electronic devices, limit multitasking... I also meditate and practice chair yoga.

My brain fog seems to get worse with time. Just a couple days ago I had issues in class, so bad that I was writing and saying numbers backwards, copying them from a calculator. My poor students looked horrified. I even saw a neurologist with the same issue. Spent tons of money on MRI, EEG, some weird ADHD test, just to hear that it's due to an inflammation, and my rheumatologist should treat that. Neurologist offered to prescribe some brain supplement, which is basically Omega 3, and I take it already. I play some computer games to help my concentration and reaction time, and try to rest as much as possible.

Brain fog is so unnerving and can make you feel like you e gone dumb. Hugs to you.

When having really bad pain days I find it takes all my concentration just to function. Then when you try to look back on big chunks of your life it’s just gone. Those days you just missed out. In the moment I just have hard time remembering to do stuff or what I am doing or have done. I sometimes think even on my good days my brain maybe doesn’t work like it should because in such if habit of working differently to cope on bad days. I don’t know but how I can explain it to myself.