Looking for authoritative explainer of cognitive dysfunction

F

Florence

Senior Member (Voting Rights)
I'm engaged on a piece of self-advocacy that has reached the point where I must explain how serious the effects of cognitive dysfunction can be in ME.

I'll be writing a summary of my personal experience of this symptom, which has been crippling right from the start of my ME.

I'm also considering seeking out a specialist medical report on the subject.

But I'd also like to include any good general piece that's been produced. Is anyone aware of a statement from any of the charities on this subject? Or anyone else who could be considered an authority? Is there any good research that I could cite? Thank you.
 
i doubt this will help but i have difficulty getting across that i hve cognitive issues that are cripping.

i wrote this poist on a thread on related paper and nobody responded. idk if my issues are similar to yours.

Samuel said:
what is a good definition of brain fog? my symptoms include extreme crippling versions of some aspects of executive dysfunction.

which itself gets confusing compared to autistic inertia and non-hyperactive add.

part of the mix is extreme problems with decsion making, planning, scheduling and for lack of a better term GETTING THINGS DONE [i wish i could make this more specific]. also initiating and completing tasks. sequencing, prioritizing, doing, doing without stress pem.

getting things done can include a project [/listing/ desperately needed vitamins to be ordered can take years to accomplish] or merely reaching out to get food when i am hungry that i was told repeatedly is there. just reaching the arm out is for some reason not possible.

i want a name and credible diagnosis for stuff like that. this is NOT normal. but idk if fits with paper or with brain fog definitions.

also stm and remembering that something is there or that i need to do something at a time or at all. todo lists completely unmanageable.

which of those things, if any, are brain fog, vs. other stuff? like from the paper.

paper abstract> impairment in attention, concentration, speed of information processing and memory

is this specified in detail in teh paper or in standard credible neuro tests or ugh questionnaires?
Click to expand...

[also eneral inability to cogitate, pea soup. also in ability to deal with social reasoning. worse if vertical. lost math ability.]

[moderators please feel free to make a new thread or puit in an appropriate thread of not appropriate to this one.]
 
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Thanks so much for responding @Samuel. I will take a look back at your old post and at the paper you mention (when I have available attention to do so!).

I certainly recognise lots of what you talk about in your experience, though I suspect all of us are slightly different in this. It's beyond frustrating to have a cognitive problem that's so difficult to explain because you have a cognitive problem, isn't it?

I'm going to take a long time, split up into short bursts, to try and explain my experience of this as clearly as I can.

I'm going to start with a general description of having difficulty in absorbing, processing, organising and expressing information - and with memory. And then I'm going to pick a single mental task and break it down into the laborious component parts I have to split it into in order to complete it. This will include the fact that when I have to 'pause' a task to rest for some weeks, I then have to go through all the basic steps to 're-learn' how to do it after that interval.

If a task is complex this means that only about forty per cent of the energy I expend on it is ever available to move it forward, however slowly, the rest is needed to maintain my awareness and grasp of what the task might involve - the basic mental scaffolding needed to attempt it.
 
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