A colloquial term used by many cardiac arrest survivors to describe a cluster of cognitive difficulties experienced during recovery, including mental fatigue, difficulty concentrating, slowed thinking, word-finding problems, and a general sense of mental cloudiness. Brain fog is not a clinical diagnosis but is a widely recognised and valid description of how cognitive impairment feels from the inside. It can be caused by hypoxic brain injury, the physiological effects of critical illness, medication side effects, disturbed sleep, or post-traumatic stress. For many survivors, brain fog improves significantly over the first year of recovery, though some experience ongoing difficulties. Keeping a diary, breaking tasks into smaller steps, reducing cognitive load, and working with an occupational therapist or neuropsychologist can all help.
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