Have you ever had brain fog or "lutang" moments in your life? I'm pretty sure you guys have experienced it.

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Brain fog happens when you "space out" or "zone out" from the real world and tend to do behaviors that the normal you would find unusual. It is commonly characterized by confusion, forgetfulness, lack of focus, or mental clarity.

What usually causes brain fog?

Chronic Unrest / Stress / Overworking

When your brain is overworked, you don't give it time to recharge and take a break. And so what happens is that it loses focus easily and tends to give you out unnecessary or wrong details when dealing with crucial situations.

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It is highly recommended to give your brain a break to recharge and get back to its optimum functionality. In schools, especially in the Philippines, class schedules are too hectic shrinking all subjects taken in a day.

The tendency would be, that students are often pressured to keep up with every subject and are deprived of taking their brain rest for a while. Not to mention, the never-ending requirements given to the students during midterms and final terms.

I must say, the education system in the country in the Philippines is too much but was never efficient and effective. Many students get depressed because of how competitive education is. Moreover, they would find school as their source of stress instead of learning. It is supposed to be an anchor of fun and a practical source of knowledge.

Hormonal Imbalance

Women often experience brain fog when they're going through hormonal imbalances. This usually occurs during menstruation cycles, pregnancy, and before and after menopause. These affect brain chemistry and mental clarity. This is such a struggle for women to experience this regularly.

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However, it is not only women who go through hormonal imbalances. Men experience hormonal imbalances if their cortisol hormones are either too high or low. Cortisol is our main stress hormone. It is responsible for regulating our moods and dealing with situations.

Usually when our cortisol levels are too high, our gastrointestinal system is mainly affected. That causes us to experience hyperacidity, nausea, ulcers, heartburn, constipation, or diarrhea.

Did you notice that when you are under pressure or stressed, you feel like you want to go to the comfort room for no apparent reason? From there, you'll experience brain fog then you'll lose your focus and mess up. Crap!

Sleep Deprivation

Come on, get some sleep! You need rest. You may notice that you are no longer your usual, functional, efficient self because you are sleep-deprived. This comes with overworking and stress too.

Our bodies need rest. Treat your body as a machine that functions almost 24 hours a day without a break. It will get sick. It needs rest. It is an investment that we need to take care of. After all, our health should be our top priority.

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Let's get enough amount of sleep and be mindful of what we eat on our diet. We are what we eat. So maintain a good balance of diet, sleep, and exercise.

Medication (side effects of medication)

If you are under medication, you will most likely experience brain fog because of its side effects. There are drugs that are too strong causing you to lose focus as it affects your brain chemistry.

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Medicines are meant to keep us intact and balanced but some of them are too much to handle. So it is recommended to get checked by a physician to prescribe the right medicines for you.

Brain Fog or "Lutang" Moments I Experienced

I remember I was in the 3rd grade when I had a lutang moment. I was in school attending a class, I am not really sure what subject it was, probably Mathematics because I don't like it.

I probably zoned out at that moment when suddenly a piece of chalk hit my head. I didn't notice that my teacher was calling my attention at that time. She might have called me to answer the board work but I didn't respond. Honestly, I didn't hear anyone calling me at that moment. I was too busy focusing on the other world daydreaming.

Another one would be panicking looking for my glasses only to find out I was wearing them the whole time. Or going to a specific area in the house and realizing "What the h*ll am I doing here?". So you try so hard to process things in order and recall your purpose of going there. You probably wanna look for something there and you forget what it is.

Honestly, when I had Covid, I became so forgetful. Randomly, I wanna talk or search about something and then forget it out of the blue. Then it takes time to gather and process what I did beforehand. It has always been an issue ever since I got Covid.

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So how about you? Do you have brain fog moments? Care to share in the comment section below?

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All images are from Pixabay

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Thanks for reading.
Keep safe everyone!