Mental Health {Brain} Fog | Guest Post from Charlie-Jane from {Life with the Hazelwoods}

A huge thank you to the lovely Charlie-Jane for today’s guest post – this is definitely something I can relate to! Make sure you go check out her motherhood and lifestyle blog and Instagram {links below} and follow her journey. Charlie-Jane not only writes beautifully and honestly but she has also been a great support and has me belly laughing with her quick wit and infectious sense of humor! A kind heart with a touch of sass – which I absolutely love!

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Hi I’m not Ellie, I’m Charlie-Jane and I run Lifewiththehazelwoods blog and insta. So first of all hi and a little bit about myself quickly. I’m 25 from Suffolk and I’ve been blogging for a few months now. I’m a mum to a two year old boy and happily married to my husband. I’ve been talking about my mental health issues, honest parenting and other things on my blog so if you’re interested take a look. But for now let’s get into this guest post for the lovely Ellie.

The beautiful Charlie-Jane

So as it’s mental health awareness week I thought I’d talk about my personal struggle today with one of the symptoms of anxiety and depression. Brain fog. Basically confusion and a inability to focus or really understand what’s happening at times. 

I’ve suffered mental health issues since childhood and really sort of came to terms with it as I got a diagnosis in my teenage years. I was diagnosed with ocd, depression and anxiety. Yeah three lovely things to have all at one but hey ho. Medication and therapy later I go through stages of feeling okay and then a bit crappy again. 

Since lockdown started I’ve kind of been stuck on fight or flight mode going between the two constantly. Trying to accept what’s happening and then not. It’s been a bit of a rollercoaster on my emotions and truth be told being in lockdown with children can be a bit rubbish. I don’t love my son any less by admitting he can be a handful at times and that doesn’t make me a bad mum, but sometimes I wonder if he just enjoys being naughty at times. Obviously this has had a huge toll on my depression and anxiety and I’ve sort of developed brain fog again from it. 

My brain fog sort of stops me talking to people at times or making no sense when I talk. I tune out. I can’t be bothered, I just can’t be in the moment. I can’t watch telly or read a book or really engage in any adult conversation at times. I often get confused on things I have to do like replying to messages and just don’t have the energy to go through with it. I often also just get the biggest headaches from it too. Don’t worry I’ve already had a mri and no Tumor (well yet). 

I find brain fog really hard to deal with because sometimes I feel like I’m not living my own life. I’m surviving but it’s like I’m watching myself like I’m on autopilot as I write this blog post now I’ve been planning for days i just don’t feel here or present.  I sometimes feel a bit light and complete sensory over load and can’t concentrate until it’s fixed. I feel clothes might be tight, noises are too loud, being touched makes me feel on edge and being spoken to constantly completely drains me. It’s hard to turn of and just relax. My brains defending myself in its own little way from a incredible amount of stress the way it knows how. 

Obviously it’s not normal and not great so I reached out to the doctors. Of course the doctors upped my medication and I have a review in a weeks time. If you ever feel like this I strongly suggest you reach out and give your gp a call to try talk through your symptoms. 

I think we always talk about our mental health but never the toll it can have on just living at times. Mental health isn’t just emotional it turns into physical symptoms. Take my Functional neurological disorder for example. I can loose function sometimes to my body and that’s how my body deals with stress. So for now I’m stuck in the what’s going on stage but it is okay. I know I’ll come out the other side. I’m functioning, living and talking normally just having problems processing it all. I’m grateful to be here safe and well and for my brain hanging on as well as it can. 

Thanks, Charlie xx

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A huge thank you again to Charlie-Jane for her absolute honesty – something I’m sure will help so many others know they are not alone.

{Check out my guest post over at lifewiththehazelwoods on A New {Routine} here}