Dear Looking4mybrain,

I'm not an M.D., but I have some suggestions and guesses.

1. The first thing I would to is to watch this video



This will give you an idea of the large variety of purely medical issues that could be causing brain problems. For instance, you could have a hidden infection or a vitamin deficiency or heavy metal toxicity or a gut problem. You can look up more materials at the Institute for Functional Medicine (part of the Cleveland Clinic). The video will also have some good news about the amazing ability of brains to recover if you treat them right.

2. That will give you a list of possible causes for your problem. I would then suggest taking this list to your primary doctor and ask him/her to summarize your situation, suggest a plan and ask about each of the possible causes that you have collected.

I think that jo_thorne has a good point. It's possible that sleep is really your main problem and if you could find a way to get a good night sleep, everything else would clear up. You have lots of symptoms, but it might be that just chronic stress is causing most of them. Chronic stress can really damage your brain's ability to function and can cause many if not all of the symptoms you're talking about (even including dizziness, for instance). You might be in a spiral where STRESS turns off your brain....causing you to be upset and scared....causing even more STRESS...causing your brain to turn off even more, etc. These are just guesses on my part. You need a good M.D. on your side to work on the problem together.

One more thing you might do, assuming you have the energy, is to try all the things that ease stress and improve your general health in parallel with this. I'm especially thinking about some form of meditation and some form of exercise (yoga is wonderful, IMHO). It's not going to hurt and you might hit upon something where you get a big improvement.

One other comment. Your writing is really good. That can't be a bad sign .

Keep in touch. - vital