I know, right now you can’t tell… Thanks Rob Thomas for fantastic lyrics.

I want to take some time to talk about cognition (aka how we think). There are big scary things that affect cognition like dementia or cancer, but there are also a bunch of smaller (though not lesser) things that when combined also affect cognition in a pretty big way.

Did you know the following can affect cognition in big ways without having a big scary medical diagnosis?

• Anxiety
• Grief
• Stress
• Lack of sleep

Not to mention other diagnoses like Long COVID or pregnancy or normal aging.

I’ve encountered multiple folks lately who are convinced something is horribly wrong with them because they’re forgetting things or “can’t think straight.” Some are older and convinced they have dementia instead of recognizing that anxiety and stress are at play. Some have been treated for cancer (which does impact cognition as mentioned above) but attribute all memory issues to cancer treatment (thus increasing stress due to feeling helpless) instead of taking a step back to determine whether another factor, like stress, anxiety, or lack of sleep may be to blame.

Cue punk/rock/emo band shouting “this is the song for” those who feel like they’re losing their mind: you might not be. Without wanting to invalidate the feelings around this concern, it is important to “back- back it up” (every 90s and 00s hip hop song) and do a brief check in with ourselves to see if maybe one of these other factors- that we can actually address- is at play. If it’s anxiety, then self care or therapy may help. If it’s stress, same thing. If it’s lack of sleep, implement sleep hygiene routines. If it’s grief, which is a little different in terms of how much we can address with that, let yourself feel it and seek therapy as well.

You never know, to paraphase Matchbox 20, maybe in a while then we’ll see a different side of this (and feel better). It’s worth a shot.