Anxiety does not only affect the body, through a faster heartbeat or difficulty breathing. It can also affect the mind, causing brain fog. This can look like forgetting small things such as where you kept your keys, losing your train of thought mid-sentence, losing focus while reading or during a work conversation, feeling mentally tired, or struggling to find the right words.
Why does this happen? When we feel anxious, the brain senses a threat and activates the fight-or-flight response, releasing stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline. This response is useful in moments of real danger, but when anxiety lasts for a long time, it becomes harder for the brain to concentrate and form memories. The brain puts staying safe ahead of normal thinking, which affects tasks like planning, learning, and problem solving. Memory feels worse mainly because anxiety affects working memory, the small mental space we use to hold information for a short time, like remembering a phone number while dialing it. So the problem is often not long-term memory itself, but attention and the ability to take in information and keep it in mind. This creates what can be called the anxiety-fog cycle i.e., you feel anxious, your mind becomes foggy and forgetful, you start worrying that you cannot remember anything properly, and this worry increases the anxiety and makes the fog stronger.
What can help? Managing anxiety through therapy, reducing stress with mindfulness, breathing exercises, relaxation, and journaling, improving sleep, avoiding constantly testing your memory, and using simple supports such as writing lists, setting alarms, and taking breaks.
