Missed train stop - Overwhelmed with life- decline in cognitive ability?

[mechanicalpencil]

I have been stuck on a freezing cold platform having missed my stop on a train which means I will get home 2 hours later than planned . Similar happened this morning. I got the train but part of it detached and I was in the wrong part. There I was again waiting on a platform to get back to where I started.

No proper excuse for this evening. ..i didn’t fall asleep or anything. I just blankly sailed through the stop and by the time i noticed I was stuck in the middle of nowhere. I now have to get 3 more trains to get home.

These things seem to be happening more and more recently. I have been struggling with a feeling of overwhelm with life in general.. can this affect cognitive functioning? This seems to impact my ability to think clearly. It’s almost as if my brain just starts to shut down and I seem to be getting forgetful /blank. I’m feeling a bit alarmed.

Can anyone relate? I just want to press pause on everything and go to bed.

thank you if you read this far

Set an alarm on your phone for a few minutes before your stop is due. I used to do that sometimes if I was tired and thought I might fall asleep.

I do this so that I can have a nice snooze without worrying/waking myself up to check.

I do this all the time when exhausted/overwhelmed. It’s normal - your brain can only process so much - just listened to a podcast explaining the mechanics of it the other day. No decline here, just overwhelm

@SeaToSki I was given ferrous fumerate for a while which got the levels a bit higher somewhere about 12-15 if I remember.
I would imagine it's still too low though.
Thanks for the checklist!

@GreenMarigold yes, I am studying on top of working full-time so that is definitely tiring me out more than usual!

@Thatcastlethere @wintergolds sorry I didn't reply about sleep. I try to prioritise sleep as much as I can and have been going to bed as early as I can. However, I have found that recently I keep waking up around 4am and find it hard to get back to sleep again. Thank you for the recommendation of "Why we sleep"! I will check it out 🙂

Broken sleep is another menopausal system as you may know. HRT helped me a lot with that.

Same here, sometimes I find it comforting to be elsewhere but clearly when you have to be some where and on message it can be tough. Missing needed appointments is really distressing, people just think your hapless, they don't see your struggle. I even miss appointments for things I really want to do. Or really need to do, like my post surgery physio. Just doom...

This is why I am glad I no longer commute by tube!

However I still seem to sometimes go past my bus stop. Annoyingly it is more likely if I am very tired and my legs hurt!