To ask if any of you lost it a bit because you are coming up to 40?

[Tyrianstoe]

I'm 40 this year and, well, frankly I'm a bit worried about myself. My brain seems to be thinking some odd, odd things. It's like I'm having a mid life crisis but not in a normal way.

I'll give you some examples: I was looking at S7 of GoT on DVD in Tesco. And for about a good minute or two I was wrestling (internally) with whether dragons were real I wasn't entirely sure until I asked my 10 year old DS, who laughed in my face.

Somebody at work was saying that they had left a grape out to see how long it was going to take to turn into a raisin. I must have looked at them blankly because they twigged that I didn't know that raisins were dehydrated grapes I honestly thought they came from a raisin bush.

And this morning my work colleague was telling me a riddle about a chimney and the answer was an umbrella; and I asked him (he's a very clever guy, we work in Education Psychology) if chimney sweeps actually got puffed up into the air, through the chimney, like they do in Mary Poppins. He looked at me and shook his head.

I'm seen as quite an intelligent person, generally. I'm well educated etc and I'm not meant to think like this am I?! I have quite bad endometriosis and adenomyosis at the moment so I'm not sure if my brain is just in the pain fog or do you just go a bit weird when you hit 40 or what?

This isn't age related in the way that this is what generally happens when you hit forty, no.

I'd maybe see a doctor, what you describe isn't right.

I'm going to be 40 this year as well and no I haven't had any experiences like that yet

I wonder if it's the pain medication I'm taking? It is a pretty new thing. I convinced myself it was just because I'm coming up to 40! Perhaps I should mention it to my doctor

I'm turning 40 this year. Can't help but think my life is over. I know that's dramatic and most posters will laugh but its really starting to depress me. I keep trying to pull myself back into line because it's so ridiculous. We all get older. I'm also finding I'm forgetting people's names where as previously thats never been an issue. Hopefully, my worrying is impacting on my memory and that's all it is

I have prematurely "senior" moments like that on occasion and I'm mid forties. Pain meds might definitely take your edge off. Keep a note of things and see if they worsen maybe.

Mention to your Dr. it might be some sort of cognitivie functional decline but equally likely it is the pills. I turned 40 last August and haven't noticed any change in my abilities - cognitive or physical.

I'm hitting 40 and having a career crisis. Was looking at Ed Psych!!!

I don't think any of those things have got to do wit being 40. You must have always thought those things.

stickstick don't do it! I think some of it might be stress due to my job. It's an interesting career though but LA work is getting heavier.

I only take pain medication 5-7 days out of each month. I take tramadol, dihydrocodeine, Naproxen and paracetamol plus dependent on where I am in my cycle (ovulation and period basically) so I thought my cognitive function wouldn't be too impaired?

I'm a lone parent with 3dcs and work FT so I'm quite stressed. Maybe I need to address this.

Hmmm well now I am worried as I have had a couple of episodes now where I have had a compete brain freeze.

1. I got lost. Literally didn’t recognise where I was . Didn’t recognise anything at all. I knew what the things were but not where I was. (I.e. knew it was a lamppost but didn’t recognise that particular one). After about 5 minutes it lifted and I was somewhere really really familiar to me. Think my home town centre !

2. couldn’t remember how to operate a gadet. One I had had for 2 years. A simple one. Not as complex as a tv remote. Had no idea what to do. Had to google it! Within 5 minutes all fine.

I had put it down to turning 40 (ish) and also being super busy and stressed and sleep deprived. But now I am worried!

((((Tyrian)))) Was contemplating a change from teaching!!!

It does sound like you've got a lot on your plate at the moment.

I think it will be the meds. I would come off Tramadol, I’m guessing it is that. Naproxen is really bad for you too.

I was on tramadol and a lot of other meds, and I had an awful memory

Tramadol is well known for making some people a bit zombiefied and codeine is a warm and fuzzy one too. Not sure if you could ask for different meds or not. I suppose it depends if it's manageable or intrusively unpleasant.