Is brain fog a normal covid symptom?

[shaniahoo]

Just wondering because I'm on day 5 of covid, back to work because my physical symptoms are now all pretty much gone but I'm still really struggling to concentrate or process information and I'm not working very well at all. I have health anxiety and worrying because if you google brain fog covid the only results you get are to do with long covid. Is brain fog a normal thing to have in the early part of covid and it goes away?

I had covid very badly in 2021 and it was the first time I really knew what brain fog meant. It was horrible. Fully recovered though.

Very much so in my case and you hear it anecdotally a lot

I got covid at the tail end of 2021 and felt fine the whole time I had it.

Since having it, I have struggled with brain fog and retaining information to a degree. I have found that listening to classical music has helped though.

I had COVID last October. I had bad brain fog too - it took about 3 weeks to get back to normal.

The brain fog is real.

I had Covid last week.

Today I forgot my own surname.

I did the original ons covid study and am signed up to do the winter one. Brain fog is one of the symptoms that they ask you about (and has been on their list for quite some time) which makes me think they feel there's a link.
Anecdotally I know many people who have had brain fog post covid.

I tested positive on 29th September but had been ill for a few days by then. Until the middle of last week I thought I was getting over it but by Friday evening I felt very flu-ey again and have had a grim weekend. Felt a bit better this afternoon so went out for some shopping and on the way back I stood at the bus stop waiting for the only bus from that stop that takes me straight to my door. It's a single decker, all the others that go that way are double deckers and go a different route after the first two stops. A couple of those went by as I waited, and then finally I saw mine coming and got on. Two stops later I got off, waved to the driver and prepared to lug my shopping the rest of the way. It was only as the bus pulled away that I suddenly realised I'd forgotten I was on the bus that goes right to my door, the one I'd waited for especially. I felt quite shocked, like I had lost my marbles! I walked the rest of the way and thought "I hope this is covid brain fog and not something more serious."

Then I had a nap for an hour and when I woke up my body felt drained and I was just staring into space for almost 15 minutes thinking I needed to get up and put some potatoes in the oven, but my head felt empty and I had this weird feeling I couldn't make my body do anything. I did get up in the end but I don't feel right, in fact it reminds me a bit of when I was on too high a dose of sertraline. The other thing it reminds me of is when I get auras with my migraines and my head feels like it's not there for a while. But no migraine today.

Is this brain fog? I'm 56 and it's definitely not menopause/HRT related coz I'm male. (And not the sort of male who thinks he needs tampons, or can go through menopause 🙄)