Something strange

Hello Everyone,

I have a 35 miles commute to work each way and this morning something odd happened. I was driving and suddenly I blanked out on where I was. I couldn't remember if I was coming up to my exit or not. This also happened to me about a month ago when I thought I was on a totally different highway (about 40 miles away!). It is really unnerving to not realize where you are.

Has this happened to anyone else? I thought it might be a fibro related thing. I am kind of achey today, but not particularly foggy. It has never happened to me before last month.

Thanks!

I've been running errands in my town and have had to really concentrate to remember how to get to familiar places.  It doesn't happen all of the time.  Just occasionally.  I really try to map out where I'm heading now.  Yes, it is upsetting when it happens but I've been told this is all fibro fog.

 

Sherrine

Part of it is also normal cognitive functioning. Driving becomes automatic. Think of tying your shoes. When you first learned, you had to concentrate, but now you can do it without thinking about it. That is because tying your shoes is now automatically processed in your brain. When we drive, we do not tend to think about it as much and our minds can wander. This causes us to wake up and realize we have driven awhile without even noticing it. Getting lost when going to familiar places sounds like fibro fog, to me.
Sue

Thanks for all of your responses. I guess I was foggier this morning than I thought.

Sometimes, I wish I could take public transportation to work but it involves two buses and two trains and takes over two hours each way. Plus, even with higher gas prices driving is still cheaper than public trans.

It is good to know I am not the only one this happens to. Maybe I'm not as "crazy" as I thought.

Take care!

There is an intersection by me that I have NEVER had to yield at, I guess I was just lucky that the lights stopped traffic that would come my way.  One day I went through the intersection and almost hit a police car.  He wasn't happy as I had a starbucks between my legs, a cigarette in one hand and a cell in the other.  His first words were "how in the h*ll are you even driving, which hand do you plan to hold the wheel with"? 

He realized I was on autopilot and just doing what I always did, gave me a warning.

Needless to say I always look before I yield at intersections. 

I stopped driving awhile ago. Actually it had to do with the pain turning my head to check behind my right shoulder caused. Since it was only healing with pain meds and Lyrica which can ALSO add to the fun fun fogginess, I thought it might be better not to drive. But that's my case. I miss the independence but I also know I'll never accidentally hit something. What SUCKS is having to always wait for a ride but in my case, I'd hate to be driving and zone out and cause an accident. But I get REALLY zoney sometimes and forget how I even get somewhere when I'm riding with someone.

As I said, not everyone needs to do this kind of thing. I've actually been waiting to be able to drive again and it seems like every time I feel like I could, something new on my body causes me not to be able too.

It happens to me too and can be very frightening and disorienting.
Besides it being from fibro or other things, I think we have to realize that in today's world, we are constantly bombarded with stimulii. We're supposed to multitask constantly. We're asked to be absolutely too busy, physically and mentally. I think there are times when our brains scream out "enough!", and they go blank for a little while. (sort of like when the computer freezes up!)
I tend to have a big panic response to when my mind goes blank. My panic response seems to be harder on me than just forgetting where I am.