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I have recently been officially diagnosed with MS and continued to have an increase in both existing and new symptoms. One possible symptom that I noticed began on Friday is (for lack of a better explanation) 'Brain Fog'. I feel as though I have cotton in my head and I can't make the connections in verbal conversations as easily. I can type my thoughts, and I can read and understand. However, sometimes I will be asked a question and cannot seem to grasp the words. Example: yesterday, I was asking my husband about the phone in the office. I couldn't think of the word phone, so I said ' um..you know...the black thing with the buttons'.

Is this a true MS symptom, or am I just over stressed and over tired?

If others have experienced 'cotton head' or 'brain fog', I would love to hear suggestions on methods or meds that will get me beyond that. It is quite possibly the MOST annoying symptom that I have to date. Don't get me wrong, tingling in the legs and loss of sensation from the waste down is not fun...but potentially losing my mental acuity is freaking me out. I need my analytical brain in order to do my job.

something I have gone through for a long time.

1) find it difficult to switch contexts. For exmaple, if I am thinking about one topic, I find it tough to switch to next topic
2) get the right words
3) able to speak easily ...

This is absolutely a symptom of MS. Cognitive impairment affects many of us MSers, but not all.

Do you have trouble with word substitutons, too? I.e. substituting an aobviously wrong word in a sentence for a common everyday word? "Honey, will you please grab a Coke from the oven for me?"

i know where you are coming from with that..i have the same problem when it comes to words...i look at my kids and cant get the words out sometimes so i just point to what i am trying to say...believe it or not i work in customer service..i have times on the phone where i forget words..can picture it in my head but cant get it out of my mouth...another thing i have found is sometimes i can get the words out but they are not pronounced good enough for people to know what i just said...if that makes sense...example saying hi my name is chris how can i help you...i get people saying back hi jean or not knows what i just said at all..very frustrating,,have tried to slow down when i talk to pronoucing the words better but they still come out not right...mine comes and goes..most of time i notice i have issues when i am more tired or have done alot for the day as the day goes on the fog gets more pronounced...

Example: yesterday, I was asking my husband about the phone in the office. I couldn't think of the word phone, so I said ' um..you know...the black thing with the buttons'.

Is this a true MS symptom, or am I just over stressed and over tired? Question

100% MS symptom.
It is, along with fatigue, one of the most frustrating symptoms I think.

A very good friend visited me today with her baby. I asked 'well, is she 6 months old now?' - my friend was openly shocked because she is only 3 months old and we have been in contact every fortnight since she's been born. Then my husband came home and I couldn't remember what I'd told him 2 minutes before and repeated a story - then I couldn't remember words for fork, patio-door and basics like that. It's a bad day. I'm hoping tomorrow will be better. I agree with RED too. It's worse when I'm tired, when I've done a lot of physical work (I vacuumed, washed floors and hung out 3 loads of washing today in high humidity) and when humidity

How do the rest of you cope with the shock you get when you realise you've made a major error or mistake? It really effects my confidence.

a good question..i use to wait until i got home and cried..but when it happens to me now i apologize and fix whatever i did wrong or with most of my family and friends they know it happens to me and try and help me out...i know that its the ms that is causing it and that its one of those things you cant help it happens..god knows we wish it didnt but it does..sometimes i play it off and say something to the fact of what you didnt know we were playing a game here..its called guess what i am trying to say....i figure you have to keep a sense of humor or you will go crazy..that or like me you are hard on yourself which isnt right since it is out of our control to a point....

but when it happens to me now i apologize and fix whatever i did wrong or with most of my family and friends they know it happens to me and try and help me out

Oh dear, Red I think my brain fog is so bad it sometimes only occurs to me that I've said something amiss long after the person is gone .

oh i get that to...sometimes or i stop long after the person is gone wondering if i did say something...can be frustrating

While I had mixed emotions hearing all of your stories, it somehow makes me feel better to know that I am not alone as well as confirmation that this IS really a symptom. Essentially, I have ever symptom noted here. Problems with word substitution, grasping for words that you KNOW that you know, telling the same story multiple times in a few minutes. Yup, got them all. I agree, next to the fatigue, definitely the most frustrating!

I have somewhat of an odd sense of humor in that I try to laugh off the bad things of life. Of course, MS has certainly challenged that approach. In my close family circle and circle of friends, when I have an issue such as these AND I realize it, I will simply look at my family/friend and smile and say 'I have brain lesions...' and we end up chuckling a bit. It does help to get beyond that moment, BUT is also something that I would never do at work or in public. At work, I chalk it up to a 'senior moment' and laugh it off, but inside I know what it really is!

i hear ya about work..i work in the health care field and when i moved to my new position here there are only about 10 of us..so i did explain to them what i have..i always tell them no feeling sorry for me cause i dont feel sorry for me so why should they..my sense of humor is when i look at all my friends and say ya know i look at it this way when they are all in the 60's trying to find specialist for different reasons..i will already have my own and wont have search or check to see if they are covered by insurance like they will....lol..they just laugh and say what a crazy person i am..i say thank you i try..its hard but ya got to keep the sense of humor cause if ya dont you might go insane about all the stuff that is happening...

I have very similar symptoms. I often have trouble recalling words and I'm not as quick in conversation as I used to be, it is quite alarming. Oddly enough I awoke last night with my head entirely clear for the first time in more than a year and I took advantage by getting out of bed(at 3 AM) and fixing all of my finances and writing myself reminders of things I must do. Woke back up with the cloud.