How Anxiety Affects Memory and Thinking: Understanding Brain Fog

Have you ever felt like your brain just isn’t working the way it should when you’re anxious? Maybe you forget simple things, struggle to follow instructions, or feel like your thoughts are racing too fast to focus. This experience, often called brain fog, is a real and common symptom of anxiety. But why does this happen?

The Science Behind Anxiety and Memory

Anxiety doesn’t just affect emotions—it impacts how the brain processes and stores information. Here’s how:

1. Anxiety Overloads the Brain

When you’re anxious, your brain is constantly in overdrive, trying to assess threats and keep you safe. This heightened state of alertness can make it harder to process new information or recall details. The brain is simply overwhelmed, and as a result, memory formation and retrieval can suffer. Think about a computer with too many tabs open. It may cause the computer to work slower or freeze. That can happen to our brain as well.

2. Increased Cortisol Levels Can Damage Memory

Anxiety triggers the release of cortisol, a stress hormone. While cortisol is helpful in short bursts, chronic high levels can negatively affect the hippocampus, the part of the brain responsible for forming new memories and retrieving old ones. Over time, this can lead to forgetfulness, difficulty concentrating, and even trouble retaining new information.

3. Working Memory Takes a Hit

Working memory is what helps you hold and use information temporarily—like remembering instructions, directions, or something you just read. When anxiety is present, working memory can become impaired, making it harder to stay on task and retain important details. This might make you seem forgetful or distracted, but it’s not your fault—it’s simply your brain struggling to keep up.

4. Racing Thoughts Affect Focus and Retention

Anxiety can make your mind feel like it’s running a marathon—filled with racing, intrusive thoughts that won’t slow down. This flood of mental noise reduces your attention span and makes it difficult to process or retain information. Instead of absorbing what’s in front of you, your mind is jumping ahead to potential worries, making concentration nearly impossible.

What Can You Do?

Understanding that anxiety affects memory can help reduce self-blame. Here are a few strategies to improve focus and retention when dealing with anxiety:

• Practice mindfulness and grounding techniques to slow down racing thoughts.
• Break information into smaller chunks to reduce cognitive overload.
• Use external reminders like notes, lists, or voice memos to help with forgetfulness.
• Engage in relaxation techniques such as deep breathing or meditation to lower cortisol levels. You can do anything that will slow down your nervous system and help you feel more regulated. You can do anything that will help you feel more relaxed. You can enjoy standup comedy shows, you can go for a walk on the beach, medicate, do yoga, exercise. Learning skills to help you regulate your emotions can be helpful when you have anxiety.
• Seek help and work on the underlying anxiety and negative thoughts. Anxiety is not a condition that will likely pass by itself. There are many treatments to help with anxiety. What is important is that you know you are not alone, and you can get help!

If you struggle with anxiety-related brain fog, know that you’re not alone, and it’s not a sign of failure - it’s just your brain reacting to stress. By managing anxiety, you can improve focus, memory, and overall mental clarity.