I’ve been writing a weekly blog for a gazillion years, but this week I struggled to find a topic that engaged me. Why?
It wasn’t a brain freeze. That would be brief: not coming up with the right word, answer, name, etc. A synonym would be drawing a blank: being unable to recall a required piece of information (or failing to find something).
Nor was it Net Brain: this is a syndrome I discovered when I worked at the American Psychological Association. While not an official diagnosis, it’s a handy one: it’s when something just falls out of your consciousness. Examples include missing an appointment (or any commitment). Briefly stated, you forgot.
Could it be a case of Beach Brain? An idle mind, also known as being “out to lunch” (when that isn’t literal). An example would be losing track of a conversation, movie plot, or whose play it is during mah jong.
My mental wanderings led me to think about other words and phrases we use to summarize disfunction.
FUBAR: f****d up beyond all recovery/remedy/recognition/etc. Also, utterly botched or confused. No, that doesn’t fit my situation; it clearly assumes that something has been done!
Procrastination isn’t apropos, either. I didn’t put off thinking about it, I just couldn’t make progress.
Unfocused? Synonyms for unfocused include muddled, bewildered, dazed, scatterbrained, confused, bemused, senile, negligent. Well, senility could be the root cause, but I refuse to consider it.
Having difficulty making decisions is one symptom of depression, but only one out of dozens of psychological, physical, and social symptoms. So, not depression.
I know of two words for suddenly forgetting something “right on the tip of your tongue” derived from the river Lethe in Greek mythology. If you are suddenly unable to remember a word that you definitely know you know, you are experiencing lethologica. When your brain suddenly refuses to supply the name of a familiar person, that’s lethonomia.
Bottom Line: I don’t know why I struggled so much this week, but I do know the outcome: I’m giving up!