I recently was fortunate to be one of 5 recipients of the National Urban League in partnership with Courvoisier Cognac Grant for my work in brain health. This award will help me advance science and interventions that address some of the cognitive impairment that pandemic fatigue has brought on as many of us try to WFH and try to keep up with our productivity and performance. Brain Fog has become the most commonly experienced problem for many of us as we WFH, manage teams, and maintain consistent productivity levels. This is especially impacting in the corporate sector.
Covid-19 has created a new norm that we have not been adequately prepared to cope with or adapt to. Social isolation, loneliness, abrupt changes to daily habits, adapting to WFH, and stress can all impact our emotional well-being and cognitive performance. Even for people who have no history of mental health issues, the weeks of lockdown and restrictions that millions are currently experiencing is wrought with emotional and psychological challenges that few had ever experienced.
In a recent study I conducted with CEOs and Founders exploring the impact of pandemic fatigue on performance, 98% reported experiencing three of the symptoms of brain fog. Additionally, 100% reported that Covid-19 has impacted their emotional well-being in a negative way at different points over the last 8 months. The most powerful driver of Covid-induced brain fog was emotional trauma. 87% reported that Covid-19 brought forward unresolved past emotional trauma to the forefront of their thinking. 95% reported decades-long past unresolved trauma. This tremendous breakthrough that unburdened a pain point that arrested that person’s development and cognitive performance led me to compute lifetime gains for each person as a key outcome of health.
In my practice, I have developed interventions to address some of these cognitive and emotional features we have been dealing with over the last 9 months. As a society, we have to begin to focus on prevention and intervention because I predict we are headed into a mental and brain health risk burden that exceeds our capacity to provide care. Prolonged exposure to these new norms will have lasting emotional and cognitive effects in the future. Many neuroimaging studies have shown that chronic worries and fears diminish prefrontal cortex activity, damage neurons, shrink areas of the brain, and impair thinking.