119. Brain Fog, Driving, and Migraines: What’s Really Happening

In this episode, I break down a post from a woman in my Facebook group who had a deeply unsettling migraine experience while driving.

She described feeling disoriented, disconnected, and unable to fully process what was happening around her, and if you’ve ever felt that way during a migraine, I want you to know there’s a reason for it.

I explain the two major things I believe are often at play here: underlying metabolic waste and toxin overload in the body, and a form of dissociation that can develop when someone has been living with pain for a very long time.

This is an important conversation about safety, brain fog, helplessness, and what chronic migraines are really trying to tell you.

If you’re ready to address the root drivers of your migraines, you can book a free consultation at the link below:

https://www.drlesliecisar.com/apply

Free Training: 5 Proven Steps to Being Migraine Free (Even if you think you've already tried everything.)

https://www.drlesliecisar.com/5SHMN

Connect with us:

Website: https://www.drlesliecisar.com/

Free Facebook Group: Healing Migraines Naturally, with Leslie Cisar, ND

Ready to try something radically different that actually works? Read more about my approach here: https://www.drlesliecisar.com/map

In health,
Dr. Leslie Cisar

Episode Transcript

welcome to the Healing Migraines Naturally podcast
I'm your host Doctor Leslie Caesar
and I am a licensed naturopathic doctor
former chronic migraine sufferer
and I've dedicated my life to helping other women
with chronic migraines and headaches
rediscover a migraine free life
so today on the podcast
a member of my free Facebook group called
Healing Migraines Naturally
with Leslie Caesar and d um
experienced something
very unpleasant related to her migraines this week
and she asked for some advice in the Facebook group so
um I thought it would be a great topic
to talk about on the podcast
so I have her permission to share her Facebook post
on the podcast here
I have uh removed her last name
so but she did give me her permission to share
her comment and use her first name
so I'm gonna go ahead and pull that up
but we're gonna break this down
and I think a lot of you listening
are going to relate to what she experienced here
so let me share her comment
and we're gonna go into this
alright so let's hear from Donna here okay
so she says
the other day I was driving on an unfamiliar street
it was a very cloudy day
which always affects me neurologically
my eyesight was also affected
I became so disoriented
and started driving through a red light
my husband said stop so I did
it keeps playing on my mind
does anyone else feel so disconnected
I hate that feeling of being helpless
to stop these migraines for over 50 years
I've seen so many neurologists and never was helped
now I'm on Medicare
and prescription drugs are outrageously priced
any tips I typically don't drive when I have a migraine
but this day it happened while I was driving okay
so I wanna I wanna break this down
because this has so many elements that are so common
when it comes to chronic migraines
first of all we have her
let's kind of set the scene okay
so she's on an unfamiliar street
so it's not
uh routine roadway right
a lot of times
we get in the car and we are so used to traveling
it's so familiar to us
that we kind of get home and we're like
wait a minute I don't even remember driving
I was you know
we kind of go on autopilot
so here was a situation where
you know it sounds like it was unfamiliar
so this is where right
we want to be at our best
we can't just put it on autopilot
cloudy day so
this is another phenomenon
that can occur for migraine sufferers
so her eyesight was affected
so this is also very very common with migraines
so when the migraine
it's sort of like classic that um sunlight
you know bright light
bright sunlight can affect migraine sufferers
but I have worked with clients over the years
where it's a cloudy day
that actually affects them more so than the sun
and so there's sort of
that particular way
the light is being filtered through the clouds
etcetera that is actually
they're actually more sensitive to that type of light
than the the direct bright sunlight has flared
people will notice that their vision has changed
things are blurrier if they wear glasses right
suddenly the prescription doesn't seem right anymore
that um
this is pretty common where the eyesight is affected it
it gets worse with the migraine
and then she became disoriented right
and she drove through the red light right
she didn't apparently realize or she was so disoriented
didn't see it right
you know our eyesight is affected
we're trying to drive you know
a lot of times
the LED lights that are now in the traffic lights
I believe they're LED lights right there
there are different types of lights
that used to be in the traffic lights
you know 30
40 years ago
and they are a little bit brighter
and a lot of times for migraine sufferers
the LED type lighting can be very difficult to process
that type of light
so perhaps that was playing playing a role here too
so we're kind of setting the stage here right
and again I don't know Donna she's not a client of mine
this is just um
something that she posted in the Facebook group
so anything that I say here it's
it's just me sort of
extrapolating on what she's described here
it's not a direct comment on Donna
I don't know anything about her medical history
like I said she's not a client of mine
but I just think you know
I really empathize with what she went through
and I thought that a lot of people would relate to it
so I'm just gonna kind of walk through here
and kind of make some
what I think are gonna be reasonable assumptions
some reasonable hypotheses as to what was going on here
but again it's not necessarily
hi there
I wanna jump in real quick and tell you about my client
Beth she was getting 15 to 20 migraines and headaches
per month and as you can imagine
this was impacting her work performance
and her confidence she also has two small children
and she was
starting to feel like she was a horrible mom
because she had nothing left for them
at the end of the day but she reached out
and she booked a free consult call with me
and after I asked her about her migraines
and her health history
I felt confident that I could help her
I help women uncover
the root drivers of their migraines
and follow a step by step plan to dramatically reduce
the frequency by up to 90%
without adding more medication
or taking a bunch of supplements
so we built her personal migraine map
followed the plan
and now she will get one to two migraines per year
which she uses ibuprofen to treat if she needs to
verses up to 15 to 20 per month
when we first started working together
that weren't responding well to any medication
she just reached out to tell me that
she got a promotion at work
she's on top of her career again
and has been able to come off
all of her migraine medication
but most importantly she's a confident mom again
and she's attending birthday parties at Jump Zone
with her kids and saying yes
instead of saying maybe later
I've worked with women like Beth
from all over the United States
who were told this is the best we can do
but they were still willing to dig deeper
so
if you are serious about changing your migraine story
go to Doctor Leslie Caesar dot com slash apply
or tap the link in the show notes
and on our free consult
we'll map out why your migraines keep coming back
and the first three steps you can take
over the next 30 days
I do cap new client spots each month
so if the calendar is full
the doors are closed for now
but if you're done feeling helpless
and ready to do the work to heal
pause this episode for 30 seconds
and book that console call
now
reflective specifically to Donna
so we have the stage set here
and then
you know obviously she's very upset by this
she says it keeps playing on my mind again
I would have to assume right
it's like
we want to be able to drive
and we want to be safe while we're driving right
and if we are not able to drive
that really impacts our independence
I mean having chronic migraines for over 50 years
I can't imagine how many times Donna has had to
cancel plans
you know most women in this situation
they're going to feel very reluctant to even make plans
they're gonna already feel like
their autonomy and independence has been
cut to the quick by the migraines because
you know we can't function right
we're not autonomous and independent
we've got these migraines that are taking us down
many times unpredictably at any moment
we can wake up feeling fine in the morning
and by four PM we can be
you know laying on the bathroom floor in agony right
so it's like with chronic migraines
we already feel like our autonomy and our independence
our self sufficiency
just our very control over our own body is so impacted
and then you know
now it's like can I drive right
with all of this
now my ability to drive is going to be taken away
so again I don't know Donna
but I can really appreciate why this would be playing
on her mind
experience you know
going out in the intersection and not connecting
the fact that the light had turned red right
so let's break this down
a little bit more
I think that there are two overall factors
that are at play with what she experienced okay
and we're always looking for like
what's the one thing that's going to solve my migraine
problem
but like I've talked about on the podcast before
I think listening to this scenario
there are two
main things that are probably at play here
one of those things is the inherent toxin overload
metabolic waste material overload
that is in the body of someone who is suffering
from migraines okay
I've talked about this on the podcast before
so migraines themselves are
a pattern of symptoms that the body generates
when there is a toxin overload
or a metabolic waste material overload within the body
and so anyone with migraines
that's an indication
that there's an overload of metabolic waste material
and toxins in the body now
our body has the ability to remove
this metabolic waste material
and toxins from the body
so it's not like we're stuck with this
or something's gone wrong
our body is
continuously making metabolic waste material
we are continuously
exposed to toxins in the environment
even before there were man made toxins
there were still plenty of toxins in the environment
so we have our organs of detoxification
to clear the load from the body
but if our organs don't have what they need
to run those detoxification pathways
then things are gonna back up and when that happens
there are telltale symptoms
that the body generates in response and the
the there's sort of like a
like a stage 1 or a level 1
toxicity symptoms that usually develop first
I've talked about those in other podcast
and then the migraines are sort of like a second level
when things keep piling up and piling up
and piling up even more
the body starts generating migraines
so a very common symptom
that there's an overload of metabolic waste
material
and toxins in the body is what we call brain fog okay
so this is a classic
a textbook what we call toxicity symptom okay
so many times people will start to experience brain fog
even before the migraines start
but people don't realize that they're experiencing
this symptom and I've talked about this on the podcast
unfortunately in our culture
we don't understand
that our body is generating symptoms in response to uh
the conditions within the body not being optimal
we don't know sort of how to read those symptoms
the conditions aren't addressed
the the needs of the body aren't met
things start to continue to pile up
and then we start getting migraines
and we say where did these migraines come from
whereas
when we look at the symptom history of the individual
we can see
that there were toxicity symptoms starting to develop
prior to the migraines
I've talked about my own personal symptom history
or medical history many times on the podcast
to sort of explain this
so brain fog people will feel disoriented
they will feel a little out of body
they'll feel a little disconnected
that's kind of like you know
all of the cylinders aren't firing 100% right
so when she talks about this disorientation
that she was experiencing
number one it's a very common symptom that comes
along with migraines
brain fog and migraines right
it's pretty classic
so a lot of people will say
well of course
you know of course she was disoriented
of course she had brain fog
she was in the throes of a migraine
so again
because the migraine is being kicked off
within the body because of this toxin overload
we're gonna have other toxicity symptoms at play
in addition to the migraines
and disorientation
or brain fog is a classic toxicity symptom
I think just the general overload in the body
could have generated this disorientation
that was particularly acute
or noticeable on this day that she was driving
so there are some other clues here
she says that her eyesight was affected
so
when there is an overload of metabolic
waste material and toxins in the body
the eyes will be affected
we're gonna have eye symptoms
so classic symptoms are dark circles under the eyes
watery eyes
itchy eyes red eyes
dry eye bags under the eyes
and changes in our vision okay
so
this is actually a symptom
that I'm pretty sensitive to
so my eyesight will change noticeably
depending on the build
up of metabolic waste material or toxins in my body
so when we have a migraine
this is why it's so common for people to experience
vision changes right there
there things are just a little blurry
or things are just a little more out of focus
when they have the migraine
some people with a migraine
they will have double vision
it'll get that profound
and then we have the classic aura with a migraine
right where
you know the
the classic aura is where you see sort of
this scintillating change to the vision
that starts out as a
sort of like
as a little pinpoint or a little blurry spot
that grows and grows and grows
and kind of the classic is
it expands almost like a donut
so as it gets bigger the center will clear
and then you have this sort of
donut ring of
this scintillating perception within the visual field
and that will just keep getting bigger and bigger
until it finally kind of
gets big enough where it's no longer
kind of it seems like it just leaves the field
because it's gotten so big
so you know
her eyesight was also affected
that again
is another toxicity symptom
which makes sense because we're
when we're in the throes of a migraine
it's sort of like an acute toxin overload
or sort of toxin spill that occurs
so we have that little clue with the symptom as well
again I don't know
Donna I don't know anything about her health history
but it's very common people before the migraines start
they will experience some brain fog
etcetera maybe vision goes up and down
in and out starts to change a little bit day by day
those are those are fairly common
other conditions are notable for brain fog
so when you think of like add
okay
this is sort of like well I can't focus right
I can't pay attention to things
I have difficulty focusing
I'm having a hard time reading
I gotta read the sentence over and over again
it's not getting into my brain right
so you know
people can have add without migraines for sure
but add all of those symptoms
that are so characteristic of add
those are also toxicity symptoms okay
so again
the fundamental baseline of somebody with add
their brain is actually hypo functioning or it's not
it's not kind of firing on on all cylinders when um
when they look at the brain waves of someone with add
it's actually like a low brainwave state
this is why stimulants are so effective for somebody
with add
um because you're you're stimulating the brain
you're revving things up and people with add
they'll become hyperactive is a coping mechanism
they're not purposely doing it
but their brain is like okay
we gotta pay attention here
how can I get things revved up
well I can start moving right
maybe if I start moving the body around
I start tapping and fidgeting
that'll get things revved up a little bit more
and I can actually focus and concentrate
so that's where the hyperactivity will come in
you know you can look at
you know any
anytime you have this brain fog type symptom
that's a toxicity symptom
so that really fits with migraines
so to me when I saw this
you know
disorientation vision changes
throws of the migraine and unfortunately
people can have so much brain fog
you know the light changes from green to yellow to red
and you know
it we're so foggy
that we're just not registering those changes
so that might have been what happened to Donna here
while she was driving so
that's the first thing that comes to mind
as a factor here that was driving what she experienced
the second thing that comes to mind is
another phenomenon that's very common amongst chronic
chronic migraine sufferers
so Donna says you know
she's had these migraines for over 50 years
nothing has helped and she is feeling helpless
right and so I have to
you know again I
I would assume not knowing Donna
but just thinking about someone in her situation
and the number of clients over the years that I've had
that have also been in this situation
hi there
I wanna jump in real quick and tell you about my client
Beth she was getting 15 to 20 migraines
and headaches per month and as you can imagine
this was impacting her work performance
and her confidence she also has two small children
and she was
starting to feel like she was a horrible mom
because she had nothing left for them
at the end of the day but she reached out
and she booked a free consult call with me
and after I asked her about her migraines
and her health history
I felt confident that I could help her
I help women uncover
the root drivers of their migraines
and follow a step by step plan to dramatically reduce
the frequency by up to 90%
without adding more medication
or taking a bunch of supplements
so we built her personal migraine map
followed the plan
and now she will get one to two migraines per year
which she uses ibuprofen to treat if she needs to
verses up to 15 to 20 per month
when we first started working together
that weren't responding well to any medication
she just reached out to tell me that
she got a promotion at work
she's on top of her career again
and has been able to come off
all of her migraine medication
but most importantly she's a confident mom again
and she's attending birthday parties at Jump Zone
with her kids and saying yes
instead of saying maybe later
I've worked with women like Beth
from all over the United States
who were told this is the best we can do
but they were still willing
to dig deeper so
if you are serious about changing your migraine story
go to Doctor Leslie Caesar dot com slash apply
or tap the link in the show notes
and on our free consult
we'll map out why your migraines keep coming back
and the first three steps you can take
over the next 30 days
I do cap new client spots each month
so if the calendar is full
the doors are closed for now
but if you're done feeling helpless
and ready to do the work to heal
pause this episode for 30 seconds
and book that console call
now we have to somehow cope with this constant pain
okay and again
we're not doing this consciously
this is something that the mind the body our our being
if you will starts to do unbeknownst to us
we're not in control over it
we're not purposely doing it
but what happens to people
when they're in chronic pain like this
is they will start to disassociate
from their physical body
so sort of the unconscious part of us says
you know what my I'm in constant physical pain
this is very unpleasant
how can I alleviate this pain right
the no medication has worked
I've tried changing my diet
I've tried avoiding things right
nothing's working for me so how can I avoid
how can I sort of get out
how can I not feel all of this continuous constant pain
and so
people will disassociate from their physical body
and this is a coping mechanism
and so when this starts to happen to people
they will start to feel sort of out of body
it's a feeling that people will describe as
you know I don't quite feel like I'm all here
I'm here but I'm not here right
I can hear you but it's almost like
you know you're far away right
I can see you we're talking
I'm here but it's almost like
I'm kind of looking at myself as an observer right
I'm not quite in the scene
when people employ this coping mechanism
sometimes this can actually help them not
be consciously aware of the pain
so the pain is there
but it starts to recede from their consciousness
so when I have clients that have been
you know they've had daily headache for decades
many times they'll say you know
I have pain all the time
if I stop and I really think about it
yeah the pain is there
but most of the time
I don't even notice the pain anymore
I'm just going about my day
I'm you know
going to the grocery store
I'm doing things around the house
I'm going to my book club
but I'm not really aware of the pain
it's there but I just don't really notice it anymore
it's gotta get really
really bad for me to become consciously aware of it
and go oh yeah yeah
there's that pain but if I
if I'm stop and think about it yeah
it's still there it's there all the time
but I just don't quite I don't feel it anymore alright
so this is a like I said
this is a coping mechanism that the body uses
not just with chronic migraine pain
but you know people have chronic back pain or you know
other types of physical pain
people will disassociate from their physical body
is
in an attempt to not feel that physical pain as much
so that came to mind too as to a possible
reason why this happened to Donna
again I don't know her
she's not a client of mine
but when I saw that nothing has helped and she's been
you know struggling with this for 50 years
we have to raise the question
has her body has her unconscious mind
started to disassociate from her physical body
to try to lower her perception of the pain
OK
those two things I thought
were going to be valuable to talk about on the podcast
so you know
she says any tips okay
now here's the thing
our mind is always looking for
what can I do to get out of this pain
you know and this is a survival mechanism
we have reflexes that are built in
you know if you put your hand on a hot stove
the reflexes kick in and your
you will remove your hand without any conscious effort
and in fact
you can't really even keep your your hand on the stove
right so when when there's pain
we are designed to do
do whatever it takes to get out of that pain
but we're very well suited to get out of pain
if it's a hot stove right
like oh hot stove reflexes I'm out of here okay
and there's just one thing that's causing the pain
it's the hot stove right so it's like
stop touching the hot stove
I'm not gonna be in pain right
so when there's one thing that's causing the pain
it's very easy for the mind to identify that one thing
and then like okay
how are we gonna stop this one thing
so
our mind is very oriented towards thinking like this
it's like okay
what's the one thing that's causing this
so I can stop this
or I can protect myself from this one thing
and then I won't have this pain
and I wish one thing were causing migraines right
because then we could employ this
and we would feel better
but like I've talked about on the podcast migraines
by the time we have migraines
we have developed pretty serious blockers
or deficiencies or missing pieces
within what I call the three principles
or the three things that our body needs to function
optimally
and when our or you could say be in a state of health
and when we're in a state of health
our body doesn't generate symptoms and we feel good
okay
so you know this is where looking for a tip and again
this is absolutely no criticism of Donna
I couldn't be more sympathetic to where she is
but if she's experiencing right 50 years of this
she's had 50 years of you know
what I would have to assume
pretty significant blockers or missing pieces
or deficiencies within these three principles
that are highly interconnected within each other
we're past the point of tips
I'm just gonna be honest with everybody here right
but you know there's a whole industry
multi billion dollar industry
around giving tips to migraine sufferers
and this is what really gets me
I'm in a lot of migraine Facebook groups
I have my own migraine Facebook group
I'm a member in a lot of other migraine Facebook groups
I don't comment I'm not there to
you know try to uh sway people or anything like that
I'm just in these groups
so that I can keep my finger on the pulse
of the migraine community
and in these Facebook groups
what people are looking for right
they're looking for you know
the copper bracelet
they're looking for the special form of magnesium
that's gonna be the one thing that solves it right
you know
is it is it this particular brand of butterbur right
we're always looking for you know
what's what's the what's the thing I could do right
to to solve this problem
but it's always sort of this like
what's this one thing I could try next
what's this one little thing I could
could do and
you're not going to
put the pieces of the puzzle together
like that unfortunately
you know the time for tips is when things are
just starting to build up
when we're starting to get the first
initial little symptoms
that are not even causing us that much suffering
they're considered to be so minor unfortunately
that we don't even realize that they're symptoms
no one has told us that they're symptoms
or they're considered to be something that's kind of uh
kind of routine or very common
and so
we're not kind of jumping on it right at the beginning
when things you know
a a
a little intervention can solve a
relatively small problem
I don't have any tips for you right
what I would suggest if you are in this state
I have worked with many many women over the years
that have had migraines for decades
daily head pain for decades
what
is required
is a very careful assessment as to where you stand
within these three principles
what are your specific blockers or missing pieces
and then how are we going to address this
because again
the other really insidious thing about migraines
once you get into this chronic migraine state
any little change that the body experiences
can tip us into a migraine right
so you know
it's it's hard to make changes
even if they're positive health supporting changes
when any little change makes you feel worse right
so for chronic migraine suffers
you have to approach this carefully right
it's kind of like if you're gonna diffuse a bomb
you just don't start pulling wires randomly
you've got to really carefully understand
how the bomb is wired and then you've got to make
the best determination as to what wire
you're gonna cut first
and how you're gonna dismantle that
with chronic migraines like I say
it's not how many things have you tried over the years
right
that are these little sort of little tip type things
so what I would say to anybody you know
to Donna out there or anybody in her situation
the good news is
is that our bodies are designed to heal and recover
um say is again
not knowing Donna but anybody in her situation right
I would have to ask
has anyone done this analysis to determine okay
what are the missing pieces
what is your body missing
what is your body lacking
that is preventing it
from returning to a state of health
every living thing on the planet has a self
healing mechanism built into it
and we're no exception to that
so if that process is not occurring
what is preventing
that healing response from happening so unfortunately
you know no one has an Imitrex deficiency
no one has a Topamax deficiency right
and of course when we go into the doctor's office
when we go into the neurologist
we know this nobody wants to take these medications
but we're feeling so terrible
that we feel stuck between a rock and a hard place
but unfortunately the medications right
they're never going to address these underlying
deficiencies or blockers or missing pieces right
they may make us feel a little bit better
in the short term but ultimately
our body is going to fight
the suppressive effects of the medication
and figure out a way to generate the symptoms
that it's trying to generate
and again not knowing Donna
but unfortunately what she shared here in her post
it sounds like
she's experienced that quite a bit over the decades
so if you are in this situation
um I would encourage you to reach out to me
I'd be more than happy to talk with you
on a free consult call
and ask you some questions about your current
a migraine uh situation
your health history and if I think that I can help you
I will tell you that if I don't think I can help you
I will tell you that too but like I say
when I hear that somebody has suffered from migraines
for 50 years
I don't I don't think
you know hopeless
I think let's let's get to work
let's dive in here and get this turned around
so that this woman can feel better
I hope this was helpful like I say
when we see this level of disorientation and difficulty
sort of being connected to
decisions that have to be made while we're driving
and reactions and and and so on
I think of toxin overload in the body
generating severe or extreme brain fog
which is exactly what
these waste materials and toxins do
and or
um this very real coping mechanism that gets deployed
where people will start to disassociate
from their physical body
so that they're not feeling the pain consciously
and this you know
one one of these things can be at work in someone or in
in most cases it's a combination
it's sort of like
a little combination of both of those things
going on
so again thank you for joining me today
and if you're not in the free Facebook group
Healing Migraines naturally with Leslie Caesar and d
go ahead and join us on Facebook
we'd love to have you and I do like to um
use the post as appropriate for um
helping to uh
teach these concepts on the podcast
so thanks so much for listening today
and I will talk to you soon