What is ‘widow brain’?
 

Following the loss of a spouse, we’re plunged into a world of chaos and intense, unyielding pain. Our grief envelopes us and we’re swamped by a mixture of feelings: sadness, anger, guilt and confusion, to name just a few. Alongside this emotional upheaval, many widows have also reported experiencing a range of short-term cognitive challenges including difficulty concentrating, slow or poor decision-making, memory deficits, exhaustion and a general mental cloudiness. 

Such a loss of cognitive function has come to be known as ‘widow brain’ or ‘widow fog’. Whilst not a medical diagnosis, it is a credible and widely recognised set of cognitive challenges that can accompany the trauma of grief. Widow brain can feel utterly devastating. Adding to the emotional turmoil and physical toll that grief takes on us, the sudden and often unexpected decline in our cognitive abilities can feel like a cruel sucker-punch. This blog will explore how widow brain shows up, the sci...