Cognitive Symptoms

What are Cognitive Symptoms

Cognition is the mental process of learning, understanding, and communicating. Cognitive symptoms can be caused by a brain or spine tumor, cancer treatment, side effects of medications, and other health conditions or sleep issues. If you have difficulty seeing, it may influence your ability to read and write. Cognitive symptoms can make you feel exhausted, overwhelmed, stressed, anxious, depressed, or sad.

Examples of cognitive symptoms include:

• Problems remembering 
• Difficulty speaking
• Difficulty understanding 
• Problems concentrating

Ways to Manage Cognitive Symptoms

There are ways you can manage and cope with your cognitive symptoms if they occur. Have a caregiver help you if you are unable to do things on your own. Keep a log of any cognitive symptom you are experiencing and what you are doing to manage them daily using the My STORI^TM app or a journal.

If you are having problems with remembering:

• Make a daily to-do list
• Use planners and reminder notes
• Prioritize tasks and do the most important ones first, ideally when you are most rested
• Keep items in the same place
• Try memory techniques, such as making up a rhyme, to help you remember things
• Ensure you are getting enough sleep to feel rested

If you are having difficulty speaking:

• Talk to your health care provider about seeing a speech therapist
• Try to control your breathing as you speak
• Write down and rehearse what you want to say before speaking to better organize your thoughts

If you are having difficulty understanding:

• Ask others to speak slowly and in short sentences.
• Focus on other forms of communication, such as hand and body gestures, to use as context clues in a conversation

If you are having problems concentrating:

• Prioritize tasks and do the most important ones first, ideally when you are most rested
• Use planners and reminder notes
• Focus on doing one thing at a time
• Try to stay calm and not stress 
• Ensure you are getting enough sleep to feel rested
• Avoid drinking caffeine before bed 

If you are having difficulty seeing:

• Use a ruler to read 
• Use large print
• Increase the font size on your cell phone or other electronic devices
• Wear your glasses

Additional ways to manage your symptoms:

• Ask your health care provider about treating any depression, anxiety, fatigue, pain, and sleep disturbance you may have.
• Consider adding yoga, meditation or mindfulness-based practices into your lifestyle.
• Reducing stress can be very helpful to improve issues you have with remembering, speaking and concentrating. 
• Ask your health care provider about possible referrals to neuropsychology, speech therapy, psychotherapy and occupational therapy.

Some self-care activities you can do to improve your cognitive symptoms or how you cope with the symptoms you have can include diet, exercise, sleep, or medication. 

• Take your medication for concentration or brain swelling causing your cognitive symptoms exactly as prescribed. Talk with your provider if you miss a dose and avoid suddenly stopping any medications. 
• Be aware that medications and tumor treatments can have side effects that can cause you to have problems thinking, speaking or seeing clearly.