Updated 10 October 2026
At a glance
- Fibro fog, which NIAMS defines by problems with concentrating and memory, is a named fibromyalgia symptom, and the Cleveland Clinic describes the fog as trouble concentrating, remembering things or thinking clearly.
- The NHS says ADHD is a condition that can affect how you focus, and the CDC says it often lasts into adulthood and that a medical and psychological exam may be needed to look at other health problems that can cause similar symptoms.
- A table of the statements, an attention and energy daily record, a word list, four steps and a one-page summary are set out below.
- Fibromyalgia Journey keeps daily attention ratings, energy ratings and visit questions in one dated history, and its Doctor Report exports that history as a one-page summary.
Fibromyalgia and ADHD both involve focus, and both can bring tiredness, so a day of scattered attention is hard to assign to either one. A clinician who asks about concentration needs to hear how it ran across days, and a week later that picture is often reduced to a vague impression.
This guide sets out what NIAMS, MedlinePlus, the Cleveland Clinic, the NHS and the CDC say about fibromyalgia, fibro fog and ADHD in adults, then offers a table of the statements, an attention and energy daily record, a list of words, four steps and a one-page summary. This guide keeps a record of what you observe and what you are told. A clinician decides what any pattern means for you, and nothing here suggests that one condition causes the other, diagnoses either one or advises on medicines.
What NIAMS, MedlinePlus, the Cleveland Clinic, the NHS and the CDC say about fibro fog and ADHD in adults
NIAMS lists problems with concentrating, thinking clearly and memory, sometimes called fibro fog, among the symptoms of fibromyalgia. MedlinePlus lists problems with thinking, memory and concentration, also called fibro fog, among other possible symptoms, alongside fatigue and trouble sleeping. The Cleveland Clinic says many people describe feeling fibro fog or brain fog, which is when you have trouble concentrating, remembering things or thinking clearly.
On the ADHD side, the NHS says ADHD is a condition that can affect how you focus, that symptoms involve your ability to pay attention, having high energy levels and your ability to control impulses, and that these symptoms usually start before the age of 12. The CDC says ADHD is a neurodevelopmental disorder that develops during childhood and often lasts into adulthood, and that a medical and psychological exam may be needed to rule out other health problems that can cause symptoms like ADHD or that are often present with ADHD, such as anxiety, depression and sleep problems.
These pages describe each condition separately. None says how the two relate in one person, and none says how to tell fog from inattention on a given day. A clinician can answer those questions, and a record that keeps attention and energy side by side across days gives that conversation a factual base.
A question about focus can be saved in the Daily Journal of Fibromyalgia Journey (by Health Journey Labs) the moment it comes to mind, in your own wording, for the clinician.
A table of the statements: focus, fog, energy and what each source covers
The table below sets out who says what, since each source covers a different part of the picture.
Source statements table, by Fibromyalgia Journey
| Source | What it says | Kind of statement |
|---|---|---|
| NIAMS | Problems with concentrating, thinking clearly and memory, sometimes called fibro fog | Symptom statement |
| MedlinePlus | Problems with thinking, memory and concentration, also fatigue and trouble sleeping | Symptom statement |
| Cleveland Clinic | Fibro fog is trouble concentrating, remembering things or thinking clearly | Description |
| NHS | ADHD can affect how you focus; symptoms include inattention, restlessness and impulsiveness | Condition statement |
| CDC | ADHD often lasts into adulthood; a medical and psychological exam may rule out other causes | Condition and assessment statement |
The table shows that both conditions are described in terms of focus, and that the words used overlap: concentrating, remembering and thinking clearly appear on the fibromyalgia side, and focusing, attention and forgetfulness on the ADHD side. They differ in kind: three sources describe fibromyalgia symptoms and two describe ADHD. None offers a way to separate the two on a particular day, which is why a clinician reads your dated notes instead.
For note-keeping, the aim is to record how focus and energy were each day, in your words, and let your team interpret. The guide to tracking fibromyalgia symptoms describes a light way to begin.
Each day's attention and energy ratings can be entered in the Daily check-in of Fibromyalgia Journey, so focus and tiredness are listed together under one date.
An attention and energy daily record for visits: ratings, fog notes and what you were told
One row for each day lets a clinician read attention and energy together. The table's columns are for your observations and what you were told.
Table of attention and energy, by Fibromyalgia Journey
| Date | Attention (0 to 10) | Energy (0 to 10) | Notes on focus, fog and pain | My question |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 3 | 6 | 3 | Lost my place in emails; sore all over | Is this fog or focus? |
| Mar 4 | 3 | 2 | Could not finish a form; heavy fatigue | Does a bad night matter here? |
| Mar 6 | 7 | 5 | Good morning; fog by 3 pm | Is the afternoon dip usual? |
| Mar 9 | 5 | 4 | Restless; kept switching tasks | Is this the restlessness I read about? |
| Mar 12 | 4 | 3 | Forgot an appointment; pain flare | Should I bring this up? |
Write the date, an attention rating and an energy rating on your own 0 to 10 scales and a few words on focus, fog and pain. Put in what a clinician said, in their words, and your question while it is still fresh. For an uncertain item, include it and leave it to the clinician to decide.
After two or three weeks, read down the rows, and the low-energy day table for fibromyalgia can help with the days when the numbers are lowest. A clinician may see whether low attention came on the same days as low energy or on different days, which a single appointment cannot show. What the record shows is your account of events, and the clinician decides what it means. The guide to logging fibromyalgia and hypermobility together shows a similar way to keep two sets of notes on one page.
The record's pieces find their places in Fibromyalgia Journey: the Daily check-in for ratings, the Daily Journal for what happened and My Care Team for what each clinician said.
Words for focus, fog and energy: describing attention in terms a clinician can compare
A clinician will ask what focus was like and what else was going on, and a short list of words helps you answer in the same terms each time.
Words for fog and focus
These focus and fog words are the ones Fibromyalgia Journey uses in the daily record.
- Focus words: easily distracted, lost my place, could not start, kept switching, hyperfocused, steady.
- Fog words: brain fog, trouble thinking clearly, words slipped away, forgot why I came in.
- Energy words: flat, drained, restless, wired and tired, better by evening.
- Body words: sore, stiff, heavy, aching, slept poorly.
- Other words: whichever terms describe it for you.
Use the words that suit the day and add the date to each. When a word is only a partial match, set it in quotation marks so the guess is clear later.
These words follow the symptoms the sources list: concentration, thinking clearly, memory, forgetfulness, restlessness and fatigue. Clinicians may use other terms and will say so. Sudden confusion, a severe headache that is new for you or sudden weakness on one side of the body is a reason for urgent contact with a clinician or the emergency number, and the record can wait.
Kept under its date in the Daily Journal of Fibromyalgia Journey, the wording you choose lets a clinician hear each day as you lived it.
Four steps to prepare for a visit about attention, fog and energy
There are many topics to cover in a short visit. Four steps help make a clear place for your record in it.
Fog visit steps, by Fibromyalgia Journey
- Fill the record for at least two weeks, marking the days you are unsure of.
- Mark the days when attention was lowest and the days when energy was lowest, and note whether they matched.
- Write a three-line summary: how focus has been, how energy has been and which days stood out.
- Select two or three questions with the most important one at the top.
From Fibromyalgia Journey, we recommend finishing the summary the day before the visit (Fibromyalgia Journey checklist), so the record is current.
Say at the start that you have been keeping an attention and energy record and hand over the page. Go through the summary first and leave room for the clinician's questions. If you have earlier notes or reports, bring them with their dates and mention any you are still waiting for.
Keep the summary short. A page of the main days and three lines reads faster than every row, and the full record can be shown if more is wanted. Note any answers on the page, with the date, so the following visit has what was said to build on.
With an appointment on the calendar, Fibromyalgia Journey already holds the ratings, fog notes and questions in one history, so the three lines come from entries already made.
One summary page for the clinician: attention, energy and your questions
A single page lets a clinician see how focus and energy ran before the first question is asked.
Summary page list, by Fibromyalgia Journey
- How attention has been over the last weeks, with typical ratings, in your words.
- How energy has been over the same weeks, with typical ratings.
- Which days stood out, and what else was happening on them.
- Advice or answers from a clinician, with the date.
- Anything else you noticed, such as sleep or pain, with dates.
- Two or three questions for this visit.
Give the page to the clinician right away and invite the clinician to read it with you. If the clinician suggests a plan or an assessment, add it to the page with the date, so it travels with you. Keep your own copy and jot down the answers, with who gave them.
The page holds the events and what you were told. What lies behind a pattern, whether it relates to either condition and what should be done are for your clinician to decide, and the sources here describe each condition without giving instructions. A neat page helps the clinician get oriented.
A page of ratings, notes and questions comes out of the Doctor Report in Fibromyalgia Journey for you to hand across, and My Care Team holds what each clinician said.
How Fibromyalgia Journey can help
A daily record on paper is enough to begin. If you want attention, energy and visit questions in one dated history, the best fibromyalgia apps guide compares the options.
Fibromyalgia Journey is a personal fibromyalgia tracker from Health Journey Labs on the App Store and Google Play. Two weeks of dated rows give a visit more to work with than memory can. Interpreting the pattern is the clinician's job, and your record supplies the days, words and ratings as they were. Below is what you can use and how each part helps.
- Flare Tracker — Logs flag a day clearly worse than the usual hard week, onset, intensity, short note; read together with history across weeks (one-off spike vs repeating pattern).
- Daily check-in — Logs physical symptoms, emotional state, nutrition, sleep, exercise, meds, external factors; read together with the rest of the logged history.
- Daily Journal — Logs free-text notes, voice entry; app-specific items: the ask you want to remember, what the day limited, partner-talk debriefs, leftover guilt after you canceled, visit notes; read together with scores and other logged history (adds context).
- Weekly Goals — Logs one small aim, whether it held; read together with real check-ins.
- Learn — Logs short education topics, prompts; app-specific items: belief, energy, pacing, why rest belongs in a pacing plan, sleep; read together with your own logged weeks.
- AI companions — Logs Clara (general chat), specialist companions; app-specific items: knowledge, fitness, nutrition, relationships; read together with your logged history (companions already see it); used for: drafting a calmer partner script; a soft rain-check line; visit wording; a listening ear after a hard night.
- My Meds — Logs medicine names, timing, dose; app-specific items: options you actually use; read together with flare weeks, sleep, energy, the rest of the tracked history.
- Period Tracker — Logs start and stop dates, flow, how heavy or light bleeding felt; read together with flares, sleep, energy, everything else logged.
- Food Tracker — Logs meal or drink lines; read together with pain, energy, sleep, flares.
- My Assessments — Logs structured check-ins beyond daily scores, onboarding life and social context; read together with ongoing history.
- My Care Team — Logs clinicians, short visit notes; read together with logged history; used for: visit prep (what to ask and bring); notes during the visit; review afterward.
- Doctor Report — Logs one-page summary exported from logged history; app-specific items: dates, symptoms, how you functioned; read together with the history already logged; visit type: clinic.
- My Labs — Logs result dates; app-specific items: blood counts, imaging, other tests; read together with symptoms, function.
- Weight Tracker — Logs scale or body notes; read together with energy, sleep, flare.
Everything you log builds one history, and insights get stronger as it grows. Custom symptoms let you add your own labels.
We make Fibromyalgia Journey at Health Journey Labs. This guide is educational and does not replace medical advice. Diagnosis, medication decisions, and urgent care decisions belong with your treating clinicians.
Sources
- NIAMS: fibromyalgia
- MedlinePlus: fibromyalgia
- Cleveland Clinic: fibromyalgia
- NHS: ADHD in adults
- CDC: ADHD in adults
FAQ
The answers below draw on the sources cited in this guide, and the app they mention is Fibromyalgia Journey (by Health Journey Labs).
Can fibromyalgia affect concentration?
Yes, fibro fog is named as a fibromyalgia symptom by NIAMS, which describes it as problems with concentrating, thinking clearly and memory. Whether this applies to you is for your clinician to judge from your history.
Rows from Fibromyalgia Journey show a clinician how concentration ran across days, so the conversation opens with facts and the gaps that memory leaves are smaller, which counts in a short visit.
What does the NHS say ADHD affects?
The NHS says ADHD is a condition that can affect how you focus, with symptoms involving attention, energy levels and control of impulses. A clinician decides whether a pattern fits and what to do about it, using your history.
Focus ratings saved each day in Fibromyalgia Journey give a clinician a run of days to read, instead of one overall impression from the week before the visit, and the pattern is easier to describe.
How can I tell fog from inattention?
None of the pages here separates them on a given day, and sorting them out is a clinician's task. A dated record of focus, energy, pain and sleep gives that clinician more to work with, including the days when the two seemed to overlap.
Four small fields under one date in Fibromyalgia Journey let a clinician scan for what came with a bad focus day, such as a poor night or a pain flare, without needing you to remember.
Is it worth recording sleep and pain too?
The CDC notes that sleep problems and anxiety are often present with ADHD, and MedlinePlus lists trouble sleeping with fibromyalgia, so a line about sleep and pain on each day helps a clinician see the setting of a hard day.
Sleep and pain notes sit under the same date as the attention rating in Fibromyalgia Journey, so a clinician can compare them in one glance and ask about any day that stands out.
What if I forget to fill in the record?
Entries made late are fine when marked as written afterward, and days you cannot recall can stay blank. Clinicians find a clear gap more useful than a confident guess, and the clinic can follow up.
Short entries are easy to make in the Daily check-in of Fibromyalgia Journey, and a missed day simply shows as a gap, which a clinician can read as it is, with no pressure to fill every row.
How should I rate attention?
Pick a 0 to 10 scale of your own, decide what a 3 and a 7 mean for you, and keep to it. Using the same personal scale each time tells a clinician more than switching between scales.
Entering the same scale each day in Fibromyalgia Journey gives a clinician a line to read across weeks, so shifts show without anyone needing to recall how a rating was chosen.
Should I note how others see my focus?
A relative or coworker may see lapses you miss, so ask what they noticed and write it down marked as their observation. A second view helps a clinician, and it keeps your account separate from theirs.
Another person's observation can be added to Fibromyalgia Journey on the day it is given, marked as theirs, so the clinician can tell what you reported from what others saw, and who said it.
What should I bring to a visit about attention and energy?
Take along the record, the one-page summary, any earlier reports with their dates and two or three questions. A single sheet is quicker to read than a heap of notes, and the full record waits in your bag for questions.
One page can be made from the record through the Doctor Report in Fibromyalgia Journey, while the longer history stays on your phone in case older rows are wanted during the visit, which helps when time is short.
Can an AI chat tell me whether I have ADHD?
Settling that question takes a history of symptoms over many years, an assessment and often input from people who know you, all of which belong to a clinician. A chat with an AI can help phrase questions and tidy notes, and each reply is a point to raise with the clinician.
Condensing your logged days into a short summary is something the companion inside Fibromyalgia Journey can do, and you check it line by line before sharing it. You keep the final check, with the clinician's view coming first.
For how many weeks should I keep the record?
A month gives a clinician something to read, and longer helps if the pattern varies. Entries need only be added once a day, and a few words are enough, even on days when focus is poor.
One daily nudge, set through Weekly Goals in Fibromyalgia Journey, keeps the record current without long catch-up sessions, and the effort stays small enough to continue between appointments, even on foggy days.
Should I note medicines and supplements?
Medicines and supplements can be listed with the time taken, and every decision about them stays with your clinician. A list helps the clinician see the whole picture, and your note records what happened on that day.
That list is held by My Meds in Fibromyalgia Journey, along with the day's ratings, so you can show it at the visit and ask about any entry you are unsure of.
Is it worth telling several clinicians about the record?
Primary care, a rheumatology clinic and a mental health professional may each see only part of your history, and one page that all of them receive keeps your account consistent between offices and visits.
Each member of your care team can receive the identical page from Fibromyalgia Journey, and My Care Team holds what each one said. Each handover gets a date, which makes it easy to see whose copy is current.
What symptoms mean I should reach a clinician today?
Sudden confusion, a new severe headache or sudden weakness on one side of the body calls for urgent contact with a clinician or the emergency number. A record supports visits, and urgent help always comes first, so write afterward.
Once the advice is logged in Fibromyalgia Journey that day, it gives the next appointment a clear starting point, and whoever sees you next gets an ordered account of what happened and when.
Should I worry about privacy when I track symptoms?
Fatigue, sleep and flare notes can be misread as a lack of effort by people who do not live with fibromyalgia. Protect the log with a passcode, avoid shared computers, and share only the summary that fits the person asking.
With Fibromyalgia Journey, you decide which health notes to add. Read the app's privacy policy to see how data is stored and handled. This guide gives general information, not medical advice.