There was a time in my life when I genuinely believed I needed to become more organized.
I thought I needed a better planner, a better routine, or a better system for keeping track of everything. After all, I was managing a business, maintaining a marriage, supporting family members, showing up for friends, juggling responsibilities, and trying to stay on top of a life that seemed to become more complicated with every passing year.
From the outside, everything looked fine. In many ways, it looked successful. The business was growing. The family was cared for. The obligations were being met. If someone had asked how I was doing, I probably would have answered, “Busy, but good.”
What I didn’t realize at the time was that I was beginning to spend an enormous amount of energy simply keeping all the plates spinning.
Nothing was falling apart, but everything seemed to require more effort than it used to.
I would sit down at my computer to complete one task and find myself bouncing between emails, text messages, calendar reminders, and a dozen other responsibilities before finishing what I originally intended to do. I wasn’t forgetting major things. The bills got paid. The appointments got scheduled. The work got done. Yet there was a growing sense that I was using significantly more mental energy to accomplish things that had once felt effortless.
The best way I can describe it is that I no longer felt ahead of my life. I felt like I was constantly trying to catch up with it.
When women talk about brain fog, I think this is often what they’re trying to describe. It’s not usually a fear that they’ve suddenly become less intelligent. It’s the unsettling feeling that the brain they’ve relied on for decades doesn’t seem to be working quite the same way anymore.
Many of the women in our Her Turn community tell me the same thing. They aren’t necessarily worried because they forgot where they put their keys. They’re worried because they don’t feel as sharp, focused, or mentally resilient as they once did. They describe feeling scattered. They talk about struggling to concentrate on a single task without being pulled in multiple directions. They explain that they can still do everything they’ve always done, but it somehow feels harder than it should.
What fascinates me is that so many women assume this is simply part of getting older.
I don’t believe that’s the whole story.
Over the last several years, I’ve become deeply interested in the science of brain health, particularly as it relates to women in midlife. What researchers continue to show us is that cognitive function is influenced by far more than age alone. Sleep matters. Stress matters. Hormones matter. Nutrition matters. Inflammation matters. The health of the brain is connected to virtually every system in the body.
One of the nutrients that researchers have studied extensively is citicoline. While most people have never heard of it, citicoline has attracted significant scientific interest because of the role it appears to play in supporting attention, focus, memory, learning, and overall cognitive performance.
One reason scientists find citicoline so compelling is its relationship with acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter involved in learning, memory, and communication between brain cells. If you’ve ever wondered how the brain manages to coordinate billions of messages every second, neurotransmitters like acetylcholine are a big part of the answer. They help facilitate the communication that allows us to think, learn, remember, and stay mentally engaged.
Researchers have also explored citicoline’s role in supporting brain energy metabolism. That may sound technical, but the practical application is actually very relevant to women in midlife. Many women don’t describe their cognitive challenges as memory problems. They describe them as mental fatigue. They feel like their brains are tired. They feel like maintaining focus requires more effort. They feel mentally drained by the end of the day, even when they haven’t done anything physically demanding.
That distinction matters because it changes the conversation.
Instead of asking, “What’s wrong with me?” women can begin asking, “What does my brain need?”
That’s one of the reasons I care so much about the work we’re doing at Her Turn. Women deserve more than vague reassurance that what they’re experiencing is normal. They deserve information. They deserve research. They deserve a community where these conversations can happen openly and honestly.
Most importantly, they deserve to know that feeling different doesn’t mean they’re broken.
For far too long, women have been taught to push through symptoms, ignore warning signs, and accept feeling less than their best as an inevitable part of aging. I believe there’s a better approach. I believe that when we understand what’s happening inside our bodies and brains, we become empowered to support ourselves more intentionally.
The goal isn’t to become twenty-five again.
The goal is to feel clear, confident, focused, and fully present in the life you’re living today.
And if you’ve been feeling like you’ve lost a little bit of yourself along the way, I want you to know that you’re not alone. In fact, you’re surrounded by thousands of women who are asking the very same questions and discovering that there may be more answers than they were ever led to believe.
Love,
Abbe ❤️