Blissfully Slipping into Cognitive Decline (Post‑PhD Edition)

I have slipped blissfully into cognitive decline. I fought it at first, but now I’ve accepted it as a normal part of the post‑PhD adjustment.

Alongside the overwhelm, the waiting, the confusion, and the “what ifs,” my memory lapses have ramped up.

I cannot find my passport, which I carefully placed somewhere “safe.” Worse, I cannot remember how to set up a new email address on my own domain.

The new email address is not so blissful. It’s mega stressful as I offload from the university system. I need a new address because I no longer have access to both the email and the phone number tied to two‑factor authentication for the old one.

And do you think I can easily get on to a person at Microsoft?!!! It's all AI bots now. I haven't utilused AI for three years while building my PhD argument now I just want to argue with a human being to explain that they need to help me prove who I am! But, in this post PhD season, can I even remember who I am and who I used to be?????

Sometimes I worry there’s something seriously wrong, but then I remember: I just finished a PhD.

For years my brain lived on caffeine, citation managers, and the constant threat of two examiners: a domestic and international one.

Of course there’s some… aftershock. This isn’t early‑onset anything, it’s the intellectual equivalent of jet lag. My neurons are still wandering around the terminal clutching a half‑finished thesis and wondering where the gate went. And where the hell is my passport!!!!!

👵🎓 Megan Bayliss.  Social work supervisor.  Phd in psychoeducation and bibliotherapy under examination.