<i>Anybody else gone through this?</i><p>Yes, although I don&#x27;t think I was able to &quot;see&quot; things in my head before or after. I got West Nile Virus about 10 years ago, and was physically out-of-commission for most of a year.  The particularly disturbing part was that even after I recovered physically, it took several more years before I recovered my mental ability well enough to reason about anything complex -- like math, or code.  I just couldn&#x27;t follow equations that once made sense.<p>Now after a decade, I think I&#x27;m back to about 80-90% of peak.  I don&#x27;t know if the small decline is residual from the West Nile, or to be expected with normal aging from 35 to 45. The experience drove home how little we understand the brain, or viruses.  Consider how primitive our understanding of medicine was 100 years ago. I think it&#x27;s likely that 100 years forward they&#x27;ll look back at now with similar disdain:  &quot;They didn&#x27;t understand anything --- they just let viruses run their course and do their damage!&quot;