Ohhh man this is bad.. f**k

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I can very much relate to this post. I was suicidically depressed a few years ago - though there is some progress out of that, intellectually I still am not the same as before. My university studies have come almost to a standstill because I just cannot concentrate and I can't use my mind as I once did. Don't some parts of the brain (hippocampus?) shrink when depressed? Could this be a cause of such problems?

-Osman-

Learning and recall are based on mental states. Do you have the habit of only learning something while in an agitated and threatened state, as if you were under the gun? Recall works best in the same mental state that you learned something. Also, I think that if a person is not used to learning while in a relaxed state, he won't. Your environment has changed.

username88,

What you described happened to me. I use to LOVE puzzles. Looking back, I had the type of observation that some autistics have, and was even fairly good with math. The later didn't last long, but it was there. My speech was certainly far more advanced, especially considering my age. I DID read encyclopedias and dictionaries for fun! I did all sorts of puzzles, and did them well. Some of my classmates in highschool accused me of plagerism on a term paper, because it was so advanced. Happily, the teacher knew better, but I had all my notes, and the reference books. I did it just as I was supposed to, and it had a NEAT bibliography.

TODAY, I don't do nearly as well. I STILL astound my employers, and customers usually love me. Still, I feel like the proverbial candle.(Burns twice as well but half as long.) In school, it seemed that people started to catch up to me around 9 or so and, worse yet, I went down. Still, I guess I can be happy of where I am at. Today, I was under a lot of stress because of some idiots wanting me to do needless things which kept them busy, and kept me away from getting things done RIGHT. I am constantly reminded that I am not as dumb as I may feel sometimes.

Hey, study the things you are weak at and work on your interests. THAT will help cheer you up, and you can end up feeling smarter also!

I see - thank you for the explanation. I did usually study inorder to prove something to someone specificially, I rarely bothered to it just for the sake of itself. I haven't had the energy to prove anything to anyone for a long time so perhaps I cannot therefore learn like I used to. So how do I metalearn while relaxed?

-O-

Yeah, I went through a prolonged depression after the death of a family member following a protracted illness. In recent years I've been trying to kick my brain back into something like a normal functioning. Check it out: there are things you can do to train your brain and beat the effects of aging and being sedentary, etc. Here are some I like:

*Spending less time online and watching TV
*Being physically active
*Eating right (I cannot emphasize this enough--studies have been done which show prison inmates become mentally better-balanced thanks to having a healthy diet, balance which went away when the studies ended and the diet reverted to that available before the study)
*Getting some kind of brain-training device (Nintendo makes 'em) *or* doing brain-training exercises
*Trying puzzles--3-D or jigsaw
*Taking up chess and similar type games
*Taking a multivitamin and learning about the dietary needs of your body. (Check out Omega-3s--these may help the brain process seratonin and encourage better mood balance)

The brain is like any other part of your body--use benefits it. So use it!

There is a bit of building yourself up to it. I wish that I could recommend a book that has some steps or rituals to follow because I'm not an expert on that, and I learn the way I always did when I was a kid, by reading up on something that I'm interested in. Usually it's still to help someone else or to prove something to someone, and I don't take care enough to inform myself the way that I should. All those mental states that I talk about are a real problem. The people who put my psyche together had hostile intentions.

You have to form the intention to do it, back that up with some action, and just do it. "Geniuses" are people who actually learn and recall what was in the book and any practical experience that they have. The knowledge that I have impresses a lot of people and I think of it as rudimentary. You have to learn it for life, not just to pass a test.

My brain is collapsing in on itself. I used to be good at mental arithmetic, but now my mind wanders. If something enters the workspace of my mind, so to speak, before I get a chance to apply that 'something' it disintegrates rapidly and I'm left staring at the dust, trying to remember what the hell it was that just went bye-bye. By the time I've ran after it, grabbed it by the collar and given it a few stern words, I realise that I'm standing the other side of town (the town in my mind, it has TWO laundromats! Can you say, Utopia?) and now I've gotta travel back to where I started, I'm back to square one and very annoyed and a little horny. So I give up and go and play pinball instead, for reasons that elude me. Only in the calming activity of pinging my balls about do I realise that mental arithemtic doesn't matter, because I have a calculator. Now I got more time for pinball. Who's stupid now?

Thanks Remnant. My situation is doubly frustrating because school was so easy (I never did my homework, skipped classes quite a bit and still did really well) and university was actually interesting so I did go there and did well with minimal effort. Now even when I try to put effort I see no results. I hate being stupid.

Look again at those posts. Was it really intellectual or pseudo intellectual? Sometimes a little maturity means you don't always need to use big words.

Depression can make you unmotivated and apathetic. Then again strong emotions can provide motivation in itself, if you can tap into that.

That's preposterous!



I often feel the need to be creative, I feel like drawing, or writing or whatever, but I never have anything I want to say, or comment on. Inspiration is something I never seem to have. If I don't have inspiration then I won't/can't put the effort in and up with something sub-par. Which is uninspiring in itself.

What makes you think you need to have anything to say?





I'm on a roll today. It is odd how fluke pulls out the stops.

I wish that I could do better for you, but I really think that you are moving into a mental space where you will eventually find yourself with a far more effective mind. There is a lot more to intelligence than you might think.