Stupider: I am losing my intelligence...

Post Reply New Topic

I was told by a psychiatrist that depression can actually cause recall problems, much like the word definition loss you have suffered.

When I was 16, 17, I had the problem that...let's see if I can explain it...I knew kind of the "shape" of the word by words that were similar but not quite what I intended, but couldn't think of it. And simple basic words, like "cat", I would be thinking "smaller than a tiger..."
Also, I didn't actually feel that depressed. It may just be something about the age.
Got better.

Regressive episodes can go on for several months at a time - with an exacerbation of one or other Aspergic traits ... usually social or emotional, but for those within the education system, it's unsurprising that it's most observable as you've seen it.
When your mind is good and ready again, your powers will return to baseline.
Knowing this should ease the burden, even if it tests your patience to the limit.

Two things I'd strongly recommend.

1. - Check out the cerebral effects of Omega-3 oil (10% of your brain is composed of it). I saw a BBC TV report on it a couple of years ago - a scientific digest of the last 35 years of study.
Extremely compelling. Has marked anti-depressant effects in adults and educational benefits in children.

2. - Destress by taking as much genuine alone time as you can, to reduce the stress of social interfacing. And laughter is a great medicine - whatever makes you laugh.

Anxiety has a much more potent effect in this regard.

yes. i think there IS a chance you are getting stupider. (and yeah, it was funny you said stupider, i appreciated it.)

when i was a kid, things were easy, i was that scary-smart that freaks out the adults, scored high on IQ tests, school was easy, blah blah... the first time i had a passing worry that i was not a smart as i used to be was prob still in elementary school, but i didn't start to really notice and have problems until i was about 18 or so.

the same stuff you are mentioning. reading was suddenly HARDER. infomation was not sticking in my brain like it used to, i couldn't GRASP concepts as quickly. unfortunately, i am 29 and this has not reversed, i still feel a slow slide down toward the bottom of the stupid barrel...

so here is my personal theory- yes, perhaps some of the concentration stuff could be explained by anxiety/stress like other people in this post have suggested- but i actually think it has more to do with empathy and self-awareness...

my stupidity seems to be correlated to my attempts to understand other people, look at their emotions, put myself in their shoes. the more effort i put into "playing human," and the more i realized my differences were not all good ones, the harder traditional learning became. and once i thought these thoughts, i couldn't unthink them, so there was no going back. maybe it pushed me past critical mass, just too many possibilites to consider at once, and i forgot how to get back into that zone of absolute attention to a single thing- impaired my singlemindedness by trying to connect to humanity. i don't know... i feel silly trying to explain it because i realize that my explainations sound, well... stupid.

Remember Occam's Razor : All things being equal, the simplest explanation is the most likely.

I doubt there are any new or obscure psychiatric phenomena previously unknown to science, at work.

No, it doesn't sound stupid.

Trying to twist and contort and shrink yourself to fit the unreasonable demands of a god or a monster... it takes a lot of energy, brain power... And if the god or monster's main objective is to kill you, it will just send your mind in an endless loop.

Take the blue pill (or a fairy tale or any of the popular excuses on the market) to ease the pain. The side effects of one pill requires another pill. And the side effects of that one require another. Take that road to the end and all you can do is rock and drool.

Or you can take the red pill. If you are at a moment in your life when you can afford it (or if you have run out of options) just grab a wrecking ball. Everything they have ever told you is a lie. Just get rid of it all. And rebuild your world, your way.

That would be taking the blue pill. To each his own.

the simplest explanation would be that i am imagining these things or making them up. obviously i reject that.

what really boggles the mind is that you think psychiatry knows and understands all human phenomena, and that science has reached it's limits there. i mean, really dude, wow.

No that's denial - not explanation ... simple or otherwise.

Calm down.

You know, there is validity to this.
I think certain types of intelligence are often traded off for the ability to get along with people. It could be for a simple, functional reason like mimicking the way (we perceive that) other people think, or becoming uncomfortable with conflict. Ways/patterns of thinking fall aside when we fail to practice them.

Psychiatry is still in its infancy. Compare it to, say, agriculture, over a timeline of the last 4000 years.

OCD, I had the same feelings.

I got a cat scan about 8 months ago (for something un-related to this), and there was nothing wrong. But I started feeling less intelligent less than 8 months ago. I have "joked" to people that I have a brain tumour, but they have told me that it's extremely unlikely that anything has happened to my brain in the last few months that wasn't there when I got the scan.
I have never taken an IQ test.
I don't have to pay for a cat scan (I live in Canada) but I do need a Doctor's concern. If my Doctor says I'm fine, I won't be able to get a cat scan, especially since I got one 8 months ago.
And yes, my parents would need to be involved.

Last edited by DJRnold on 15 Aug 2008, 11:19 am, edited 1 time in total.

The simpler and more likely causes needed to be addressed first.
Once they've been exhausted, you can move on to possible medical causes.

Relaxation, laughter, exercise and diet - undramatic maybe, but the results won't be.

Ah.... so this "ALL TV is good or bad" mantra you be epousin' aint even adhered to by yourself, what with the differentiation of what u watch and all...Omar suggests you more carefully proofread what u write next time...

which ironically brings us to this



Truth is Omar don't really care how you take him, either with two spoonfuls of honey or by repository, either way it still gets in your system. And what is this "Proper English" nonsense you be writing 'bout, Omar would like to hear it. God forbid someone excludes an extra letter from their words or doesn't fill up their sentences with more needless articles than a special issue of reader's digest. Language be 'bout personal expression my boy, and not some nonsensical notion of propriety, but since communication is also about mutual understanding...let's see if Omar can't answer your question how you like it.

" The Television shows you are talking about are not any better than the ones I mentioned. In fact, they are built up with the same kind of contrived scenarios and they package music and talent like some Mattel assembly plant, complete with 'customer feedback'. This is like some hyper potent, psycho-stimulational distillation of the American dream with "Fame and fortune is just a contest away!" Perhaps if the show promoted actual creativity and artistic individuality as much as asinine covers songs and little quips by simon, we'd be getting somewhere. But nowadays, it's just a grim spectacle of pop culture being collared in spikes and lead by the whims of commercialism. "

*yawn...now back to your regularly scheduled programming...

-

You have obviously never seen Canadian Idol...

lol isnt this getting offtopic?

I agree with this. Omar knows what he's talking about. All these shows are identical whether it's Canada, America, Britain or Cambodia.