I don't understand what's happening to my brain.

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Can anxiety/depression/other psychiatric disorders/neuropsychiatric disorders/stress make you less intelligent?

I'm sorry if this sounds arrogant or something but I'm really worried. People have told me I'm intelligent, bright, smart, curious, observant, logical, analytical (etc) my whole life but the past year I've felt increasingly stupid. I'm failing my studies (I've honestly failed over 50 % this year and I'm only excelling at things I'm really interested in) and even though I'm really trying it's like my brain's blocked (like when your ears are blocked, you know). The smallest failure make me feel completely discouraged and this whole thing really frustrates me. Either people have been lying to me for 22 years and I'm actually not that smart or everything I'm going through is really messing with my brain. What if it never gets back to normal? That thought really scares me.

Today I failed an important physics exam and I can't help but pretty much hating myself for it. I really did my best to study for the exam and I did my best when I took it but it still didn't work out. I don't get it.

Have any of you ever experienced something similar? Will I get back to normal?

Once again, I really don't mean to sounds arrogant and I worry you'll take this the wrong way. This is something which has worried me for about a year now though and the whole thing is a serious problem since it makes me fail my studies etc.

It's not going to make you less intelligent but it does affect the way you think.

In my opinion your neural pathways/thought processes do not function as well if you are depressed.

Stress and anxiety are compound factors, the more you have issues/failures the larger problem can be magnified.

Do you have more exams or re-sits to come? If you do and are really feeling pressured can you defer until later date when you feel better?

Be careful with deferring subjects as the temptation to walk away and fail a subject completely can be too much to resist.

Yes. It can. At least, this is my experience. I didn't use the sentence 'less intelligent', but I used the words 'blocked' or 'jammed', my friends have listened more that once those damn words.

In my opinion, this has to be something related to the asperger brain wiring, since everytime I have tried to explain it (a lot of times, indeed), no NT has been able to know what I was talking about.

Good news: get out of the depression, and your mind will go back. It's not inmediate. In my experience, fully recovering takes 3 to 6 months.

Last edited by Greb on 15 Apr 2013, 10:07 am, edited 4 times in total.

it might be a lack of energy or diminished executive functioning, rather than an indictment of your actual ability.

I would consider myself above average intelligence and always have been, but in spite of this performed inconsistently at school and university due to poor executive functioning. Just finding the gumption to pick up a book and study would be a real struggle. I have recently self diagnosed with ADHD and plan to see the doctor about next week. I am hoping she will prescribe me with a course of Ritalin or something similar.

I don't think those things actually reduce your intelligence, they can make you feel like you might be losing it though. Basically mental disorders and stress can effect concentration and cognitive abilities its certainly happened to me quite a lot. It's not that you're not intelligent your brain is just having a harder time with all the other stuff its dealing with....so it in effect makes it kind of hard to think and concentrate and such.

In my case I have found trying to reduce the stress some can help a bit, but aside from that I cannot say I am back to where I was before....I still am not able to read books again without difficulty. In my case I'd say its likely having PTSD and ongoing depression that if anything has only gotten worse is what has effected my cognitive abilities for the most part. It has been actually bothering me the past week because it will take like an hour for me to type a post, or I can't decide on simple things so I know how frusterating it can be.

I suppose its also the main reason I decided against continuing to go to college....I just cannot keep up with it with how I've been effected. I cannot really say if it gets better/back to normal or not I think that depends on the individual, what mental issues/stress could be contributing and what is able to be done about it. In my case I don't think it will go back to normal, hell its hard to remember the normal before the PTSD.

Yeah, I have two more exams (in May) and then I'll have re-take the one I failed today (and others if I fail them too). I feel very overwhelmed just thinking about it. Can't really defer them, no. Also, I have to pass this physics course to be able to start my degree in Biomedicine in August/September (I'm "only" studying some courses this year). If I don't pass physics I'll have to settle for my second choice.



Though of course it's not good that you've been there I must say it's good to hear I'm not the only one going through this. People don't really get what I'm talking about when I try to explain this. I feel like the most stupid person and the biggest failure on the planet. I know that's not rational but I'm just failing at life at nowadays and it's not really good for my self-esteem/confidence.



This is pretty much exactly what it's like for me. Just not sure it's due to poor executive functioning or something else.

By the way, this is a copypaste of what I wrote in another thread. I'm not saying that this is happening to you, but in my case, being chronically depressed (it took a long time to me to know that was the reason) doesn't make me feel 'depressed', but feel 'stupid'.

Yeap, it's weird. Asperger stuff, I supponse.

It really scares me because in my mind I'm nothing without my intelligence. It's the only thing I've always liked about myself. Now I worry about that sounding arrogant as well but I'm so frustrated right now I'm just going to write it anyway. The fact that I have very high standards for myself (and the fact that I'm scared of failure) doesn't really help.

have you considered It might be because you are stressed or suffering sleep deprivation?

Try relaxing or getting more sleep.

I think it has to do with the anxiety and depression getting worse the past year. I've had trouble sleeping but it's a bit better nowadays. I'm constantly stressed (I for example have Generalised Anxiety Disorder which means I'm pretty much stressed and anxious all the time). I don't know what to do to relax. I don't know how to relax.

I don't think that sounds all that arrogant, but tend to feel kind of simular I mean to be honest aside from my intelligence there isn't really a whole lot I can say I like about myself. That is why I havn't known what to do with myself for quite a while, I mean I had planned to go to college before crap happened but yeah since the stupid PTSD started interfering to an extreme well it kind of took that option away from me.

As for failure I guess I've gotten used to it unfortunately, I used to be more afraid of it.......when I didn't feel I was failing 24/7. Anyways I hope you can find a solution. Do you go to any therapy or take any medications or anything to treat the depression? Also can't say for sure but if your main issues are depression and anxiety with proper treatment of those disorders you would have a good chance of getting through that. I guess I feel if I just had anxiety and depression without the PTSD on top of it i might have gotten through college.

I know one thing for sure, trying to just do it yourself and use sheer willpower to force yourself to get through stuff like that can sometimes do more damage than good. Thing is you have to deal with the depression and anxiety some way to reduce the cognitive/concentration issues trying to just bury it inside is not usually a good idea and I only say that because I've learned it the hard way.

Last edited by Sweetleaf on 15 Apr 2013, 10:32 am, edited 1 time in total.

For me, sensory overload jams my brain.

So you need to eat well, sleep well and get some physical exercise every day too.

Concentrate your revision in short periods and then take a break, no epic study periods it's not efficient.

DO NOT be too hard on yourself, this is self defeating.

You can do this, believe you can, research revision techniques, make flash cards etc.

Good luck.

No offense taken, dude. But get out of whatever you're dealing now. This 'blocked' or 'stupid' state is not permanent, but it can stay for really long if you don't solve whatever led you to it.

And this ^ you need to make some attempt to fix yourself.

Oh, I'm trying. Believe me. I've been queueing to get assessed for ASD and ADHD for 7 months now (waiting lists are long) and I've been seeing a psychologist and a psychiatrist who've determined I've got depression, social anxiety disorder, generalised anxiety disorder and perhaps OCD (all of which I've had for at least 10 years without ever treating them and all of them have gotten worse the past year). Anyway, they've referred me to a private psychologist for CBT. Starting within a month. Really looking forward to it but I'm scared at the same time. Have you got any experience with CBT or therapy in general? Does it help?

EDIT: I feel a bit weird for probably having that many diagnoses (though personally I'm really not sure I have OCD and ADHD. I'm still not sure about ASD either but all the professionals I've seen seem to think I have it.)