Potentially long covid? No trauma but I have felt this recently a bit, no where near debilitating but noticeable, perhaps I'm just aging
Ask HN: How to restore cognition after years of trauma? I feel slow and dumb
81–90 of 97 posts
Re: Ask HN: How to restore cognition after years of trauma? I feel slow and dumb
#82Have you had your thyroid levels tested? My problem was mostly hypothyroidism.
Re: Ask HN: How to restore cognition after years of trauma? I feel slow and dumb
#83I'm in the same place - or similar enough, anyways. I'd like to find out, too. I'm reading through some of these advice, and my alarm bells are ringing- some of these advice are bad. There are some solid advice, though. Physical activity being one of them, if you're not already doing it.
Re: Ask HN: How to restore cognition after years of trauma? I feel slow and dumb
#84I would go see a doctor but that's what worked for me: - Elimination diet. It took me years to realize every time I eat eggs or food with wheat flour I get brain fog/mild depression for the following 2-3 days, that disappears completely if I abstain from them. - Make sure I get cardio on most days, if you can't run then walk at least 10k steps a day. - 1 cup of good quality coffee in the morning
I’m 11 days into a full elimination diet right now, and also 5 weeks with no sugar wheat, dairy or alcohol. It hasn’t turned my life around, but I feel 10x better already. It’s a really good thing to do - but difficult.
Re: Ask HN: How to restore cognition after years of trauma? I feel slow and dumb
#85I've been struggling with this for years and I've made tremendous progress in 2022. Here's what worked for me: - developing a regular aerobic exercise routine. Starting my day with a walk or run makes such a difference, I feel like a different person after I exercise - reducing/cutting out substances. I love cannabis but I recognize that it exacerbates my ADHD symptoms, reduces my desire to connect socially and reduc…
> psychiatric drugs have not worked for me personally, but that certainly doesn't mean they won't work for you. The key to recovery is making them a part of a larger commitment to your overall health. You cannot simply take a drug and ignore the other aspects of your life. Americans have been conditioned to think that a pill solves everything, but this could not be further from the truth Fellow ADHD'er here, and I am…
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Re: Ask HN: How to restore cognition after years of trauma? I feel slow and dumb
#86[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: How to restore cognition after years of trauma? I feel slow and dumb
#87I've been struggling with this for years and I've made tremendous progress in 2022. Here's what worked for me: - developing a regular aerobic exercise routine. Starting my day with a walk or run makes such a difference, I feel like a different person after I exercise - reducing/cutting out substances. I love cannabis but I recognize that it exacerbates my ADHD symptoms, reduces my desire to connect socially and reduc…
Thank you so much for this comment. And to OP for posting this question.
Reading both your posts I felt as if someone had read my mind. I really appreciate the time you took to ask and share you experience.
Re: Ask HN: How to restore cognition after years of trauma? I feel slow and dumb
#88I've been struggling with this for years and I've made tremendous progress in 2022. Here's what worked for me: - developing a regular aerobic exercise routine. Starting my day with a walk or run makes such a difference, I feel like a different person after I exercise - reducing/cutting out substances. I love cannabis but I recognize that it exacerbates my ADHD symptoms, reduces my desire to connect socially and reduc…
Good god, if you’re feeling slow or dumb DO NOT SMOKE WEED. From personal experience and that of my friends, weed severely affects attention span and mental focus.
I experimented with it as an alcohol replacement. I had to stop because I’d forget the point of my sentence before I got to the end.
My buddy is a great guy but cannot focus. He’s worse when he’s been smoking. My nephew too. He utterly fails to understand verbal direction after he has been smoking. Also my two friends in jr high went from sharp and smarter than me to barely keeping up. I know that’s not science, but it’s good enough for me (and there’s no scientific study that disagrees)
I’m not anti weed (it’s legal where I am and I’ve used it and had fun) but if you need to focus, please for the love of god, avoid the stuff.
Re: Ask HN: How to restore cognition after years of trauma? I feel slow and dumb
#89If you have enough saved up. Take 1 year of work, disconnect from the rat's race, go to parties, go dancing, chill at a park, let people look down on you for being unemployed. Hang in there, buy only the things you need. Slowly you'll realize what's important, you'll find yourself. And you'll come back stronger than ever, with a different attitude towards careers, jobs and you'll learn to be human and just BE. EDIT:…
I’m in the exact position as the OP. In fact this feels like a description of myself. I could barely achieve the simplest of tasks, so I quit my job. I just did nothing at home for a bit, now I’m backpacking. It’s been 2 months and so far my mental health hasn’t improved one bit. I still feel like my brain is trapped in mud; anything that requires minimum mental effort takes an insurmountable amount of energy. I’m no…
Imo, that's perfectly normal and to be expected. If you're part of a bad system, leaving that system will often be worse at first, but hopefully better in the long run.
Re: Ask HN: How to restore cognition after years of trauma? I feel slow and dumb
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was in a similar position to you a couple of years ago. Burned out and quit my job, burned through my savings instead. After two months I felt no improvement and was beating myself up for being a failure, but after ten months I felt oddly re-energised, and ready to resume working. I don't know what changed, I think it was just time taken to recover my mind. I wish you the best, it's a difficult state of mind to be…
Thanks for the comment, really appreciate it! I was kind of expecting a gradual change but it’s good to hear other people have been in the same boat.
Same here. I started feeling much better only after 9-10 months off work (stay at home parent). Then returned to the same grind and one year later quit with a plan for a longer break. But after 7 months found a great matching job for me and wanted to go to work again.