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Ask HN: My brain refuses to think, what should I do?

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Re: Ask HN: My brain refuses to think, what should I do?

#31

Post by justlearningnow »

aneth wrote: post #11

I highly recommend learning meditation. I meditate once a day for 15 minutes and it's worked wonders for my ability to feel well and focused. Personally I learned a cheaper and less cult like variation of transcendental meditation, because it requires little training, time, or even effort. A day without meditation for me now is worse than a day without sleeping.

Hello, could you please elaborate a bit on the meditation technique? What exactly do you do? Thank you so much for answering. I've been trying to learn TM but all the courses cost a fortune..

Re: Ask HN: My brain refuses to think, what should I do?

#33

Post by anigbrowl »

I think I have some sort of addiction/disorder and I can look for psychotherapy, but I wan to know if there are easier and cheaper remedies.

The loss of productivity from what sounds like ADD will be a lot more expensive than the cost of consultation and medication.

Re: Ask HN: My brain refuses to think, what should I do?

#35

Post by desigooner »

Sleep on time .. atleast 7 hours of sleep.

Exercise ... Either early morning or early evening. To quote Frank Costanza, I feel vigorous after working out.

Try to use natural light vs. Artificial light.

Meditate. If you're losing focus, switch off the lights, lower the blinds and look at the flame of a burning candle for a few minutes and try to keep a blank mind. Haven't done this for a while but did help me reduce stress.

Re: Ask HN: My brain refuses to think, what should I do?

#36

Post by maximilian »

You have this problem: http://xkcd.com/477/

I know I have it sometimes. I think sometimes we just get in this bad habit of letting our mind escape to easier things. I'd say just redirect that traffic, turn off the internet or something and just force yourself back into a working habit.

Re: Ask HN: My brain refuses to think, what should I do?

#37

Post by jacobolus »

jacquesm wrote: post #26
asnyder wrote: post #18

You're burnt out, it happens, more so in the thinking oriented fields. As some of the other comments mentioned, you need a break. Fortunately my gf forces me to take time away from work, otherwise I would be burnt out half the year.

That's the second time in a few weeks this comes up on HN, if you 'need a break' you are not burned out (yet). Burn-out is not something you're going to solve with a break or a change of scene for a few weeks, but is a pretty serious state of mind that will probably affect your life for many years and will leave lasting scars for the remainder of it.

Can you elaborate? What do you mean by “burn-out”?

Re: Ask HN: My brain refuses to think, what should I do?

#38

Post by j_baker »

"I think I have some sort of addiction/disorder and I can look for psychotherapy, but I wan to know if there are easier and cheaper remedies."

I'd highly recommend seeing a doctor of some kind. This isn't necessarily something that's all in your head. What you're describing could be the symptoms of any number of physical or mental disorders, many of which need a doctor's attention.

Don't be afraid to seek help. It could very well change your life.

Re: Ask HN: My brain refuses to think, what should I do?

#39

Post by warmfuzzykitten »

Welcome to Short Attention Span Theater. You must read email, but write as little as possible. Remove yourself from all email newsletters. Swear off facebook, twitter, HN and all other distractions for at least two weeks. When you discover you didn't actually miss anything, you'll be on the road to recovery.

Re: Ask HN: My brain refuses to think, what should I do?

#40

Post by joe_the_user »

maqr wrote: post #25

I'll say it: You should do drugs. You're describing a brain problem. It might be caused by poor diet, sleep, life perspective, etc. But whatever the cause, it's a problem in your brain; and it's probably fixable with drugs. If you feel you have an ADHD problem (which is what it sounds like), there's a variety of pills that can correct your symptoms. This quiz is fairly accurate in terms of diagnosis (really, self-ans…

Diagnosing someone over the Internet seems a bit premature.
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