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Ask HN: How to restore cognition after years of trauma? I feel slow and dumb

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21–30 of 97 posts

Re: Ask HN: How to restore cognition after years of trauma? I feel slow and dumb

#21
I took 4 hours/day of a human language class with 3-4 hours of self-study/memorization using Anki. As a result of the class time (9am-1pm), got into a regular and sufficient sleep schedule.

In about 2 weeks, I noticed my short-term memory had improved.

Re: Ask HN: How to restore cognition after years of trauma? I feel slow and dumb

#23
OP there is a lot of potentially dangerous ideas on here. I do not know what your situation is or your mindset, but for the love of all things good and to reiterate what you already probably know. Exercise caution when lapping in these recommendations and stick to basic stuff as much as possible i.e exercise and sleep and mental exercises.

Re: Ask HN: How to restore cognition after years of trauma? I feel slow and dumb

#24
post #5

I am not a doctor. The biggest thing for me in the last couple of years has been physical health. Exercise, eating correctly, and proper sleep have resulted in a huge improvement in my mental acuity, and relieved a sense of I had of "I'm not operating at my actual capacity." This advice can feel trite, or it can feel overwhelming. Changing physical habits when you're already depressed is a huge undertaking, and I don…

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Re: Ask HN: How to restore cognition after years of trauma? I feel slow and dumb

#25
post #5

I am not a doctor. The biggest thing for me in the last couple of years has been physical health. Exercise, eating correctly, and proper sleep have resulted in a huge improvement in my mental acuity, and relieved a sense of I had of "I'm not operating at my actual capacity." This advice can feel trite, or it can feel overwhelming. Changing physical habits when you're already depressed is a huge undertaking, and I don…

Agreed on mind and body as one. I'm working to address physical health, but it often feels my brain has been irreparably damaged over the course of 2 decades to where no amount of physical health will rewire the necessary circuits to achieve normal function.

Re: Ask HN: How to restore cognition after years of trauma? I feel slow and dumb

#27

Anger. Get angry. A lot of trauma is internalization. You blame yourself. It's made to be your fault. You're told you're a terrible person. Get mad about what happened to you. Anger is your tool for being pissed off and asserting your boundaries. https://cptsdfoundation.org/2022/05/31/the-importance-of-ang...

This is insanely bad advice, IMO. Anger is very hard to control, can easily backfire into self-loathing and cause you to strain existing relationships, which can also further fuel internal anger at oneself. If you get mad about what happened to you and start lashing out at others, you risk isolating yourself and deepening your depression.

Too much anger is bad. Suppressing justified anger might be unhealthy though. So long as it's moderated, anger can be an appropriate response to some things.

Re: Ask HN: How to restore cognition after years of trauma? I feel slow and dumb

#28

If 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:…

Appreciate your advice, but this is generally what I've done in the past year, save for a few gigs, and it has only worsened my mental health due to the lack of structure, stimulation, and engagement that having work and colleagues usually brought.

Re: Ask HN: How to restore cognition after years of trauma? I feel slow and dumb

#29
I have through medication and 8d audio. The magic mixture for me is Vitamin D, Curcumin for anti-inflamation, vyvanse for adhd, and well-butrin for adhd and depression. YMMV, wellbutrin I feel has been the most important addition to the mix. I also feel I ebb/flow and some of my issues stem from long-covid from 2020. I still have days where I totally freak myself out by having an existential brain fart. I'm 43, but it literally feels alzheimerish where I'll be driving in a familiar place and nothing looks familiar at all, or I even feel like I forgot how to drive for a minute. Just total oblivion of ego, I guess. It happened a LOT more in 2020, but once in awhile it happens.

Re: Ask HN: How to restore cognition after years of trauma? I feel slow and dumb

#30
I'm on a similar path, maybe a couple steps ahead. I have a disease which caused constant severe pain from ages 12-29 (currently 31 y/o). I wanted to die for my entire adult life. 2 years ago I started an elimination diet which dramatically reduced my pain. So I know everyone says this, but controlling diet and other substance intake (alcohol, cigs) is a really big deal.

I also started microdosing mushrooms a year ago. I know you said you tried psychedelics, but I don't know if you've tried microdosing; Before I tried it, I always thought it was ridiculous and kind of an abuse/waste of psychedelics. But I like to say that the mushrooms are teaching my brain how to feel good: Maybe they repair connections in the brain or whatever, but I just needed to kick-start having a good day, so my brain could have an example of how that works.

Another major step was finding a new community...My experience is that when you're depressed, people come to expect it from you. Even if you're in a particularly good mood one day, your friends and family will kind of prompt you to act depressed. They do it out of love, probably, but it makes it that much harder to break the pattern.

One more piece, which may or may not be appropriate for you, is utilizing sex workers. Having trauma and pain, it was always a shitty experience for me to seek physical comfort. If you aren't ashamed of it, paying for affection can be a great way to meet your needs in a simple, non-judgemental way that's less emotionally and physically draining.

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