Intellectual Slump...

Off Topic
1

How many of you have ever gone through, consistently go through or are currently going through what I call an ‘intellectual slump?’

There are times when I can make sense of articles written by Stephen Hawkings, about subjects I’ve never even begun to have thought about, and times when Dr. Suess troubles me. Normally I can regain my intelligence prety quickly, but as of late, I’m stumbling over my words and thoughts more and more and it’s driving me crazy! The slumps normally are a week or so long, but can last upwards of a month for the really bad ones.

Can anyone relate to what I go through? I’m hoping so and I’m hoping that if you can, you know of a way to clear up this problem I’m experiencing…

2

How much sleep are you getting?

Are you confusing lack of confusion with understanding on a regular basis?

Do you suffer from depression?

I know what you’re describing, and there are many factors that can contribute to the feeling.

Do you suffer from borderline personality disorder? One of the characteristics is a feeling of emptiness or hollowness inside combined with lack of affect. Numbness. It’s hard to think when you’re numb.

How’s your diet looking? Processed sugar does it to me sometimes.

What are your stress levels like? How much recreational time do you build into your life, and what are those activities? Do you just play mindless videogames (guilty), or do you engage yourself with more stimulating play?

I have more questions for you, but I’ll let you answer these, first.

3

[quote]nephorm wrote:
How much sleep are you getting?

Are you confusing lack of confusion with understanding on a regular basis?

Do you suffer from depression?

I know what you’re describing, and there are many factors that can contribute to the feeling.

Do you suffer from borderline personality disorder? One of the characteristics is a feeling of emptiness or hollowness inside combined with lack of affect. Numbness. It’s hard to think when you’re numb.

How’s your diet looking? Processed sugar does it to me sometimes.

What are your stress levels like? How much recreational time do you build into your life, and what are those activities? Do you just play mindless videogames (guilty), or do you engage yourself with more stimulating play?

I have more questions for you, but I’ll let you answer these, first.[/quote]

I’m getting an adequet amount of sleep lately, 7-9 hours per night is the norm.

I have been diagnosed with depression in the past, nothing serious, just ‘mild to moderate’ is what the doctor described.

The personallity disorder is one I’ve never approached myself, but the ‘hallow’ feeling you describe is what I feel in my head and yes, it makes it extremely difficult to think.

Diet is very clean at the moment, I’m cutting, so no room for anything not nutrient dense.

Stress, I didn’t think about this myself, but maybe my ‘slump’ could be attributed to this. I am having a very difficult time making decisions about school right now.(major changes, my school not offering it so I had to leave) Recreation is the biggest problem I see effected with this; normally I read 1-2 novels per week and when I have time to I like watching science chanel and so on. In times like this it changes dramtically from the aformentioned to useless tv shows, and, you got me, video games.

Thanks in advance,
Matt

4

I know what you mean. For me it usually happens in the summer (I’m a student). Its only when I’m unmotivated and lazy and have nothing to do. However on school days, when I’m working, volunteering, running my club, working out and studying, I always have intellectual sparks going on.

Additionally (this is my own theory), Just like working out and sex and all that, you can get stagnated with too much as well. There’s a time for everything. Put your mind to other things (important things lol) and return to the stuff later and you’ll be able to think better and be more focused.

I don’t read a lot of science (except during school), but I have experienced what you have said while in the summers reading philosophical and religious literature.

Anyone else on this?

5

[quote]mj_gk wrote:
nephorm wrote:
How much sleep are you getting?

Are you confusing lack of confusion with understanding on a regular basis?

Do you suffer from depression?

I know what you’re describing, and there are many factors that can contribute to the feeling.

Do you suffer from borderline personality disorder? One of the characteristics is a feeling of emptiness or hollowness inside combined with lack of affect. Numbness. It’s hard to think when you’re numb.

How’s your diet looking? Processed sugar does it to me sometimes.

What are your stress levels like? How much recreational time do you build into your life, and what are those activities? Do you just play mindless videogames (guilty), or do you engage yourself with more stimulating play?

I have more questions for you, but I’ll let you answer these, first.

I’m getting an adequet amount of sleep lately, 7-9 hours per night is the norm.

I have been diagnosed with depression in the past, nothing serious, just ‘mild to moderate’ is what the doctor described.

The personallity disorder is one I’ve never approached myself, but the ‘hallow’ feeling you describe is what I feel in my head and yes, it makes it extremely difficult to think.

Diet is very clean at the moment, I’m cutting, so no room for anything not nutrient dense.

Stress, I didn’t think about this myself, but maybe my ‘slump’ could be attributed to this. I am having a very difficult time making decisions about school right now.(major changes, my school not offering it so I had to leave) Recreation is the biggest problem I see effected with this; normally I read 1-2 novels per week and when I have time to I like watching science chanel and so on. In times like this it changes dramtically from the aformentioned to useless tv shows, and, you got me, video games.

Thanks in advance,
Matt
[/quote]

I just read this post right now. Get off the video games and the tv. Go do something.

If you’re schools not doing it for you, go and get a job or do something. You need some drive to do well to think.

6

Have you tried meditation? If you are getting adequate sleep, and your nutritional needs are being met (what’s your carb intake on this cutting plan?), and you’re being physically active, it probably is not a physical problem. Of course, I’m not a doctor, and you shouldn’t confuse this with medical advice.

If you’re stressed out: how’s your social life going? Are you going anywhere and having fun? I mean real fun, btw, and not just getting drunk or sitting around doing nothing. Go out and actually have a good time. Smile. If at the end of the night, you don’t have at least one memory that you look back on and break into a smile… you haven’t done it right.

Stress is good, because it indicates to us that we have a problem that we need to fix. The problem is that we tend to dwell on the problem, rather than on the solution. So do what you can to solve the problem, and make sure to take breaks where you don’t worry yourself so much.

Also, if you’re distracted and subconsciously processing lots of options or issues (even on a loop), you’re going to find it hard to pay attention to anything. That’s one reason why people like mindless games. They’re addictive precisely because they speed up the heart rate, reduce mental chatter, and excite pleasure centers in the brain. So they reduce the perception of stressful feelings and increase pleasure, while at the same time training you not to think with an internal dialogue. This is probably not the way you want to train your brain.

Meditation can help you with the monkey-brain chatter, while still engaging your mind in the process.

7

Neph and Shoe,
thanks for the advice, I’ll take into consideration what both of you are saying. Funny thing is I thought about most of those things, but an outside perspective really drives it home.
A switch in jobs may do the trick, my current job(as a carwash attendent) is a tedious job at best and never has anything stimulating to offer. Okay, well sometimes the occasional good looking girl comes through, but that’s far too little.
Meditation is definetly going to help me. I’ve done occasional sessions in the past, I wasn’t ever very good at it, I need to practice, but if I really put my mind to it I know that it will serve me well.
Thanks again guys I really appreciate it.
Matt

8

Yep…i’m with you mate.

Im out of work at the moment, and have been for the paast 3 weeks and i feel fucking brain dead.

I have no attention span…i can’t read a book or even watch a movie. I want to learn the guitar so just bought one but i just don’t have the patience.

I think everything will return when i get work and i can get some sort of order and security in my life. Because right now all i do (when im not looking for work) is channel surf and dick around on the net.

9

Yep that’s totally normal. Your brain is not a muscle but like a muscle it gets detrained, lazy etc… it is very dependant on good energy systems.

F32ck knows WHY we need to sleep, but we do. It is easy enough to think you get a good sleep when in fact, you don’t. You might be snoring like a trooper but unless someone tells you, you don’t know it.

The worst is when you are severely tired you make some pretty shithouse decisions. Nothing worse when you are mountaineering or driving than having your brain go all crapola.

For a sedentary person, approx. 30% of your calories go to powering your brain. It is one hungry beast.

Another thing you might consider, high testosterone levels can influence your brain functioning, it has been shown to influence your ability to speak proper, for one.

A good way to pep up your brain is get a really good, interesting fiction book and read it, forces you to visualise etc… and really works the brain. Better than movies, easier to push the endurance than study (because you are reading a real page-turner). Very important for kids.