My brain feels slow and unintelligent?

LegacyUser

Probably a stupid, minor question, but I would like some advice since I am going to college in a few weeks.

But for years, my brain feels it has the mental age of a 99 year old. I was a terrible sleeper growing up due to insomnia, and for about three to four years in secondary school, I had an awful habit of doing my homework at 11 o clock at night! I never studied for my leaving cert so passed it by 210points, did a bit on my PLC but not enough distinctions, thankfully it was enough to get me in the course I wanted since it was a creative media course that did not require much points.

I also had a terrible diet, I used to sneak chocolate bars to my room when I was 11, and growing up ate SOO much junk, and made huge meals like big bowls of pasta in the evenings.

I just cannot help but think that lack of sleep in my teens and having a disgusting diet rotted at my brain that at 21, I am considered to be really dumb for my age.

I mean even right now looking at the computer, my brain has this heavy feeling that also has no thoughts or smart opinions jumbling around in there. It just feels empty and heavy, and even my face feels like it is sagging into this "slow" look. I mean I have heavy eyelids so I kinda look tired/slow most of the time.


I was just wondering is it too late for me to start working on getting "smarter" in the sense of the word?
It's just that I read in a magazine ages ago that apparently in your 20s, your brain is still developing at the front, which means this could be my last chance.

I know intelligence does not mean everything, but I am surrounded constantly by people who think my opinion is not worthy, or put me down when I don't know something, and there is no escaping it. So I want to prove it to people that I can be smart.

IlmoNT4

There is now definite guide to being smart but there are things you can do to help your body and brain.

1. Get a good night sleep consistently, everyone had different sleeping requirements, some need 7, others need 12 hours.
2. Sleep should be uninterrupted, so that you wake naturally in the morning and feel refreshed.
3. If this isnt happening then you need to investigate whats wrong with your sleep or sleep environment.

The next big thing is diet
1. Are you eating enough food
2. What type of food are you eating....if you have continued a junk diet of lots of sugar and carbohydrates (pasta) then your body is going to be on a merry go round of sugar crashes which can leave people feeling slow.
3. Do you drink coffee, tea, green tea of anything in it? If yes, then cut that out
4. Do you drink alcohol and if yes.... how much and ideally try and develop a life style that you are only drinking alcohol occasionally.
5. Do you use recreational drugs? smoke dope? If yes, then you need to stop
6. Exercise.... How fit are you, do you work out? Into any sports?
7. Whats your self esteem like.... Why do you think your opinion is not worthy? If you are suffering from depression or esteem issues then try therapy.
8. What type of stimulation are you giving your brain...do you watch a lot of TV? Read books, newspapers, listen to radio? Do you do the same thing day in day out.?
9. There are many different types of intelligence. Identify what yours is and work on that. Dont compare yourself to others, most people dont know their ass from their elbow. Google Myers Briggs test and start to learn and explore who you are.

and finally if you are not feeling well, then go to your GP and ask for a blood works to test your vitamins levels...if you are deficit in something that can also make you feel tired.

sashafierce

This post has been deleted.

Oryx

If you didn't study much, nor sleep well, and you still passed your leaving, you're not dumb. But it sounds like you're uninspired. The stuff you're doing in life is boring. That's why you feel dull and slow.

As well as fixing the essentials - food, sleep, exercise - you need to start figuring out the things youre interested in. If you can find something you love to do youll be surprised how it can kick your brain into gear.

And if the people around you make you feel low, find new people to be around.

Rubberchikken

Good diet, regular sleep pattern and exercise. Start with those.
Lose those that undermine you and mix with good friends.
Put good effort into your study and enjoy life.

Take care of yourself

Dixie Chick

Also, for someone who is really "dumb", you have written it very well. Are you very hard on yourself in general? Who would consider you really dumb for your age?

gormdubhgorm

1) You are not dumb
2) You are over-thinking this
3) Exercise more you will feel better whatever floats your boat
4) Don't drink too much alcohol (it kills brain cells apparently)
5) Get regular and plentiful sleep
6) Eat regular healthy meals

TeamJesus

You sound a bit like me. I ate terribly and didn't sleep properly throughout my teenage years.

Then one lent I decided to cut sugar / refined carbs out if my diet... all of a sudden I could concentrate.

Added to that was the fact that I was studying something I found interesting in college (multimedia) and my grades started going up.

Now I'm a health freak and working in IT - I'm part of a team that maintain a financial application.

I can tell from the way you wrote your post that you're smart. You explained yourself perfectly and my heart goes out to you.. you just need to:

1. Improve your health so you can concentrate.
2. Find something you're interested in.
3. Believe in yourself! (Cheesy I know)

LegacyUser

Hey, OP here again, thanks again for all your replies, was not expecting so much!

I do find (and others say this as well) that I am like a different person when I put my words on paper (or in this case, internet ink)
I will admit that I am quite socially anxious, so it could explain the reason why I might be considered slow because I find it hard to concentrate on the hard stuff in life. It was really bad when I was younger that I barely talked, and I read somewhere that not talking enough can actually cause the brain to be a lot slower, not sure if it true or not.

I am worried because I was in my own bubble growing up and it is only as an adult and going to college and the workplace that I have become aware of the fact that coming across as slow is seriously not tolerated, even if you do the work perfectly. I volunteer at a charity shop to help with meeting people and to get used to being in different enviroments, but it's intimidating because not only to people talk a lot (not that I don't like that or anything) they talk about really intelligent topics, and one of them is younger than me, and knows more about life than I would.
It's makes me afraid to speak up and join in, in case I come across as a dunce.

TeamJesus

OPhereagain wrote: »

Hey, OP here again, thanks again for all your replies, was not expecting so much!

I do find (and others say this as well) that I am like a different person when I put my words on paper (or in this case, internet ink)
I will admit that I am quite socially anxious, so it could explain the reason why I might be considered slow because I find it hard to concentrate on the hard stuff in life. It was really bad when I was younger that I barely talked, and I read somewhere that not talking enough can actually cause the brain to be a lot slower, not sure if it true or not.

I am worried because I was in my own bubble growing up and it is only as an adult and going to college and the workplace that I have become aware of the fact that coming across as slow is seriously not tolerated, even if you do the work perfectly. I volunteer at a charity shop to help with meeting people and to get used to being in different enviroments, but it's intimidating because not only to people talk a lot (not that I don't like that or anything) they talk about really intelligent topics, and one of them is younger than me, and knows more about life than I would.
It's makes me afraid to speak up and join in, in case I come across as a dunce.

I see so you feel that others are more well spoken and you have difficulty expressing yourself when in face-to-face social situations.

Being able to express yourself to others is all based on confidence. Can you express how you feel to a member of your family that you feel comfortable around? (Thought so:))

Also if not speaking made you stupid then programmers would have short careers!

It sounds to me like you are being put down by someone, if so can you get these people out if your life? As someone who was bullied for years I know this can take time.

Are you in college at the moment and working part time? Also what are you're interests?

If you are in college you could try joining a society where you can use your writing skills.. college newspaper maybe? Because then when you're feeling negative you can say "I am intelligent because I wrote that article" - start proving your negative thoughts wrong!

Kevo

I think it's pretty unlikely that your diet and sleep has had a signifgicant effect on your intellignece. I think you are just over-analysing and becoming anxious as a result. It's quite difficult to achive things when you are constantly berating yourself and your intelligence.

I'd prefer not to go into detail but when I was a teenager I was convinced that I had damaged my brain somehow. I became very worried about it and I attributed every failure to it. I finally got over it and looking back now I can see that it was a very silly thing to think.

openup

Op, it sounds like you have more of a confidence issue than an intelligence issue.

From my own experience I would say that the only way to overcome it is to keep meeting new people and "fake it 'till you make it." I mean this with regard to your confidence.

It's still not a bad idea to try and improve yourself though and it will certainly help your confidence. You could do simple things like ask people what they're talking about when it's a topic you don't understand/no about. There is no shame in not knowing something! I mean, yeah, there are times you have to acknowledge when people are talking about something that's beyond you but how often to people make small take about complex mathematical philosophies.

You could also try improving your knowledge so you feel like you might have something to add to these conversations. Even something easy like watching the news or reading the paper! Watch an interesting documentary on youtube, or a ted talk if you only have a few minutes. It's hard to judge what you mean by intelligent things from your post but when you hear someone talk about something (and you don't want to ask) go home and google it!

LegacyUser

Hi, OP here again. Thanks again for the new replies, and sorry to keep bring this thread up again. But there something else I need to bring up.
A lot of people think here that maybe I am overthinking this and being too hard on myself and that maybe I am just surrounded by the wrong people.
I do wish it could be as easy as that, but it doesn't make it easier when the people are also your family sometimes. It one thing if it was friends or classmates, but even when your own family think that way, it's worse and you feel like that maybe it is true.
For years I wondered whether maybe I am dumb or if it was depression.

Because there is 5 siblings but two left while I was pretty young, so it always felt like there was 3 in the house with me being middle child, and I got the worst blows thrown at me (not physically, but verbally and mentally).

I remember being given out to if I made a mistake, misheard something, or had a forgetful memory. My younger sibling nitpicked at me over anything I did, from breathing too loudly, too being fat at the time, chewing too loudly, etc, etc, etc. She also used to embaress me in front of our next door neighbour friends so much that I stopped hanging out with them, but it was twisted around then to show that I was just an anti-social weirdo.

I mean it was just nothing but anger, criticism and annoyance thrown my direction, from family and friends, and I can't help but think it turned me into this depressed, nervous, quiet wreak and (ashamed to admit it) a squealer, because sometimes the stress got too much for me that I ran to my mother sometimes to tell them to leave me alone. I remember even breaking down crying over some minor teasing my sister did, that's how much it got to me.
I remember even one time years ago, I misheard or misread something that my mother said in a convo and I asked her either to repeat it or what did she mean by it. But whatever way it was, it caused my younger sibling to saying angrily "Why are you so stupid?!"

I applaud those who went through worse stuff growing up and are getting on fine in life, because I just could not hack it.

Now sometimes she is not as bad, but it is still not good,a couple of times I have noticed, when I try to tell her something in a conversation between us and our mother, she would not even look in my direction, instead she gives the answers straight to our mother or sometimes carries on as if I did not say anything and ignore me.
It's just that feeling from her, knowing that she rather chat with any other sibling or our mother, hurts me, even though I should probably hate her guts and not care about it. I just hate it that someone would ignore me right there, as if what I said it not worthy for a discussion or even one bloody answer


So could depression be the cause of me feeling like I am stupid? Not really clued into mental illness, tbh.

keithclancy

Recognition is a sign of intelligence

As long you don't dwell on it too much you will be fine.

Just remember how you are feeling now is temporary and doesn't really matter for the future.

Taltos

OP we can't give you a diagnosis of depression or any other ailment here, that is forbidden by our charter. All we can do is suggest you go talk to your GP - make out a list of things you want to get across so you don't forget. It can be nerve wracking going into ask for help, having a list or even this thread printed out gets you past that. If you do prepare a list or print this please be careful though, you don't want any of your family finding it.

Personally I really think you need someone to help you work on your self confidence. Ideally you should get to a point in your life where while you may consider others opinions of you, you don't let the negative ones pull you down. You need to learn how to shrug them off. This lesson is probably one of the hardest. Some folk don't even need to learn it though, they just naturally have great self-confidence (sometimes even misplaced). Normally I would suggest finding a new pastime or hobby but in this case while I still think that might be good I think it would be better to find a professional to help you work through these feelings.

I'm not kidding, from what and how you have written it is clear you are not unintelligent. Your self awareness for example could just be too heightened or any other number of things but you are not unintelligent. You may just be on a different level to your family - and not necessarily on a lower (I hate that word) level but on a higher one where you are just out of sync. If you only really have your family to gauge your day to day interactions you could just be picking this up all wrong and incorrectly thinking you are slow or whatever.

Go on - talk to your GP and ask for a referral to someone to help you work through this.

TeamJesus

Hmm your sister sounds like a gem.

She clearly gets enjoyment out of bringing you down and I think she needs a taste of her own medicine.

My mums boyfriend would call me a worthless piece of s**t and a waste of space when he was drunk.

A lot of people here will criticise me for this tip... but I found it helped me cope.

My mums boyfriend was self conscious about not finishing school... so when he'd start on me I'd reply with something like "do you know anything other than swear words?"

It was wrong and it was mean but it made me feel in control of the situation. As I teenager it was the only power I had against an angry drunk man. It really helped me to deal with him (although I'd pay for it)

Your sister is clearly taking out her issues on you - find out what they are an point them out to her. Doing this will NOT solve your problem but might help you cope.

What actually helped me address the long lasting effect of living in an abusive family was CBT or cognitive behavioural therapy.

If you can find a good CBT counsellor when you're older and have the means they can help you with residual confidence issues.