Intellectual Regression

Has any of you experienced this? I used to be relatively smart and up on my Veeky Forums and philosophy (I was very interested in these subjects). I used to explain things and be very articulate in what I said. Now I honestly have trouble explaining what I mean on a more critical level. I can't retain anything anymore. I forgot all the past philosophies I have read over.

I feel like a falling idiot most of the time now. My vocabulary has gotten smaller and I always have to check the thesaurus for better words. Some things I know, but their so in deep I have no recollection of it if I have to think it up on my own. I hate being like this.

I used to read daily and read up to 15 books a year. I haven't been keeping up with it the last year but I noticed the regression probably 2 years(probably a little more) ago. What do? Would reading help stimulate my brain? I just find it hard to enjoy something when I know I won't have any recollection about it in the future.

>read up to 15 books a year
Saving everyone else the time of reading this post and replying. Don't bother people

Sometimes I feel this way, but I think it is largely because my attention span is fucked up from using my phone and browsing Veeky Forums all day. The Industrial Revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race.

Thanks, can't believe I almost responded seriously.

>I used to read daily and read up to 15 books a year.

ITT: Tfw to intelligent too remember more than 15 books

Get the hell off of Veeky Forums, the Internet, any social media, television, etc

Take a break from the internet and your phone. I guarantee it'll help, at least a little bit. Maybe take some classes at a local community college to get your mind to be a bit more active.

Oh this is me, except I took a shit ton of xanax in my last 2 years of high school and it fucked with my memory. Am still suffering years later for it.

Do you have a job and partner?

No job or partner.

I go to school part time and have been looking for a job for the past year though. No such luck finding one.

how old?

Take some mushrooms and go out to the woods. I guarantee you will feel better.

I'm 21.

Maybe it's just body stuff. People tend to forgrt the brain is a part of the body too. Try to be healthier.

In that case, cut back on your internet use, star with a habbit of just reading 10-20 pages a day and make an effort to talk to your friends more

>15 books
lol

If you are smoking weed, that'll just about kill your intellectual self. If you are snorting amphetamines to get through class, the affect is generally an erosion of the hippocampus which processes declarative memory. You may feel a short boost but we all know what roids looks like when you're 80 and that's the same type of deal. Don't fuck yourself with entheogens, bucko.

However, if you are using tech and social media daily, your brain is already fucked. fucked.

When I was a kid, I was a genius. I'd gone through Kafka's entire body of work and plenty of Freud and Jung by age 13. At 16, I had a mental breakdown that was so bad, I had to re-learn how to read using books for babies. By the age of 21 I'd gotten most of my abilities back, but then I was diagnosed with ME/CFS and now I can't read for more than a few minutes at a time without getting exhausted and needing to rest. I feel like the dude from Flowers for Algernon. It hurts so much to be smart and then become a brainlet.

Well surley having all that work from Kafka and Freud regained as a 21 year old will keep you out of brainlet territory

I guess. But it's natural to want more. Nobody wants to be dumb. I'm starting to feel like I might be avoiding reading since if I don't read, I won't have to go through the frustration of having to stop after a few pages and feeling like a retard.

>I used to read daily and read up to 15 books a year

you got into psychedelics didn't you?

No I didn't. Never smoked weed in my life, never did any drugs, hell all the alcoholic beverages I've drank over the course of my life would come down to less than a liter if combined. That's another reason why I feel so bad, I tried to live a healthy life and be a good student but all this shit happened to me regardless.

do you exercise? are you overweight?

I weigh 55kg. I used to exercise, but now that I have ME/CFS, if I do anything more than walk for 1km at a slow pace I'll be in horrendous pain and unable to get up the next day. Doctor forbade me from doing anything other than walking on a flat surface anyway.

Antidepressants did that to me.

How old are you now? Have you tried audio books and taking written notes?

Your story is hitting me hard in the feels

I'm 22. I've tried audiobooks but with my concentration being so poor, I can't follow what's going on. I've listened to a few simple philosophy lectures on youtube because even if I absorbed 5-10% of what's being said I'll still be smarter than I was before. I've got no time to make notes because I sleep for most of the day. Not because I want to, I actually hate it. But even if I drink the strongest coffee and set a dozen alarms my body still says "Fuck that", falls asleep and sleeps until it's had its fill.

Your brain and body are dopamine fiends. That's why its really easy to slip into routiness that give you easy satisfaction while be conscious of the fact that you are wasting your life. You have to "retrain" your brain and body. Get your ass to read or be productive and you will immediately feel your brain screaming for it's drip feed of easy feel goods like alt tabbing to youtube or Veeky Forums. It's a fight.

>The Industrial Revolution and its consequences have been a disaster

You should be studying for your exams, Kaczynski kiddo.

>I used to read daily and read up to 15 books a year.

lamo

>lmao
that was literally his goal

Terminal brain cancer of the brain. I'm so sorry, user.

>15 books
What were they? If they were "advanced" philosophy then that's excusable if you didn't skim through them.

>I used to read daily and read up to 15 books a year.

To be fair op said he was in school. Going through college I had to put aside my lit interest and just focus more on my actual studies. Didn't read very much during those years because of that.

Yeah, I had a major depressive episode over the summer which made me slide quite a bit. I'm in a philosophy PhD program so it really hit me pretty hard.

In reaction to that, I've sort of had this whole Cartesian moment where I'm really just trying to ask myself fundamental questions about what I want to know, what questions I want to ask, what I do know.. that kind of thing. My depressive episode really made me take a look at my own philosophical career, and I felt like a huge charlatan in hindsight. It's been really painful to have to distill what I believe to be true or what I've just latched on to from other writers. Hoping some good comes out of it but it feels very myopic and tunneled. I've extended it out to my artistic sensibilities as well. In search of dignity, I guess.

This

Seems like all these pseuds forget that true patricians actually have jobs/study besides Veeky Forums