>be 13 year old me >literally able to hyper focus at will >insane amount of concentration no matter any distractions around me >actually unlimited amounts of energy, great quality sleep >chad of high school, bitches, sports captain etc, living the good life
Now: >be 21 year old me >unable to focus no matter how hard I try >never feel the same amount of concentration, literally any distraction kills me >feel infinitely dumber and unmotivated to do anything >was able to concentrate like before for 2 days last summer >decided to take some tests (reaction time, visual memory, auditory memory among others) >scored higher than literally 95% of the rest of test takers >remember those days as the best days of my life in the past few years >take test a few days later when I don't feel the same and the hyper focus has left me >literally worse than 50% in almost all categories
Please give me a scientific explamation of how this can possibly happen? How can the human brain degenerate into this?
Alexander Johnson
Literally bumping.
Nathaniel Watson
Your parents were slipping you Adderall in your drinks
Josiah Thomas
I did drink an insane amount of coke. But I think I'd developed a tolerance, so sometimes I did felt a rush but I was able to sleep literally immediately after drinking it.
It wasn't something related to any medication or whatever, it was natural.
John Morris
Have you gone through a breakthrough since you were 13? On the other hand, have you not gotten any pussy since you were 13? What about drugs, alcohol?
Ryder Gutierrez
I think we found the problem. Don't do drugs, kids.
Wyatt White
Uh, my last girlfriend was about 4 years ago lol. I tried exercising, it made a difference but still didn't bring me back to the previous level. I drink like once every 6 months, 0 drugs.
I do jerk off a shitton, tho. I feel like that might be messing with my testosterone in some manner, causing me to become like this? Is that possible? I tried no fapping for like 2 weeks, didn't feel much different, so I stopped that. But no fucking other than that.
Nicholas Price
Coke = Coca cola. Jesus.
Benjamin Ross
shit happens just keep going
Robert Price
This is not living. Or at least that's what I'm telling myself. I can't live being this shit and unable to do anything. No matter what I try to do, I know I'm not at a 100%, and that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, and I feel even more dejected to try.
Cooper Davis
caffeine is a drug
Jayden Rodriguez
I'm in the same boat, OP. There's no solution in sight. You just have to keep your brain occupied like it was before (socially too), and hope that the production catches up with the demand. That's what I'm trying, but unfortunately I get burnt out pretty easy
Christopher Murphy
if you cant go on living like that, then kill yourself. it seems the only option open to you
Landon Howard
Death is too final. Life is full of possibilities.
Ethan Gutierrez
then just shut the fuck up about it.
did you really make this topic *just* to cry about how tough your life is? fucking hell kid
Xavier Sanchez
You are what you do frequently.
Gabriel White
I'm not your mother user.
Joshua Howard
Not even OP, but why are you so salty? He's not offending anyone, just asking for a solution for his problem.
Daniel Hughes
because it's teenage angst the thread. this is /r9k/, /adv/, /soc/? fuck if i know, it's just not Veeky Forums
Angel Russell
Real shit been thinking the exact same fucking thing. Even the time frame is same here op. Uncanny.
Logan Long
Photoshop a clover over that TV, user.
Lincoln Mitchell
What are you doing/trying to fix it?
I've tried meditation, blood tests to check vitamin thyroid levels, exercising, socializing, studying... everything. It's not happening.
Daniel Diaz
are you depressed?
Camden Rodriguez
Same situation here: up until I was 24 I could concentrate and keep up with everything going on around me or block it all out and laser focus for hours on a single thing.
Now...I still keep a job and a social life, but it takes work and I'm exhausted by everything.
It seems to me like it may be stress related. It takes at least two days of vacation wherein I'm unconcerned with any of my responsibilities to get the old me back.
Matthew Gomez
All of those, save for the blood tests, which I am highly curious about trying. I was also suspicious of having a parasite too. I have reasons to suspect, but it's still most likely not the cause here. I'm just baffled at how similar our situations are. Even sex life and drug usage. I was actually going to try no fapping as the only correlation to when I started to feel this way is the fact that I started heavyish fapping then. Much lighter now, however.
Zachary Ramirez
Yeah actually, it really could be stress related. Stress is a huge factor which many people don't think much of.
Tyler Sanders
Bumping.
William Gomez
If it helps, this year I started keeping track of when and how much I masturbate throughout each semester. And I've found that whenever the deadlines start piling or I find myself in a bad place emotionally, I wank more.
So yeah, I think those anons saying that it's largely stress-related might be onto something.
Eli Lewis
Scientifically fool proof way to kill/ reduce stress?
Grayson Hall
You probably lack minerals. Get Vitamin C, Zinc, Magnesium & Vitamine B Complex as supplement. I promise there will be a huge improvement!
Thomas Morris
Maybe you killed your brain's motivational centre with excess extreme reward-centre stimuli.
Evan Ward
(OP) OP probably down-regulated all his dopamine receptors with years of caffeine and masturbation. Stop drinking caffeine for a month. Do a circadian reset. (stay awake 24 hours) Try nofap for a month and exercise more often.
5htp, l-dopa, and l-theanine does have a huge effect in the sort term
Charles Lee
this guy knows what's up
Jackson Taylor
>circadian bullshit >believes in nootropics as a healthy option
Please ignore everything in this post
Alexander James
Were you traumatised? Had depression? Undiagnosed ADHD? Because that sounds like me and I have experienced all the above? You can get to 80% of your original brain by: working hard and studying to rewire those synapses, eating healthy, exercising and taking some bacopa.
Robert Brooks
/thread
Luis Davis
circadian reset can upregulate dopamine receptors and I wouldn't recommend noots as a permanent solution but if you're literally too depressed to help yourself it can give your brain a little jump start. So long as use responsibly and don't rely on them too often or too long it should be safe.
Adam Kelly
What's your sleep hygiene like OP?
John Miller
I was raped at a young age, but I'm over that. I don't think any trauma like that has that effect on me desu, but I might just be lying to myself. Also, other people without the traumas have had similar experiences to mine.
I agree with the rewiring synapses part, and that's what I've personally been trying to figure out as well.
7-8 hours of sleep daily on a set schedule.
Joshua Carter
It's not your fault.
Christian Rivera
>I was raped at a young age
third worlder confirmed
Mason Cox
Irrelevant. Bumping.
Chase Gonzalez
>Stop doing caffeine >Take noots instead
Tyler Edwards
coke is no good man, its designed by the jew to turn you into an effeminate male.
Angel Rogers
s-same
Hunter Sanders
As someone who was raped silly my whole childhood, I found a serious addiction with distractions and being completely unwilling to just sit alone and be with my thoughts through my whole adolescence until I was 26. I barely got through school and into university. I'm not on hyper focus level but at least I can finish my programming projects within a legit amount of time these days. One of the things that helped me was learning about the flow genome project. I heard the guy on the Joe Rogan Experience once and it was inspiring as fuck. Your problem won't change overnight but it will get better.
Dominic Hall
Flow states are actually exactly what I had absolute control over at the younger age. Did you figure out a way to control this?
I feel like whenever I try to approach something with the idea of understanding it completely, that's a time when I'm in flow temporarily. Or just extremely interested in something too.
Jaxon Watson
AMPHETAMINES
Grayson Miller
>implying caffeine isn't a drug Caffeine withdrawal was harder for me than percocet withdrawal. It's bad for you, bruv.
Alexander Parker
>Caffeine withdrawal was harder for me than percocet withdrawal Damn, I thought I was alone. I literally cannot afford to go through caffeine withdrawal right now. Ever just trrying to ween off of it is hell for me. Just as bad as xanax withdrawal IMO
Luke Young
I decided to stop smoking and drinking caffeine last week so I took my last whiff and my last sip on Thursday. The withdrawals were really showing by the weekend, but I allowed myself to eat junk food and do mindless shit since the trade-off seems to be worth it. Haven't touched either since.
Jose Gomez
Caffeine forces your brain to use up more dopamine which can deplete you over time. Those noots increase dopamine in the brain, which can help temporarily but over long term will deregulate dopamine receptors in the brain.
Hunter King
This. This is why i dont do anything i enjoy, out of fear the extra dopamine will disregulate muh brain
Kevin Ramirez
See: Mental plasticity
There are drugs that will induce it again but those come with a serious risk of schizophrenia. See: Psychedelics
In short, the bar for what deserves heightened effort/attention has been raised as you've entered a period of life that typically works out better with lower risk tolerance than youth.
Basically after adolescence your brain decides what's good enough to handle life as you know it and conserves attention for what works over learning rate and fluid intelligence.
Elijah Jones
i think your brain might be a little too plastic, friend
Aiden Gomez
you fluid intelligence maxes out at around 14, you'll probably never be as sharp again, but you can compensate by learning. read books to fix attention span, stop coming to Veeky Forums and take some speed i guess
Noah Murphy
Yuck. Those refined sugars will catch up with you like that. I started eating vegetables, whole grains, cutting out carbs etc. and I feel great. But I'm still retarded
Gavin Nelson
It's because of smartphones and computers in general. When you were 13 they weren't ubiquitous like they are now and they are proven to destroy your ability to concentrate.
Isaiah Gray
Going cold turkey on technology for like 2 weeks didn't change shit for me.
Xavier Russell
That's cause the damage was already done.
Landon Nguyen
>I do jerk off a shitton Stop dehydrating yourself if ain't via exercise. Drink more water too.
Isaac Long
When you get older you'll realize you choose whether or not to focus on something. The reason you probably aren't focused right now is because you aren't entertained by whatever you are studying or find other things equally as (or more) entertaining with significantly less effort. Or like other user said your liquid sugar addiction kept you high energy.
If you took an online test I'm sure you scored higher than all the thousands of 10-year-olds who are interested in said online tests.
Connor Morgan
...
Jackson Flores
>reading "I restrained myself" in Mike's voice.
Asher Cruz
When you're young everything is new and for a smart feller it's undaunting. You don't realize how much effort some things are so you just take it step by step while hyper focusing.
If i picked up quantum physics today to really learn it, a) I'm aware how fuckin confusing it all is yet b) it's still just another subject to learn. Age is mostly in your head. If you can get back to where you were, which you can't really do entirely, you would have better access to that state of mind
Xavier Butler
I think it's cause you watch porn.
Quit porn for 2 weeks as an experiment. If you regain your brainpower, you'll know that was the problem. If you don't regain your brainpower, at least you've eliminated one hypothesis.
Nathan Thomas
Nofap is literally placebo and just a meme
Ryder Smith
>t. Tyrion
Wyatt Sullivan
Has to do with excessive smartphone use. I see the same thing in myself
Nathan Fisher
Those betas you bullied developed an extraordinary work ethic as a means of survival while you "naturally gifted" fags got used to being on top and turned soft. The Beta uprising is coming.
Liam Collins
idiots. go study psych or some other bullshit if you just want to guess at shit and pretend it's true
op is just a dumbfuck with no attention span and no passion. he should become a janitor or something