I think the best thing you can do is enroll in community or four year college; just going to lectures, reading literature, history and solving word problems on a regular basis will passively make you more knowledgeable and help you develop an affinity and strategy for professional and intellectual growth for the rest of your adult life. I also think certain subjects, like math, physics and pure programming courses like Java, develop your brain because they force you to think and work in ways that you normally wouldn't. Also, unfortunately, to make up for all your lost ground you'll probably need to back away from pretty much all sports and related media. This stuff is deceptively engaging but narrow, transitory and essentially written for low-performing eight graders. When you get your butt to a library and start reading news and financial magazines, and full, non-fiction books about history, politics or other topics of personal interest; you will be genuinely embarrassed at how much time, energy and intellectual firepower you wasted on Sportscenter and Mike & Mike.
well, its seems you are depressed, because you dont go out and you dont socialize with other people. you should go to do some exercise or play some sports, that way you could meet new people and cure that depression.
What about my ability to gather information and solve problems itself? Everything feels number now and seriously I'm really afraid that some parts of my brain have been permanently deactivated.
Tell you one thing, don't let your kid be on a friends baseball team when the Dad thinks his kid is the ****znitz, and the other teams in the league think his kid is a batting practice pitcher. Because you get in the playoffs and the coach will think, "Hey, in this must win game I am gonna start my kid"....and then when you are knocked out of those playoffs by the last place team because of the pea brain the head coach possesses....well...... DD
Start exercising, eating right, and get off the games. Make sure you're healthy. Find a purpose and direct yourself towards it. Everything else will figure itself out after that.
You seem coherent and well-organized. I don't know if you're on social media, or anything, but if you need more personal advice, drop me an email through the site. Incidentally, if you want to exercise your mind a bit, try to learn a new language, play Sprocle, or http://freerice.com/.
To risk a serious answer for a suspect thread, I doubt any signifcant harm is done to the brain from that abuse. Not sure it matters; it's the only brain you got and you need to take care of it and the rest of you as best you can. Treat the depression, get healthy. Exercise the brain and it'll respond.
Here's the answer to your issues: Find happiness within yourself. When you can spend an entire day, then week, then month solo while not pining away for validation or companionship, you will be ready for life. As for the how: it's covered extensively in any library or on the internet.
When I was having an eating disorder, my Body Mass Index went as low as 15.6. I've just asked a woman who has been diagnosed to have permanent damages on her body by her doctor. She's 5'1 and her lowest weight was 89 lbs. That's a BMI of 16.8.
I'm not a doctor but it sounds like it's exclusively mental issues. Xerobull gave good advice. Why do you look for pity on a message board? You want us to tell you that yes, you have caused yourself irreparable damage. You poor baby. Like anyone here could tell that with certainty even if they were a neurologist. How about hope that you have not done anything (go to a doctor, if you must) and get help with your depression if you can't deal with it yourself. Don't deflect blame for your current situation on imagined limitations, take responsibility, decide what you want to do with your life and then take action.
Excellent advices. I'll use these because my situation is somewhat similar to OP. Not as bad as him, but I do feel like I'm getting dumber. I take longer to do things I used to be quick at.
Some of that sounds boring, I hate politics and I hate financing. Non-fiction books about history is okay though, any suggestions on where to get started?
