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Cactus_Man
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker

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Joined: 9 Nov 2009
Age: 38
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Location: Southern California

31 Jan 2010, 11:31 pm

To an outside observer, school would look very easy for me. 37 units in, I have straight A's, and that includes 10 units of Honors credit. However, I have in fact had some difficulties, and as I begin to transition from general ed into the hardcore science courses, I am growing increasingly concerned about my ability to keep up with everybody else.

I frequently feel incapable of doing anything relevant to school. I'm struggling rather severely with trig right now, and I can neither comprehend the words in the book nor put anything on paper- in other words, nothing is going in or out. I'm just static. It's like I'm a PC that's frozen up and needs to be rebooted. Trouble is, I can't seem to find the button for that. This is what I mean by "mental fog."

Furthermore, this problem only becomes worse the more overwhelmed I feel- which, as one might expect, is when I need to be able to focus the most. I just go completely numb (both mentally and physically) and feel nauseous and lightheaded, and again, information cannot process in or out. This is what I mean by "locking up." It may or may not be the same basic thing as "mental fog," but it seems more severe and correspondingly occurs at the most stressful times.

Regardless of the cause, is there some kind of cure for this? I need a solution, and I need one right away. I've tried Adderall and gotten only mixed results; it feels like an experimental drug that isn't entirely stable in spite of the fact that it's been around for decades. I'm going to get some Vitamin D because I read that it supposedly helps. But I need something that will help me a lot, and immediately, if at all possible.



Elementary_Physics
Toucan
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31 Jan 2010, 11:58 pm

Could be the specific teacher - Or maybe Trig is not your thing.
Although I am not one to give advice, with about three failed high school math classes on my record.



Cactus_Man
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker
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Joined: 9 Nov 2009
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01 Feb 2010, 1:32 am

It's not just this teacher or trig though. It's happened throughout college- I've battled it throughout the process of getting to where I'm at now. It's just that, until now, the courses have been easy enough to allow for me to take longer to get around to assignments than most people. WIth workloads beginning to creep towards the stratosphere, this is no longer the case. I can't "worry about it tomorrow;" I need to work at a constant, breakneck pace. There's simply no room or tolerance for this mental blockage. Also, until now math has actually been my strongest subject: I scored 99.6% in my first math course, with similar scores in the other two (three total, with trig being the fourth). I've also placed first at the top of each class. The problem is that the workload is significantly heavier than it's been up to this point.

I just realized that I didn't really address the issue of why I'm not able to learn the material (I only addressed the homework), but there you go: my brain is at a virtual standstill. I don't really have the energy to go back and correct/clarify what I said, either...



Rhapsody
Deinonychus
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01 Feb 2010, 1:42 am

Everyone has a certain limit that once they reach it they're going to have trouble understanding and keeping up. Maybe (if you've breezed through everything else with relative ease) Trig is your limit and now you'll just have to work a little bit harder than you're used to in order to understand it. There's nothing wrong with you, it's just the way it is. Everyone has a limit. It's not much consolation but I hope it helps a little bit.

As for the mental "shut down" (that's what I call them) those are also normal. At least, I get them often enough myself (which is the worst when I have them during social situations). Usually I just give myself a moment to calm down and the feeling goes away. If you panic about the shut down, or numbing or whatever you call it then it's only going to get worse since it's triggered by stress.