Can emotional problems affect mental efficiency?

Question

I've just been thinking about things lately...about how much I've changed since I was younger (I'm seventeen now). I think about the things I did for fun when I was like five, read encyclopedias, do math, build mouse traps, try to create companies (one was great but I had no capital), and I memorized and could draw by memory all of Africa, its countries' borders, and capitals and such when I was seven...and I just used to be so incredibly sharp mentally. Now I'm a seventeen year old, who has a 1.4 GPA, no friends, and spends hundreds of dollars on books he doesn't read because he spends all day just thinking. I'm a very strong person emotionally, but am also extremely emotional and in some ways lack emotional stability just by my nature. I'm by no means stupid, but I want to return to how I used to be ten years ago. I don't know how though....what can I do? And what has caused me to fall apart so much?

Besides, there are only so many times I can listen to Festival Overture 1812 by Tchaikovsky...

As for my health...I'm in very good shape and eat well, but I sleep terribly, if at all...

And, to respond to the third answerer's response, I have never ever cared about things like being popular or having a girl friend.

Answer 1

nope not at all.





duh.

Answer 2

umm.. do u feel u are loved and cared for by the family.. ?do u get the attension u need..?u also said u keep on thinking so what do u think..? why dont u have friends..? dont u like communicating with people..? stop being all by urself all the time.. talk to people and move out!first realise that u are special in ur own way and than drive hard to what u seek in ur life.. life is full of fun... learn to live it! Take care.. :)

Answer 3

...wow...uh...once I had some stress, and I got tired of it, so I stopped thinking. Life is more simple if you just do what ever you want to...(of course no killing or maiming of living things, and other crimes of the sort)

Answer 4

Yes - emotional problems can affect mental tasks.

First, if you have emotional needs that aren't being met you are not going to be able to pursue intellectual interests. If you look up an explanation of Abraham Maslow's Heirarchy of Needs (if you don't already know what it is) it will explain what needs each human has and why certain ones must be met before a person goes on to fulfill higher-level needs, such as intellectual ones.

Also, if you are stressed out you can have elevated levels of cortisol, which makes concentrating difficult. Also, being stressed out (which is what essentially happens as a result of emotional issues) can cause other physiological changes that just don't go well with things like academic success.

The person who is stressed out for too long can actually "run out of juices" (the adrenal gland can get so it can no longer secrete the amount of cortisol needed to keep someone "up" and functioning). Then the person just gets exhausted and has trouble functioning.

I don't know you, so I can only make some guesses about what the root(s) of the problem may be. One could be that when you became a teenager and were faced with all the issues teenagers are faced with (who is popular, who has a girlfriend, who has good hair or skin or a good body, who is athletic, whether someone has a social life, what life is about, etc.) the academic stuff took a backseat. I'm guessing if you lost interest over a couple of years you also lost some real ground academically, so maybe now your problem is a combination of really not having the foundation you need for your present grade but also not being able to really be engaged in what is going on (or homework) as well.

That GPA, alone, is enough to eat away at a person; and maybe you have clinical depression at this point as well.

One of the needs on Maslow's pyramid is "the need to belong". If you have no friends and aren't thriving academically you may not feel you belong. Especially for teenagers, having friends meets an important emotional need.

I'm guessing you are spending on books because you are looking for something that will get you a "spark" again. Maybe you're looking for something nice to show up in the mail, or if you go to bookstores to shop maybe it feels like you're doing something that will make you feel better - but then it turns out you can't concentrate to read, which may make you feel worse about spending.

One trick I know: If you can't concentrate to read try reading aloud to yourself in a low voice and then taking the information in through your ears. When you can't concentrate to read it is like there's a shortcircuit going on, and your eyes and whatever part of the brain that's supposed to take in the information just aren't working together. After going through a lot of stress and not being able to concentrate to read a while back, I decided I would get myself a book that was entirely different from my usual reading material and try to read it. I got The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, and because the wording is a little tricky I was forced to "whisper" the words to myself and then take the information in by listening to my own spoken words. To my surprise, it made me able to read even though I had been having difficulty concentrating (and this particular book isn't "an easy read"). So if you could try that with some of your school books it may help.

If you're a pretty intelligent individual you could be suffering from having been "lost" by the schools. Schools are run in a certain way, and only some people thrive in them. You could be someone who is more intellligent than the people at school realize, and you could be stuck in a huge gap between your own abilities and your poor academic performance (and maybe the school people can't find you).

Regardless of whether any of what I've said is true you need to talk to a counselor about what is going on and ask for some help. You could start with the school counselor, but you would probably also benefit from finding a private counselor who may help you sort out what is wrong.

Also, you should make sure you have a part-time job somewhere where there are a lot of young people. Sometimes a kid who doesn't have friends at school will make friends at a part-time job. You should also try joining something - anything. Take a class or join some kind of "club" that may interest you or volunteer for something in your community. You may or may not make close friends, but being with a mix of other people and working with them (and laughing and talking with them) can ease the fact that you have no friends right now.

I always mention this, but a PBS special on the teenage brain said how the pre-frontal cortex of the brain may not be mature until early- to mid- twenties. This can cause a tendency toward depression in teenagers. Also, though, "falling apart" can happen pretty easily; and a teenager can then find it too overwhelming to be able to get "back together" on his/her own.

Being a teenager means you aren't going to feel the way you did when you were seven, but it also means you may get back to feeling more "together" once you get through these teenage years that are known for emotional upheaval. Life was simpler when you were seven. I'm not saying you can't get that motivated person back. I'm saying, though, that there is some "normal-ness" in the fact that, for now, you are in upheaval.

Maybe, too, just don't allow yourself to do nothing but think. If that means watching a sitcom that will make you laugh and get your mind off things do that. Laughing improves your brain chemicals and mood. Take a walk or a ride on a bike once a day. Organize your stuff. Go buy yourself a puzzle or some clay or anything that would give you some mindless relaxation and do something "silly" whenever you get the chance. I one time designed a huge load of postcards in the paint program and then converted them for sending. I never sent a one of them, but designing them got my mind off things for a while. In other words, give your mind a rest.

Start a savings account, and put the money you would spend on books into that instead. (You already have plenty to read, and you'll feel good to add to savings.) Write down what seems wrong to you and what would have to be done to fix it (if you're flunking math and would need a tutor list that, if doing your history homework would get you a better grade list that, etc.)

When it comes to complex tasks break them down into a bunch of simple ones, and do one simple one at a time. When that's done do one more, etc. etc. When it comes to complex problems in your life break them down as well, and try to fix one small thing at a time. After a while all the small and simple things add up to changing the picture.

Don't use drugs or alcohol. They never help and always harm a person's mental heatlh, no matter who says otherwise.

Don't listen to music that sucks the life out of you or watch videos that are dark and suck the life out of you. This may sound silly, but all this kind of stuff adds up to making a person's mood turn dark. Then people get so they have the life sucked out of them and don't know why.

Has anyone looked into whether you may have ADD or not? Is there any chance all that thinking is from that?

You feel pretty grown-up at your age, but you don't realize how young you are. Just think: Your bones and brain won't even be finished growing for about another 7 or 8 years. You're either depressed or else just unhappy or else just numb - and in any of those cases you really need someone who is a professional and who is sensible to give you some guidance.

If you have it "established" in school that you're someone who doesn't bother don't let that stop you from talking to the teachers or guidance department and just saying, "Hey - this is out of control, and I need to know what steps to take to start improving my situation."

Again, if at all possible, get an appointment with a private counselor for yourself as well. You're young, and you obviously are having trouble getting yourself out of an overwhelming situation, and a counselor could give you some direction and guidance.

You need to think about the person you want to be, imagine actually being that person, and do a little thing here or there to start to be the person you want to be.

If you haven't been tested to find out what mental skills are your strongest you should look into how you could get that done. If you aren't doing your homework could you at least try to do some in study periods? I find it unlikely that you would not be capable of at least getting a C in a few classes or maybe an A or B in a class or two, so if there's a class (like math or chemistry) that you're not likely to catch up with it won't matter as much. You need to figure out how to keep your head above water when it comes to the grades, and that could be accomplished by putting more effort into the classes that are easier or more interesting for you and aiming for good grades in those.

Finally, don't let the fact that you have "established" yourself as one kind of student stop you from changing. Don't think the Earth will shake if you start to do some homework or get a better grade. Don't be thinking everybody in the world will make a giant deal out of it. In fact, talk to the school counselor (if this could be the case) and tell them you want to bring up your grades but may have trouble dealing with any "new image" that better grades could get you. (Is there any chance you somehow started thinking it just wasn't cool to do well in school, and that's what got you started on this road you've been on?) You say you're strong, and it may take some strength on your part to try to bring up at least some of the grades because you may be so set in your own image of failing that you are nervous about appearing to change. If you could get your mindset to be "I've been stressed out and couldn't concentrate, but now I'm mature enough to deal with the stress" it will make you feel less of a "sell out" of the present identity you may be seeing as your own.

Hope I've given you some ideas. Just remember to try to make one small change at a time and try to see your efforts as your way back to the real you rather than as a route to being someone you're not. Good luck. Try to find someone with some knowledge and expertise to support you. It could be too much for you to try to do it alone and without support.