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[Grimshot]

 My mind has, unfortunatly, deteriorated over the course of my near decade long depression. Now that I seem to be shaking that off I believe it is time for me regain my knowledge and intellectual abilities.

 I was wondering if anyone here would happen to know of anything that would aid me in this task. Things such as mental exercises, foods, supplements, advice, ect. The two main problems I will have to deal with will be my horrible memory and focus. Even before my depression these things held me back, so any advice on dealing with these would be greatly appreciated. I should mention that I don't think stimulants would be a good idea for me. Things like Caffiene have no effect on me, while things like Adderall seems to cause tics. Still open to suggestions on this though. No reason not to take everything into consideration.

 I'm going to try my hardest to become the best scientist I can be. There was only ever one path to happiness for me anyways. I'm going to aquire all the knowledge, all of it.

[Max White]

Do you know how to cook? Good for the mind and body, it is. Nothing more relaxing than cooking, it is very for filling, and it will encorage you to eat good food.
DO EET NOW.

[Levi]

Its a bit funny, but I think reading forums on the web and gaming fully destroyed my ability to focus.  So um, I don't recommend those two things.

(also, following this thread in case it comes up with a solution).

[Patchouli]

Do you know how to cook? Good for the mind and body, it is. Nothing more relaxing than cooking, it is very for filling, and it will encorage you to eat good food.
DO EET NOW.

I don't know about the eating good food part.

When I learned how to make cheesecakes, my life increased dramatically in happiness, but I'm sure it didn't do much for my physical health.

As for horrible memory, write things down. I also have terrible memory, so I make sure to make post-it notes at home, and if I'm out, I make notes in my MP3 player.

Focus... Well, I don't know. I find that if you're really really interested in learning something, the focus part solves itself.

Then again, you seem like you have a much higher drive in achieving intellectual excellence compared to me, so my advice might not be any use at all. I'm more concerned in keeping what little intelligence I do have rather than trying to fit more in there.

[Grimshot]

Do you know how to cook? Good for the mind and body, it is. Nothing more relaxing than cooking, it is very for filling, and it will encorage you to eat good food.
DO EET NOW.

 I wouldn't say I know how to cook. Though the few times I have done it I have really enjoyed it (and others seem to like what I make ). Its like science really, except you can eat everything you make. I would cook more often, but I tend to be inspired to make unhealthy food most the time lol.

[Max White]

I wouldn't say I know how to cook. Though the few times I have done it I have really enjoyed it (and others seem to like what I make ). Its like science really, except you can eat everything you make. I would cook more often, but I tend to be inspired to make unhealthy food most the time lol.

Healthy foods tend to be more fun to make, in my opinion. Although cheesecake is some what of an exception... But anyway! It's fun, just try not to get maths involved. Cook from instinct and observation, because if you cook by numbers things never work out.

[Mindmaker]

Well, since I'm going through something that sounds similar to your situation, I may share the little I've figured out for myself.

Memory:
Keep a notebook near you at all times.
Write down ToDo-lists, appointments, as well as anything else that you consider important and worth remembering.
Helped me a lot and actually gets some stuff done.

Focus:
Still figuring that out myself.
Since my drive is returning slowly, I try reading a little. It feels like baby-steps at this point, but every little bit is helping.
You might start off with something that isn't too hard and stimulates your imagination.

I may share more, as I make progress.

[Darvi]

... and then you leave the notebook lying in the bus or something.

I should know.

[Mindmaker]

... and then you leave the notebook lying in the bus or something.

I should know.

So do I. That why I don't pull out anything important out of my backpack, when on public transport.
And if I take something out, I don't lay it down. I either keep it in my hand or put it back, from where I took it.
(broke this rule some weeks ago and forgot my cell phone case  )

[Grimshot]

Do you know how to cook? Good for the mind and body, it is. Nothing more relaxing than cooking, it is very for filling, and it will encorage you to eat good food.
DO EET NOW.

I don't know about the eating good food part.

When I learned how to make cheesecakes, my life increased dramatically in happiness, but I'm sure it didn't do much for my physical health.

As for horrible memory, write things down. I also have terrible memory, so I make sure to make post-it notes at home, and if I'm out, I make notes in my MP3 player.

Focus... Well, I don't know. I find that if you're really really interested in learning something, the focus part solves itself.

Then again, you seem like you have a much higher drive in achieving intellectual excellence compared to me, so my advice might not be any use at all. I'm more concerned in keeping what little intelligence I do have rather than trying to fit more in there.

 Well to give you an idea about how bad my focus is I'll drop some examples.

1. Sometimes I type part of a sentence more then once. Happens annoyingly often.

2. Sometimes I loose my train of thought (focus) and forget what I was thinking about (memory). double whammy (happened just now btw, whatever number 2 was will be missed).

3. Sometimes when concentrating on something I'll end up getting up and walk around the house (kinda like doing a lap) then go back to what I was doing.

4. Sometimes I end up reading a whole paragraph of something but not really read it (if that make any sense) and I'll have to do it again. This could be memory related though, hard to say.

I could probably think up more but thats probably enough. So yeah, poor focus is disruptive.

 As for memory, I do make notes. Though sometimes I forget what they were for lol. I think I need actual memory though to do what I need to do. I forgot almost all of my childhood while depressed. Its pretty bad.

[Grimshot]

Well, since I'm going through something that sounds similar to your situation, I may share the little I've figured out for myself.

Memory:
Keep a notebook near you at all times.
Write down ToDo-lists, appointments, as well as anything else that you consider important and worth remembering.
Helped me a lot and actually gets some stuff done.

Focus:
Still figuring that out myself.
Since my drive is returning slowly, I try reading a little. It feels like baby-steps at this point, but every little bit is helping.
You might start off with something that isn't too hard and stimulates your imagination.

I may share more, as I make progress.

 I should say that my main problem isn't so much things to do or appointments (I've been a hermit for a long time, it doesn't involve much scheduling ), its more about remembering what everything inside a cell is named and does for example. I need to actually retain what I learn. I don't think notes will cover that well enough. I suppose I could always hoard books, but I don't really have the room for a personal libary atm... I just realized how cool it would be to own my own libary just now. I'm totally going to build one into my future house I may or may not construct eventually.

I wouldn't say I know how to cook. Though the few times I have done it I have really enjoyed it (and others seem to like what I make ). Its like science really, except you can eat everything you make. I would cook more often, but I tend to be inspired to make unhealthy food most the time lol.

Healthy foods tend to be more fun to make, in my opinion. Although cheesecake is some what of an exception... But anyway! It's fun, just try not to get maths involved. Cook from instinct and observation, because if you cook by numbers things never work out.

I can agree with the instinct thing, I do most of it by taste and observation.

-EDIT-

 Sorry about the double post, been a lil' excited today

[Mindmaker]

Are you sure you're over it? There's always the risk of a relapse.
Have you tried seeking professional help?

Should it really be resolved it should get better on its own, albeit slowly.
You probably won't be able to reach full capacity on your own.
So getting diagnosed and finding proefessional help would probably be a good idea.

[Grimshot]

Are you sure you're over it? There's always the risk of a relapse.
Have you tried seeking professional help?

Should it really be resolved it should get better on its own, albeit slowly.
You probably won't be able to reach full capacity on your own.
So getting diagnosed and finding proefessional help would probably be a good idea.

1. Are you sure you're over it?

 I spent much time when I was depressed torn between killing myself or hunting down and killing those who I considered evil (in the hopes of one of them being able to kill me). My greatest fear however is death, so I was never able to do more then stare at my knife and contemplate how great it would be to be freed by true madness. All I felt was despair, rage, and hatred. All I remembered was all the fucked up things that happened to me throughout my life, fueling these horrible emotions. I couldn't even recall some of those eventually, I was just left with the feeling of being wronged and forsaken. None of my family seemed to do anything to really help me unfortunatly. The signs were there but they just didn't think it was that serious, probably because I never did any half-assed suicide attempts or something. I never held it against them though. I should note that I wasn't like that constantly, maybe only 50% of the time. I spent the rest to the time borderline emotionless or less crazy depressed.

 Ah yes, you wanted to know if I was over it. First, I would have never been so open about this before, something about being open about it seems to allow me to deal with it. Second, and most importantly, I was actually genuinely happy and content for no reason in particular last night. You have no idea how amazing that is to me, I'm actually crying about it right now . Not very manly but its a fricken miracle for someone who was as bad off as I was. So yes, I'm over it. Atleast the worst parts of it. Now I just need to keep moving foward.

2. Have you tried seeking professional help?

 Nope, I never seeked help and nobody around me ever had enough sense to force me to.

3. You probably won't be able to reach full capacity on your own.

 I always have you guys to pester when I need help.   Reaching out on this forum was one of the things that helped me come to terms with my feelings, and deal with my anti-social issues. I also think a epiphany I had from the ending of a game may have had some impact also. Thats kinda embarrassing though.

 This was off topic but I needed to say it, I apologise if I disturbed you guys with the first paragragh on #1.

[The Merchant Of Menace]

#1 sounds a lot like me TBH

[Vector]

#1 sounds a lot like me TBH

Yes, that's about where I was a year ago.  I also had literally zero concentration span.  Couldn't read.  Couldn't watch TV.  Couldn't do anything.  I let go of my anger rather slowly.  Don't really know if I can talk about it anymore... it seems so long ago.


All I can say is: do the best you can, and don't listen to anyone's predictions.  Not your own.  Not those of scientists.  Positive or negative--just forget about them.  Live.

Eat well and take long walks.  Four hours long, if you can.  Allow yourself to get lost.

As Mindmaker said, just take it bit by bit, and try piece by piece to do what you can.