Does your anxiety make you feel stupid sometimes?

[lcfrogs]

What I mean is like "slow" or unable to think as fast as before. Let me give you some examples.

First of all, ever since I came out of my severe GAD episode last week, my GAD has gone down but my social anxiety has gone way up.

I feel like my GAD made me stupid. For starters, I'm having trouble remembering right now what I wanted to write on here and I keep staring blankly at the screen. My memory sucks lately. I can barely remember the past two weeks, but also something else alarmed me: For some reason I was trying to remember how many classes I took last semester, which was really only a month ago. I could only remember two classes, but I felt like I had taken at least three classes. It literally took me a day and a lot of heavy thinking to remember that I took four classes and what classes they were. WTH?! It was only a month ago, how could I not remember that??? I've always had an excellent memory, so this is really weird.

While I'm doing things; getting dressed or taking care of the dogs or whatever, I will constantly pause and stare at something for a long time. It's like I have to completely stop what I'm doing in order to think about something. Which is what I just did a second ago: I stopped typing, stared off into spaced, and tried to collect my thoughts trying to remember what I was going to write.

Finally, I have trouble using my brain in social situations, even with people I know. When I saw my doctor on Monday (actually she is a nurse practitioner, but she acts as my doctor), she was talking to me and it was like I couldn't process what she was saying. As a result, I talked really slow and couldn't say very much. I've never been much of a talker, but I do typically talk a lot to people I know...and I've known my nurse practitioner for four years. A lot of times I would just stare at her when she said something to me. This is part of why my social anxiety has been so high; I can't process and react to things as well as before and it makes me self-conscious. As a result, I just talk really slow so that I can think while I'm talking. Yesterday I had to stand up in front of my class and read something. I was really scared so I read it REALLY SLOWLY. I had to keep pausing to read it before I actually said it out loud.

I just don't feel like myself lately; I've changed.

This was difficult for me to write; trying to explain something is really hard for me right now. I'm at a loss. Any thoughts?   

[Cuchculan]

Some people tend to give in to situations. If they are feeling bad it will bring them right down. To use myself as an example as what could be done. I love to read books. I love to do crossword puzzles and the likes. Things that keep the mind active. Things that make you think. I think it is up to the person themselves to make sure they stay active. Thus they will be more alert. More with it. I could easily say ' I am not in the mood for reading or crosswords ' and just sit here. Thus my mind would become less active. And it may result in my feeling a little bit silly / stupid. Just have to keep yourself going. As hard as it may seem at the time. I also love to write. Do a lot of writing in the evenings. Again it just gives me something to focus on. To stop me from becoming lazy. Lazy is so easy to become with anxiety. You can let all desire for everything slip away from you. So just find things to do. Stay active. And like I said in your post about school, slow yourself down if you have to and do things at your own pace. We are never in a race. Control your own situation. Never allow the situation to control you.

[lcfrogs]

I also love to read, write, and do crossword puzzles...and yes, those things do make me anxious and I find it hard to get started. I also love to draw, but I haven't been able to do that in months. I haven't even been able to crochet lately, I was making a blanket and then I just stopped working on it.

I guess I need to push myself to do these things. It's just so hard!

[Cuchculan]

Just break your day up. Put aside certain hours for certain things. That's exactly what I do. I have my reading time. My dvd watching time. My net time. I split the hours of the day up. Even if you only get a small bit of reading done, at least you got something read. Something is better than nothing. Take it small steps at a time. There will be days you will get more done. Other days you might get nothing done. Just go with flow.

[lcfrogs]

Just break your day up. Put aside certain hours for certain things. That's exactly what I do. I have my reading time. My dvd watching time. My net time. I split the hours of the day up. Even if you only get a small bit of reading done, at least you got something read. Something is better than nothing. Take it small steps at a time. There will be days you will get more done. Other days you might get nothing done. Just go with flow.

Okay, I'll try. Thank you