Dealing With Or Improving On Mental Energy

[dekoi]

Hello everyone

 

I'm currently trying to improve my life, but it seems that I've come across a strange issue. I seem to effectively have a lot less mental energy than the average person. I say this because I've noticed that I get tired very quickly. I do have the same amount of mental energy as the average person, but my brain is using it very inefficiently. From what I've been told by professionals and the things I've read, I experience way more at the same time than most people do. Imagine not having peripheral vision but have focus everywhere. You'd need a lot more energy to process that amount of extra information, which you don't have.

What this lengthy explanation means for me is that I can't for example work a fulltime job if I wanted to because I use up so much of my energy.

It manifests itself both mentally and physically. To give an example of last week: I was helping my dad with his work. He does graphic design and I like that too. The problem however is that I had to translate my feelings about very abstract things into words, then communicate them to my dad and then I had to listen to him responding and interpret that. Y'know, a conversation. I helped him out for an hour and I was wrecked for the rest of the day. I had to lie down for a while, take a nap to be functional again afterward.

An added problem to this is that I don't have a lot of self-awareness, so this kind of fatigue sneaks in, especially while I have something fun I can focus on for a long period of time. I can get lost in what I'm doing when something is fun.

What I'd like to know if there's a way I can either increase the amount of mental energy I have or spend the energy I have more efficiently. I want to be able to live my life, not having to constantly think about how much energy I have.

 

Thanks in advance everyone,

dekoi

[Epiphany_Inspired]

@dekoi This is similar to issues with my brain injury.....I can tell you some things that help me, though they may be dysfunctional...I don't know....

For example, with conversations, I used to do that process you described with your dad but quickly and fluidly often converting my mental pictures/ videos to words too, and editing possible offenses etc all at once....If I tried to do that now, nobody could stand to talk to me, it would take forever...so, instead, I actually trained myself to throw away the filters...and put my brain on "auto-pilot"...I often have no idea what will come out of my mouth in advance...it offends people sometimes...but it takes much less mental energy (like how we drive a car using mostly our subconscious rather than our conscious mind). You can also nicely explain that you prefer focus to multi-tasking, and ask that conversations come after if possible.

Supplements help (good fermented cod liver oil, vitamins/minerals for mental function, Moringa, Spirulina, etc)....but I'm sill not off caffeine...

You can also develop virtual blinders somewhat. I have the focus everywhere thing too...I will hear an amalgamation of all the conversations in the room over the one I'm supposed to be engaged in...etc...but you can learn to discipline your focus more...I use weird techniques...when I need to pay attention to a certain person, I can imaginarily "highlight" them, etc...

Don't let this hold you back...the more you push yourself the better it gets...I actually made it through an entire week for a workshop....followed almost everything...it wasn't easy, I was grumpy and blacking out after....but I did it...you can too!