Should I do a brain scan?

[Jannes]

I have had concentration problems/ ADHD all my life. I think I got the concentration problem from my mom as she also couldn't concentrate well. And sometimes I have problems understanding very basic things like simple tasks. My dad is similar in that regard. He is good at math and logical tasks which are clear but in many basic life aspects which aren't presented to you in "clear circles" he often doesn't understand things. But it's not like he is hyper left brained, he can grab emotional/ psychological problems really well sometimes he is simply overwhelmed when things become "wishy washy".  

So I probably got a weird mix of that. Many people told me that they think I am really intelligent but then sometimes I have such embarrassing retard moments. So I am hopping between those two fronts often. This makes me think that there are just certain aspects of my brain that may be deficient and I would like to pin point those to work with that. 

So I thought about doing a brain scan. Is that worthed or are there better alternatives?

As for other possible causes: There are traumatic emotional problems of being an outsider in early childhood which could cause stress which could be partly the reason for some of my misunderstanding. And I will also give heavy metal chelation a shot but as I said I had these problems all my life.  

[Schizophonia]

To do what ? 🤔

[Carl-Richard]

Very few individuals in modern society have zero problems with concentration.

[Jannes]

3 hours ago, Schizophonia said:

To do what ? 🤔

To see if any parts of my brain are less developed, damaged, etc. If I understand my problem better I can potentially heal/ work on it or even at worst I clearly know where my restrictions are so I can better navigate myself through life.  

[Jannes]

26 minutes ago, Carl-Richard said:

Very few individuals in modern society have zero problems with concentration.

True, but compared to my folks I was always a special case in that regard. 

[Schizophonia]

1 hour ago, Jannes said:

To see if any parts of my brain are less developed, damaged, etc. If I understand my problem better I can potentially heal/ work on it or even at worst I clearly know where my restrictions are so I can better navigate myself through life.  

You may just be “neuro-atypical” 

Edited November 5, 2023 by Schizophonia

[Jannes]

3 hours ago, Schizophonia said:

You may just be “neuro-atypical” 

If that's the case I may find that on a brain scan and I would be happy to find out how I am "neuro-atypical".

[undeather]

21 hours ago, Jannes said:

I have had concentration problems/ ADHD all my life. I think I got the concentration problem from my mom as she also couldn't concentrate well. And sometimes I have problems understanding very basic things like simple tasks. My dad is similar in that regard. He is good at math and logical tasks which are clear but in many basic life aspects which aren't presented to you in "clear circles" he often doesn't understand things. But it's not like he is hyper left brained, he can grab emotional/ psychological problems really well sometimes he is simply overwhelmed when things become "wishy washy".  

So I probably got a weird mix of that. Many people told me that they think I am really intelligent but then sometimes I have such embarrassing retard moments. So I am hopping between those two fronts often. This makes me think that there are just certain aspects of my brain that may be deficient and I would like to pin point those to work with that. 

So I thought about doing a brain scan. Is that worthed or are there better alternatives?

As for other possible causes: There are traumatic emotional problems of being an outsider in early childhood which could cause stress which could be partly the reason for some of my misunderstanding. And I will also give heavy metal chelation a shot but as I said I had these problems all my life.  

Hey Jannes,
I can relate with your post because I have had similar issues when I was younger. Despite having an IQ in the 130+ range and now a successful career in medicine, I used to find myself in situations where I just did not "get" simple tasks others would have no problem performing. In my later teenage years I used to work in a local factory during the summer - to earn some money during school holidays. To this day I still remember the embarassing moments when my colleagues told me to do a very simple task and I somehow manage to do it wrong in some very weird ways. There are countless of those stories and I also remember thinking that there was something wrong with me.

I can almost guarantee you that this has nothing to do with some anatomical or structural issues of your brain. Brain scans, even functional MRI's are very limited in that regard and the findings would be a big bowl of nothing. We know very little about how specific behavioural tendencies relate to the structural integrity and certain brain regions. Also, even if there was something "wrong"(which the chance for is basically 0%), there would not be a potential treatment at the end of it. Much more likely, as it was in my case as well, is that there are certain psychological patterns at play which sometimes inibit aspects of your sensory-cognitive apperatus and lead to those "retard moments" down the line. For me, it was a crippling lack of self-esteem and issues with insecurity. I noticed that when I felt good psychologically, those "moments" would occur less often or even disappear completely. You have already pointed at that in your post, so that's definitely a place worth exploring! What also helped me was to gain a higher sense of introspection. I used to analyze my "retard moments" after the fact to determine what went wrong in that moment. Usually, more often than not, it was some sort of stress response that lead to a panicked action. Just by noticing that, it gives you the ability to adapt your behaviour accordingly when it happens the next time.

If you are feeling anxious about potential health implications, go get that brain scan. But let me tell you from yeras of experience that it will most likely come back as a negative (meaning nothing at all). Lifetsyle adaptations (diet, exercise, sleep), a mental hygiene routine (psychotherapy, meditation, psychodelics) and some form of introspective work will propably sovle the issue for you (as it did for me)!

Good luck!

[Schizophonia]

Get rich and wait until Neuralink can turn you into a genius in every field 

Edited November 6, 2023 by Schizophonia

[Jannes]

@undeather Thanks a lot for your comment. I always thought intuitively that these traumatic/ emotional issues are the reason for my cognitive problems but it didn't make logical sense to me.

[Schizophonia]

5 hours ago, Jannes said:

@undeather Thanks a lot for your comment. I always thought intuitively that these traumatic/ emotional issues are the reason for my cognitive problems but it didn't make logical sense to me.

Of course, people more stressed in early childhood certainly have a different neurotransmitter balance.
Overall a more stimulated phenotype, that is to say hypervigilence, elephant memory, analytical mind but problems linked to exaggerated neurotransmition, in particular psychomotor clumsiness.

Sometimes slight bone "malformations" such as small and crooked toes, small wrists, collarbones sticking out at the shoulders like a "girdle" etc.

I can't remember where I saw this, but it seemed like it was histamine related.

[Jannes]

2 hours ago, Schizophonia said:

Of course, people more stressed in early childhood certainly have a different neurotransmitter balance.
Overall a more stimulated phenotype, that is to say hypervigilence, elephant memory, analytical mind but problems linked to exaggerated neurotransmition, in particular psychomotor clumsiness.

I am not familiar with that sort of terminology. Are you saying that having certain natural skills/ attributes can come with the cost of clumsiness and similar things?

2 hours ago, Schizophonia said:

Sometimes slight bone "malformations" such as small and crooked toes, small wrists, collarbones sticking out at the shoulders like a "girdle" etc.

I have very small toes especially my small toe is proportionally even smaller to average. My doctor said it's definitely outside the norm. 

2 hours ago, Schizophonia said:

I can't remember where I saw this, but it seemed like it was histamine related.

What is histamine related?

[Schizophonia]

12 minutes ago, Jannes said:

I am not familiar with that sort of terminology. Are you saying that having certain natural skills/ attributes can come with the cost of clumsiness and similar things?

Yes 

12 minutes ago, Jannes said:

I have very small toes especially my small toe is proportionally even smaller to average. My doctor said it's definitely outside the norm. 

What is histamine related?

These kinds of physical details.
This may be wrong because it was a long time ago, but it's not surprising given that high histamine levels are linked to somewhat "aspie" behavior. 👁

[Jannes]

 

1 hour ago, Schizophonia said:

This may be wrong because it was a long time ago, but it's not surprising given that high histamine levels are linked to somewhat "aspie" behavior. 👁

Gave asperger syndrome a little read. Could be a mild form of it because many aspects aren't true for me. Like I can be very charismatic, I can speak in front of people etc. I still have huge problems connecting to other people though. When I was socially overwhelmed in mid school I sometimes walked around with my hands hanging in front of me like the Alien Roger Smith from American Dad. That Alien made more sense to me than humans and by mimicking the posture I felt closer to Roger. 👽

 

[sholomar]

So you understand black and white thinking but have problems understanding shades of grey? Fascinating. I have some aspie tendencies and for me tolerating a black and white culture who get assimilated into these all or nothing belief systems is something I've tended to have a problem with.  On the other hand, I find most normal, socially well adjusted people are actually living life correctly. It's those of us who see ourselves as "awake" and see the masses as "sheep" (even though they are ) are the ones stuck with psychological problems, often stuck on sympathetic dominance or dorsal vagal mode. We use our "awakeness" as an ego boost but it's really nothing to be proud of.. just a sign you/we didn't fit into the mold our cultures presented to us and ended up more on society's fringes.  It takes all types to make society go around. Most big technological leaps were often made by the autists.

In the end the majority of people if seen by a psychologist would probably suffer from some personality disorder of one sort or the other. lol 

Edited November 11, 2023 by sholomar

[flowboy]

@Jannes  There's no use for a brain scan for these things. No doctor would approve it, there would be nothing to see. And even if you could see cognitive deficiencies like this on a brain scan (which you can't), it's not like there's anywhere to go from there.

Childhood trauma is the likely culprit.

I also had the outsider childhood trauma in my young years, and grew up with severe ADHD.

Never knew that these were linked until I started doing trauma release, and I'm noticing that my ADHD has basically gone away, and I'm much more balanced and competent in all areas, where I would be more unbalanced before.

And that makes sense, because the issue is not underdeveloped areas of your brain, they're underutilized.

That's because to repress trauma, the brain is literally creating barriers around the area linked to the traumatic memories.

No communication gets through.

Those areas also are linked to certain capabilities.

That's how people end up "left brained" or "bad at math" or emotionally unintelligent.

It all balances out after releasing childhood trauma.

But: working through childhood trauma is really, really uncomfortable.

You really have to want to become your real self, your original potential, no matter what the emotional labor cost.

Daniel says it best:

 

[Jannes]

3 hours ago, flowboy said:

@Jannes  There's no use for a brain scan for these things. No doctor would approve it, there would be nothing to see. And even if you could see cognitive deficiencies like this on a brain scan (which you can't), it's not like there's anywhere to go from there.

Childhood trauma is the likely culprit.

I also had the outsider childhood trauma in my young years, and grew up with severe ADHD.

Never knew that these were linked until I started doing trauma release, and I'm noticing that my ADHD has basically gone away, and I'm much more balanced and competent in all areas, where I would be more unbalanced before.

And that makes sense, because the issue is not underdeveloped areas of your brain, they're underutilized.

That's because to repress trauma, the brain is literally creating barriers around the area linked to the traumatic memories.

Very very interesting. Thats literally so valuable of an insight for me. 

3 hours ago, flowboy said:

No communication gets through.

Those areas also are linked to certain capabilities.

That's how people end up "left brained" or "bad at math" or emotionally unintelligent.

It all balances out after releasing childhood trauma.

But: working through childhood trauma is really, really uncomfortable.

You really have to want to become your real self, your original potential, no matter what the emotional labor cost.

Daniel says it best:

 

Watched the video. What is his approach though? Just reflect a lot how childhood experiences must have been and cutting through bullshit (different examples explained in the video) ?

What do you think of psychedelics for healing trauma?

My most recent LSD trip opened me up a lot. 

 

[Leo Gura]

I don't know what kind of brain scan would pick that up. Most brain scans are so crude they will only pick up physical brain damage, which is not your issue.

You can get an EEG test & evaluation, that might pick up some functional problems in your mental performance.

Edited November 16, 2023 by Leo Gura

[Yimpa]

Own your uniqueness. Modify how you do things to fit how your brain works.

Perhaps you suck when you try to do things the normal / expected way.

[flowboy]

On 16/11/2023 at 1:12 AM, Jannes said:

Watched the video. What is his approach though? Just reflect a lot how childhood experiences must have been and cutting through bullshit (different examples explained in the video) ?

@Jannes I actually spoke with him yesterday. The only thing he is very certain to recommend to people is journaling.

When journaling, his aim is to:

• become really honest about what he is currently feeling
• make sense of his history
• make sense of what he was feeling during childhood and become really honest about that

That does mean that the veil of having had a good childhood with really great parents has to be lifted.

Most people idolize their parents, and even if they don't, they're not aware of 99% of the pain that they experienced in childhood due to subtle emotional neglect. The conscious mind tells a story like "it was all pretty nice, some things were not so nice, but overall decent childhood. Guess I don't remember some early years at all. Huh, weird" and this story has to be slowly discovered to be absolute bullshit.

And that's painful, people don't want to even go there, you have all these mental defenses to contend with.

 

Personally, I've had really good results with a targeted journaling approach based on present day feelings and tracing them back, which is what I teach.

Edited November 17, 2023 by flowboy