losing intelligence

I don't know what it is and I have no explanation why it's happened, but I've lost my intelligence. I was always a straight A's student got a first class degree but something has gone wrong since being diagnosed. Is it possible for my medication (seroquel) to have a negative effect in this respect? Or is it a symptom of the disorder itself. It's one of the worst things to have happened I can feel it seeping away. I used to be so confident about my own abilities but now I feel so utterly useless and can't even add up properly.

I have never taken the med you take but what I can tell you is that I am definitely less intelligent when I take my meds (Zyprexa). Only the difference is that I do well in the university when I take my meds but only because my university is all about memorizing things and we don't have to use our logic or our capacity of analyzing, interpreting, understanding etc. So I take my pills when I need to study because I am capable to stick to boring and meaningless things as memorizing. But if I want to actually UNDERSTAND complicated concepts I need to stop taking my meds (but if I stop taking them other problems appear).

Maybe because I feel like after a pill of Xanax (is a pill that relaxes you in case you don't know)..I feel so relaxed I can't react to anything. And this is what these pills do right? They somehow stop all those strong emotions and all your alertness, so you become too relaxed, your brain isn't alert anymore, isn't FAST anymore (making fast connections between ideas), it's like half sleeping...

You can focus better on doing boring stuff (and without getting bored) but if you have to do things that require a high intellect you are almost incapable. God I still remember moments like talking to somebody, insulting them (not because I wanted to but by mistake) and then being completely incapable of reacting and adjusting the problem FAST ..I knew I said something wrong by I was too relaxed (or I don't even know how to call it) to react..or too indifferent ..One girl told me: "I'll take it as a compliment"...Like what more do you want? When a person says "I'll take it as a compliment" it is obvious that the message is. "Even if you insulted me..whatever" and you should say fast: "No, no sorry it wasn't intended as an insult et ect". Being fast (thinking fast), original, creative, analyzing, think complex and many others is difficult when I am on pills.

My idea is that, a pill is not like a computer chip that is programmed to increase something with 1.897 % and decrease something else with 3.400 % (with precision ..this is what I mean) so while it will decrease your bad emotions will decrease some good ones too and maybe some other mental capabilities with it. And this is the most important paragraph from all this long explanation!!

I'm not saying to not take the pills...I'm just saying: bad with them, bad without them. But this is only MY point of view.

Ruby.Ruby wrote:I'm just saying: bad with them, bad without them.

Story of my life.

I recently read a great article about "bipolar brain fog" in bipolar magazine. This is something that is common for a lot of people. I too feel like I've lost a lot of my intelligence over time since being diagnosed. I know that some medications can make you feel more foggy and less intelligent so that could be one factor, but I also know that it is a symptom of the disease itself unfortunately.

I feel like I am becoming less intelligent too but i dont know if that is because of being out of work for so long thus not stimulating my brain. I would think that meds which are tranquilisers could be a reason for this for sure. It is unpleasant

Hugs

Cracked

Hey!

Really interesting topic. I've recently been going through some assessments at a memory clinic as I am having problems at work with forgetting things, doing things twice etc. I got my results yesterday- all of my cognitive functioning is great, except for delayed memory, which is waaaaay behind all of my other cognitive functions. The consultant has said that this is most likely the reason for my difficulties at work, and probably caused by a combination of medication and ECT (I had a lot of ECT years ago). It is frustrating and they did say it might be worth seeing if I could lower my dose, but I don't like to rock the boat when I'm doing okay. So it may well be your meds 'dumbing down' your brain functioning, as my consultant phrased it! I suppose it's a case of weighing up the pros and cons.

Best, keenie