I play competitive Scrabble. I played seriously about ten years ago and have just recently tried to get back to it. It's really frustrating and i am not enjoying myself. I didn't even stay for all three games last club night. I make the stupidest mistakes!

I worry that i can't learn and improve as i am 49 now and despite studying new words, i can't remember them and my rating is stagnating. I wonder if i'm just too old to acquire new words. I'm on disability benefits and i have the time and am willing to do the work -- i just can't seem to get anywhere.

In desperation i tried to replace my Scrabble hobby with other hobbies this week. I tried cooking and the dish was so lousy i threw it out. I tried French but the group was too advanced and there again i would probably run into my memory problems.

I find knitting and coloring too boring. I looked over courses on Coursera but what would be the point of learning about chemistry?

I find myself laying around a lot of the day. I sleep in and then i lay around the afternoon. I try and follow two soaps but there again they are so boring.

I don't have the mind for Chess, Bridge or Poker.

I debrief my losing games in the game examiner and i make such embarrassing stupid moves i am ashamed of myself. I had to stop tonight because i felt like hurting myself.

I don't know what to do with myself. I need an intellectual pursuit but one that is not so demoralizing that i want to hurt myself.

Help!

Sounds like you've tried a lot of different things.

All I can think of is kind of lame... What about something creative like art or photography - there is actually a lot of technical ability required and can be an intellectual path if you want it to be. You could study famous photographers or art history.

Good luck!

[Woolly Bugger]

If you can play scrabble, you can play chess. Join a chess club and/or get a chess program for your computer and play very low level games until you get the hang of it. Then go online. I recommend RedHotPawn.com, because you can always find someone at your level to play, and because each move is made over the course of a day or two, not in real time. What have you got to lose? Once you get into chess, you have something that you can do for the rest of your life.

Another idea would be to do crossword puzzles. I do one every evening and really enjoy it.

Good luck!

[raspberrytorte]

Is there anything you're interested in researching? That would be great because you could read all day in bed and, in addition to learning new things, it would enhance your vocabulary. Hope you can find something you enjoy!

[Unrigged64072835]

I find word puzzles and word search satisfying without having to compete. I have 7 Little Words on my iPad and I enjoy it a lot. In addition I can work at different skill levels.

[Mountainbard]

Fharraige has some good suggestions. In addition there are crossword puzzles, sudoku and other number puzzles, and logic problems.

[BeyondtheRainbow]

I'm so impressed you are motivated to try so much. I have kept backing down what I could do this last year to the point that right now I am playing solitaire a LOT, reading and trying to learn more about figure skating singles (I got into ice dancing when I was on bed rest after ankle surgery in 2014 and understand it fairly well but singles is different and it seems I am not learning what I want to no matter how hard I try but at least I still enjoy it---but I have to restrict the time spent on it or I get too frustrated), and reading things online. Books are too hard right now as are most things. My mom and I used to play scrabble all the time but stopped when I started having cognitive issues. Then we played again 2 winters ago and I was able to at least hold my own (this is not anything like your level) although I couldn't win but now that's out of the question again. This summer I was playing Trivia Crack all the time and was fairly good at it but since I was IP in August I haven' tried it because it was getting to be too hard and I've not improved that much since my admission. But I just keep giving up on things and trying to replace them and you are so dedicated to trying.

I wish I were that strong in this part of my life. My therapist wants me to read a book and I told him I could read (not sure why since I haven't made it through a book in months) so I'll probably be trying that this week. But I'm afraid to try and fail with so many things, at least right now. I know that eventually I'll feel like trying again but right now it feels impossible to do what you're doing.

So you have my admiration although I have no good ideas (I will say I'm learning about skating from a forum that offers lots of information supported by links so if you can find a topic that interests you and has a forum like that it seems to be a good way to learn).

Reading, museums, traveling, learning about different cultures. The list is endless!

I read the news daily for a few hours.