Mental Clarity. . .

Does anyone have a hard time achieving mental clarity? I read some of the posts here and they are very informative, if you can absorb them. I am having lots of trouble retaining information and storing it to memory. It's like I hear you talking or writing and it's like my brain has no more room to store the infor. I feel so stupid. I have a bachelors' degree in social work, so I know that I have had to had the trait of organizing lots of information, but work for me is very hard, because I have to have things clarified for me constantly. Can anyone identify? If so, what have you done, to help it? Thanks everyone.

I don't know, csavage.
It sounds very frustrating though.
I've been in that kind of circumstance a couple of times and it was frustrating.
Was this always the case with you or has this developed lately or in the past few years?
I'm a little confused as to what is causing this. If you know the cause then I would think the answer to resolving it would be a little easier.
Do you know the cause?

Jax, thanks for responding. I noticed it right after I graduated from college in 2000. I started work right away in a Substance abuse Rehab Center for about a year, which was a huge mistake, considering my childhood, and I began to feel undeniable urges to run or get away and find other work as quickly as possible and my own baggage kept coming to visit and decided to stay. I left, because I blamed everyone I tried to help at the center, for my problems that I was facing. <Whoa, never said that before> Ever since that job, I have never been back in the social work field and I feel that my mental comprehension is gone. I tried the "Sudoku" games to stimulate my brain, but they end up frustrating me, because I can't do them. Medical terminology interests me, but I'm afraid to take a class, for fear that I won't be able to retain the info. I guess I should say that I've had people balance my checkbook before, because even that is overwhelming to me. I pay my bills very late, even though we have the money, I can't straighten my house because that involves decision making. I'm just really confused. Do they make a medication that clears the mental fog? I definitely would benefit from that.

That is all too familiar. I could relate my own experiences with this (which have been from either depression or drug side effects) but each of us is different. Something you need to work on with your psychiatrist. If you don't have a psychiatrist, it would be worth seeing one, in my opinion. This kind of thing gets outside the range of what normal docs are skilled at dealing with.

Thanks, samsara. I'm going back to psychiatrist hopefully within the next month

I write things down. this helps me to understand what I am reading and while I am writing what I am reading down after each sentence I write down my thoughts on that so that later when re reading I know and remember what I had read. This type of writing is called note taking and is taught in high school - write down what the teacher is saying and then write down in your own words what it menat so that it sticks in the brain.

csavage, you posted this is the right place: depression! Depression does this to us, clogs, fogs, drags the brain to a place of incoherency imo.

I have what I call "brain days" and they occur about one every 6 or 8 weeks... all the rest of the time I have to force my thoughts.

And there are those days when I stare, read, reread and stare some more and it's Whaa???? Most members here don't expect that from me, and some of my posts have caused reactions just because it was a day I was having trouble.

Good idea to see a pdoc for antidepressant or such to help lighten the bog. TC