Most of us live around 80 years now, and what we do to our bodies and brains has a cumulative impact. I've been a smoker (cigarettes) for the better part of five decades, I've taken in loads of drugs legal and otherwise, and five years ago I suffered a brain injury. How can you expect these things not to take their toll?
In lockdown I got the habit of being at my desk all day, smoking and boozing like there's no tomorrow and taking ever-larger doses of a prescribed drug in order to get a few hours' sleep. I interrupt this only by going to the kitchen for something to eat or outside for a smoke. That's my exercise. I'm struggling to get into my clothes.
Some things are reversible and some aren't. I expect to lose some weight when (if?) life gets back to normal. I get scared when I realise I'm forgetting words and names I once knew well. I've long had the idea that I'll be able to 'speak' in writing long after other faculties have shut down.
There's no point complaining about the effects of the things we've done to ourselves. All of our long-term habits eventually take their toll. I've been to more funerals than I can count in the past few years, made lots of nursing-home visits and seen all the horrifying effects of dementia.
The deal is, you get a body with a brain in it so you can have the adventures of your choice. As you would be aware, some people start out with compromised brains, bodies, or both. Medical advances mean they stay alive with those conditions.
tokes wrote:I've tried to find studies based on whether long term effects are reversible and that hasn't been a long enough study to figure that out yet. But some studies suggest the brain can repair previous damage made. In layman's terms the our receptors have dulled, resulting in slower response times of information being passed along the synapses.
I'd take the road of optimism if I were you. There are always stories of people who defy the medical prognosis. There are also people who think their way into premature old age. If you don't believe you can get well, you probably won't. This is why I invariably have a pop at people who come here listing their symptoms and counting the days since they last used their drug of choice. Look for what's going
right. Order your mind to get well and stay well.
Icebags210 wrote:My thought processes has been severely dulled, and I find myself stumbling through conversions with people. I just have so much trouble forming and maintaining thoughts. I also struggle to visualize things in my mind's eye.
Whether you realise it or not, these are all affirmations. They're instructions to your brain. If that isn't what you want, start telling a different story. Look for what's going right instead of what's going wrong.
I know that all seems like hippy-dippy new-age bs, but take the grain of truth in it. Do the experiment and prove it to yourself.