Saturday, August 13, 2016
Brain Fatigue
I have mentioned in the past that very demanding mental work like debugging even fairly simple programs seems beyond me now. But even relatively simple tasks if done long enough seem to fatigue my mental capacities. When I tax my brain too many hours in a row, my speech slurs more severely. My wife has been insisting that I do less because by the end of the day I am not very understandable. She says it is like living with an alcoholic, a painful subject since she grew up in an alcoholic home. I now have to limit myself to about five hours a day, and spend the rest relaxing, or reading light materials, such as The Collected Stories of Sherlock Holmes.
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Sir,
ReplyDeleteI too survived a stroke. In my case brain fatigue lessened over time for two reasons: One, the brain adapts as new neural pathways develop to a greater or lesser degree and two, we adapt by pacing ourselves, knowing our constraints, rests/naps, prioritizing, etc. My wife says there are times when she doesn't know who I am. I tell her it's the new and improved version. So far, she ain't buying it
Yeah, this is perhaps the most aggravating thing about becoming permanently disabled: you think you're close to being able to become a productive member of society again, and something like this shows you, nope, sorry, not going to happen in the foreseeable future.
ReplyDeleteIf you want an activity that doesn't tax your brain, spend all day, every day, staring at your "smart phone"! It's popular, too - MILLIONS have adopted the lifestyle. Brains have never been more rested than in 2016!
ReplyDeleteTake care of yourself and your marriage.
ReplyDeleteJust say that you are a "morning person."
ReplyDeleteI have a collection of certified brainless topics we can discuss at GBR, guaranteed not to tax either one of us. Remind me to mention allowing spectators to try to shoot down racing drones.
ReplyDeleteGBR?
ReplyDeleteClayton,
ReplyDeleteI think it means Gun Blogger Rendezvous. Held in September. http://gunbloggers.blogspot.com/
I lost some abilities from a stroke, but I was back working on laser surgical systems for a while, until a side-effect of the anti-depressant Effexor hit. The stroke wasn't diagnosed, but a side-effect of it, depression, was. Turns out a leading problem with that drug is memory damage. It lessened somewhat after stopping it, but I couldn't work a high-tech position afterwards. Some limited testing shows I've lost about 30IQ points, and most of that I attribute to that drug.
So, I got a job driving a tow truck for the CHP. Spent a few years being surprised when arriving at the drop-off point only to discover how many of the wheel and body restraints I had forgotten to attach. Never mind the magnetic mounted taillights that weren't. All it took was a bit of stress from working on the freeway shoulder to screw up my memory and situational awareness even more than normal. Hook up in a parking lot? No problem, normally.
That sort of situation never would have bothered me before. I used to roadrace Open Twins class motorcycles, and sliding both ends at 100+mph was fun, not nerve racking. (Corner workers thought otherwise!) My final races were less than 6 months prior to that stroke.