# Does anxiety make you dumb...



## Jess

I feel like in conversations I am focused SO Much on all the wrong things that I don't comprehend the conversation...also, when i am out in public I don't really notice my surroundings because I am fixated on how I look, how other people might be seeing me...anyone else feel like they never know what is going on? Or is it just me...I would actually feel better if people who don't feel this way replied, then I would know that it isnt my anxiety and I just need to be less ditsy and more aware!


----------



## WhyMe888

.....


----------



## Melusine

I'm like that too, i am very self conscious in public and not so aware of what is going on around me, and i focus too much on my physical appearance to others wondering if i look okay and all that..its really daunting and i've been dealing with it, it seems FOREVER..i don't like the feelings that i get and i feel so dumb.


----------



## James of Maine

I swear that many people I've interacted with assume that "doesn't say much" = "simple mind." It's just in the tone they use and other things in the way they address me. I find it demeaning.


----------



## Jess

i know i dont have a simple mind because i think about heavy things, yet i am really not that observant or good at school (maybe just not good at studying or paying attention to class) it leaves me confused about my intellgience because usually both things go together it seems...anyone else feel this way?


----------



## Goran

it sort of makes you temporarily unresponsive (or irresponsive :con). My uncle said it well. He said: "you seem non-present". 
it doesn't make you dumb. You notice other things because your body is involved in a different game. Nobody's dumb. Fast conversations are hard to follow for us. SA sort of makes your mind compulsively follow one string of thought. Other people can forget things quickly. That's what makes them seem smarter. They don't care about what they just said or what they just saw. They don't linger anayisng how else it could be interpreted. They quickly move on to the next thing. Once you forget your current thought, you allow that space to be filled with something else. And so they may sometimes overlook things (making them look temporarily stupid) but they never take it seriously. They may make a little joke out of it and move on. Nobody kills them for that. 

If you have problems with school work, why don't you take out the factor of social anxiety. Just take tomorrow's topic and study a little bit at home. Otherwise you end up being concerned with sa problems, with thoughts that you're dumb and a lot of school work, which is sort of happening in the background of the class. I'm not saying u should turn into a nerd who studies a year in advance, but this may give you initial confidence that you can actually do it. School work is nothing hard. If you've never studied by yourself you may find it difficult at first, but trust me once you make that first discovery that you can work things out by yourself, it will come easy.


----------



## Norske

Goran said:


> it sort of makes you temporarily unresponsive (or irresponsive :con). My uncle said it well. He said: "you seem non-present".
> it doesn't make you dumb. You notice other things because your body is involved in a different game. Nobody's dumb. Fast conversations are hard to follow for us. SA sort of makes your mind compulsively follow one string of thought. Other people can forget things quickly. That's what makes them seem smarter. They don't care about what they just said or what they just saw. They don't linger anayisng how else it could be interpreted. They quickly move on to the next thing. Once you forget your current thought, you allow that space to be filled with something else. And so they may sometimes overlook things (making them look temporarily stupid) but they never take it seriously. They may make a little joke out of it and move on. Nobody kills them for that.


 :agree

Good post. Since starting an AD my short term memory hasn't been as good - in a way though this helps conversations because something which I become unduly concerned with is easily pushed to the side and forgotten.


----------



## chrisman19

I've noticed a huge lack in my performance at work due to my anxiety and depression and general bad mental health. It takes me very long to do just simple projects, and I make dumb mistakes.

Sometimes I forget what month of the year it is. When I try to recall the date, my though process goes something like this: I know I'm in a 16 week semester at school, so it must be either Spring or Fall. Then I think of the weather outside...if it's cold, it's fall, and if it's warm, it's spring. Then I tell myself, you idiot! it's October, why didn't you remember that?!

Sometimes I wake up in the morning and for a few seconds wonder what day of the week it is--whether it's a weekend or a weekday. My reasoning process and my ability to think on my feet is compromised, I've noticed. It's wierd...almost like I'm starting to get dementia.


----------



## chrisman19

Oh, one more thing. I seem "not there" as well. People at work even mention this to me. If there's a meeting that I must go to, I usually don't know about it until someone tells me it's time to go. I'm unaware of tons of things that happen in the office because I'm either too focused on my own work or my mental condition does it--I don't know. I'm less alert.


----------



## Zephyr

> My uncle said it well. He said: "you seem non-present"


That describes me perfectly.


----------



## Jess

ok so...does anyone NOT feel this way?! haha...so that we can know that it maybe doesn't have anything to do with the anxiety


----------



## dax

Yes, it makes me wicked dumb. I don't form sentences right, I mix up my words, I don't comprehend instructions well...all despite the fact that I am very intelligent considering how well I did in college.


----------



## Jess

*question*

so you did pretty well in college? what helped you do well? Just your intelligence or anything else hahaJust wondering because I am NOT doing well at atll!


----------



## jauggy

dumb and anxiety are two different things. And even then it depends on how you define "dumb". In fact sometimes it can be an advantage in school to not have a social life as you compensate by studying more.


----------



## raalka

Yep, my SA has definitely made me pretty dumb. It's hard to reach your potential intellectually when you are constantly so fixated on your own feelings about absolutely everything. I feel like I miss out on what other people are learning when I'm selfishly lost in my own thoughts. And of course, my vocabulary really suffers, too. I can write, but speaking is a whole 'nuther thing! I'm not stupid, but I'm sure I come across that way to other people often.


----------



## emptybottle

raalka said:


> It's hard to reach your potential intellectually when you are constantly so fixated on your own feelings about absolutely everything. I feel like I miss out on what other people are learning when I'm selfishly lost in my own thoughts. .


I feel the same way too. I don't think my SA has made me dumb about everything, just any area that involves expressing myself. And it carries on to my schoolwork. Like no matter how hard I try I'm generally terrible at writing essays and speeches for school because I get some kind of intense communication anxiety or something... but I'm pretty good at any other class that I apply myself in. I know it's not an excuse because I feel an anxiety that's as bad as my SA whenever I'm trying to write a paper or even doing research for a paper. I just don't understand it.


----------



## Chris435435

Jess said:


> i know i dont have a simple mind because i think about heavy things, yet i am really not that observant or good at school (maybe just not good at studying or paying attention to class) it leaves me confused about my intellgience because usually both things go together it seems...anyone else feel this way?


Well, studying from the books is one thing for me... however, because I decide to exclude myself from social situations, I really don't have a good grasp of my surroundings or with whatever is going on in the world. So, when I'm in a social gathering, I don't have much to say because I don't know what's going on or "what's new".

I do talk more no matter where it is if I have an understanding of the conversation. However, if I can't grasp what people are talking about, then I feel I shouldn't embarrass myself by speaking up about an issue they are knowledgeable about. When I read some of the posts on this message board (mostly in the news section), I feel like I shouldn't be posting there for these reasons.

I've always had this issue with my intelligence. Sometimes I feel good and most times I don't. I think if I just gave myself more of a chance to be immersed in discussions, I would eventually pick up on things.

It really all comes down to whether I just want to accept that or not. So far, I haven't chose to do so. I'd really like to do so though because I'm missing a valuable part of my life (ya, im sure everybody else realizes that too).


----------



## pittstonjoma

It makes me feel dumb, of course. I know I'm not dumb though.


----------



## rainbowgal

being a newbie on this site, I'm still amazed at how many of my experiences are everyone's experiences. Jess, like you, i am more focused on what i'm going to say, how it will sound, more than comprehending the question or what the person is saying. of course in the end i usually have no idea what they have said. i believe that anxiety doesn't make you stupid it just makes you appear that way, which in todays day and age with most things relying on images for us to form opinions, is terribly frustrating. 

RG


----------



## itsmemaggi

SA tends to make me a bit slow to respond, at times, but general anxiety and worry and stress and all that stuff tends to make me work harder and more productively. I passed all eight of my AP exams in high school because of stress and worry.

xoxo
Maggi


----------



## Jennie*

I do well in school, i'm not dumb but I can't ever contribute to class discussions. I just can't formulate everything and say it aloud  thats why i'm the person who goes blank when i'm called on, the professor thinks I never read the assignments and people are wispering if the silence is too long. I'm good as long as I don't have to participate.


----------



## itsmemaggi

I use the shyness thing to my advantage. My professors think it's "sweet."

xoxo
Maggi


----------



## feelingblue

Jennie* said:


> I do well in school, i'm not dumb but I can't ever contribute to class discussions. I just can't formulate everything and say it aloud  thats why i'm the person who goes blank when i'm called on, the professor thinks I never read the assignments and people are wispering if the silence is too long. I'm good as long as I don't have to participate.


I sometimes want to participate. In my mind I have it together but when its time to talk I babble or just go blank :hide . Whenever I do presentations I actually like to go first to get it over with. My anxiety gets worser as I wait.


----------



## Mayflower 2000

One thing I find the anxiety does is slow my thinking way down.
I'll badly communicate when I'm a bit nervous or ill. It's quite common.
Makes me feel like I'm not the right type for a lot of employment, because I'm opposite of what works - I sound dumber than I am in those settings, rather than opposite.



Emotional said:


> I sometimes want to participate. In my mind I have it together but when its time to talk I babble or just go blank :hide . Whenever I do presentations I actually like to go first to get it over with. My anxiety gets worser as I wait.


I remember sometimes in class wanting to say something, and trying to word it all out in my head over and over before I did so, as I'd be so sure I'd mess up saying a simple statement.


----------



## Drella

my anxiety hasn't affected my intelligence. I'm a college junior, and I haven't made below a B in a class so far. If anything, it actually makes me study more. I don't have anything better to do, so I bury my head in a text book.


----------



## Frankie B

Being an SAer doesn't make you academically dumb but socially so. I'm emotianlly immature, like others here I haven't learnt how to interact with people - it's my thought that we aren't born knowing. I've the social logic of a child -say for example my mate asks me for something then it seems ok for me to ask him for something in return, however should I then want something from him again I'd think to myself "oh, I've got to wait for him to ask me for something before I ask him". It's like in my head it's tit for tat, but in reality I shouldn't ponder so. This is stupity here, albiet socially not text-book-wise.
On the contrary some of us are probably highly intelligent but if we can't express our selves what's the use! -Take autistic people for exapmle, they are just us SAers magnified. 

So it's like if the teacher asked: "I want all the smart kids to stand up, now!" Of those standing you'd find few SAers, not that they aren't smart but because they buckled at the "standing" part; cause of fear. 
Likewise in the top workplaces there's probably few SAers because they never stand up to be counted!

Oh well...


----------



## Chris435435

I feel that I do have the potential to be a great conversationalist. I think that everyone here has that potential. I find it incredibly easy to talk about things I'm familiar with when it comes to anybody... and usually it is school or something along those lines. People think I'm a cool person up to this point, but when the topic changes to many things that I'm not so familiar with... usually what I do outside of school life.... the conversations just don't go as well. 

It's difficult trying to become a well-rounded conversationalist when you can't establish yourself socially. School is easy to talk about though.


----------



## itchynscratchy

Chris435435 said:


> I feel that I do have the potential to be a great conversationalist. I think that everyone here has that potential. I find it incredibly easy to talk about things I'm familiar with when it comes to anybody... and usually it is school or something along those lines. People think I'm a cool person up to this point, but when the topic changes to many things that I'm not so familiar with... usually what I do outside of school life.... the conversations just don't go as well.
> 
> It's difficult trying to become a well-rounded conversationalist when you can't establish yourself socially. School is easy to talk about though.


That sounds totally normal. So your choices are to read up and become an expert on _every _possible topic of conversation, or become comfortable with saying, "Well I don't know very much about that. Tell me about it." I can say that knowledge is one of the keys to conversation, as well as confidence in your right to have and express your own opinion. When I was in my late-teens I felt uncomfortable on unfamiliar (almost all) subjects. After the internet as we know it was born, I dove in because it was a tremendous resource for information. I became well-read on a great many subjects, but still lacked the confidence to discuss the information I'd read. I felt like I was coming accross as a know-it-all, so I clammed up again. It took some time before I came out of my shell enough to see that people were often interested when I spoke. There are some people who seem to step out of their mother's wombs able to talk about anything, and then there are those of us who are late bloomers. Don't worry much about it: speak when you have something to say!


----------



## sidneejmas

I've been feeling like what's described in this thread . when I'm working I forget what has been said but I know I'm not stupid then when I'm doing a task my body freezes. I get cramps cause I'm so paralyzed with fear at times neck and in my arms . then when I do make a mistake on a simple task I beat myself up . I then worry that this is how I will be perceived all of the time I want to tell everyone that I suffer from anxiety but I'm worried .


----------



## abnerocks

raalka said:


> Yep, my SA has definitely made me pretty dumb. It's hard to reach your potential intellectually when you are constantly so fixated on your own feelings about absolutely everything. I feel like I miss out on what other people are learning when I'm selfishly lost in my own thoughts. And of course, my vocabulary really suffers, too. I can write, but speaking is a whole 'nuther thing! I'm not stupid, but I'm sure I come across that way to other people often.


I feel this so hard. The vocabulary you used and your phrasing makes me feel like I wrote it myself. Weird haha. I come across so much better through writing, probably because I can edit my words and review them so everything makes sense. AIN'T THE WORLD FUN :fall


----------



## MCHB

Dumb? No. Socially inept? Yes.


----------



## Greys0n

yes i always think that the audience look more at me than listen to me


----------



## jpgm97

My social anxiety only bothers me in classes, when I need to some kind of presentation or when I have to give an opinion on something whitout preparing it on home. I need to have everything prepared and memorized. In a presentation normally I can do it a home. When I need to do things in the moment, I sort run out of words.


----------

