We all know that stress and depression aren't good for the brain.
I have been depressed for years and also have stress.
I worry that I could be cognitively declining. But at the same time I don't know how to find out about it.
Would a brain MRI make sense?
Going to a normal neurologist makes no sense to me. He will simply do an EEG and a standard neuro exam.
This doesn't say anything about cognitive decline.
I know there are neuropsychologists. They will have you do all kinds of tests which I am scared of.
My father once went to one. He had to do stuff like remember and repeat long lists of names and numbers.
He had to count forwards and backwards in steps of 5,7,9, etc.
I basically know that I would TOTALLY suck at such tasks especially counting backwards.
I am scared of this. What if I really totally underperformed at this would this mean that something is wrong?
I already know from my ADHD test that my short term memory isn't according to my age.
This also depressed me.
I also notice that I am really slow at calculating stuff in my mind without having a paper to write it down.
I also notice that I am really bad at understanding instruction manuals. It's like my mind goes blank when I read manuals.
I am scared of not understanding it and this makes it all worse. In such situations I can't think normally anymore.
What would you do?
I also wonder if somebody is really bad at tasks like counting backwards in certain steps then does this matter? I mean it's nothing
you need in normal life. Can you simply ignore it? Should I force myself to practice these things to strengthen my brain?
I am not keen on it. I hate this stuff.
But I also want to stay functional.
