Posted by Mila S on July 30, 2003, at 21:01:08
In reply to Re: cognitive decline impeding life, posted by foucault on July 30, 2003, at 13:29:52
Dear foucault,
Wow it has been an incredible help reading your post. I do philosophy too! I'm concentrating in analytic philosophy, particularly language and mind.
Your post is very comforting for one problem I have had is feeling like 'its all in my head'. Perhaps it is to some degree, but the fact that you have to pay attention to phrases and words as you do vindicates my experience even if it is primarily 'in my head'(that is, even if the difficulty is caused by performance anxiety, it is a _real_ difficulty. Most people I talk to seem to fail to acknowledge this). Another problem is that I speak adequately when it comes to simple ordinary matters (although one time I did come home irritable about having stepped on some gum exclaiming "some idiot put the gum on my shoe!" after trying find the right words and failing). Because I can speak _adequately_ about ordinary matters, my pdoc does not seem to realize I have a problem. Philosophy and anything intellectual is a whole different ball game though. I will be getting some neurological tests done. I am concerned that the problem will not come out if the testing is geared toward speech in ordinary contexts. The problem is subtle in this respect. but then again this may indicate that it is indeed a matter of performance anxiety (even though it extends to writing as well).
I have tried your method of underlining phrases and sentences in texts --though I did not go so far as to come up with my own sentences. And I sympathize with the reluctance to put things into your own words. I would hit a cognitive wall every time that I tried and it would immediately cause anxiety and pain. I just need to be more courageous. I'm sure improvement will follow once I get over that hurdle. But boy do I hate spending time on that as opposed to learning and thinking about philosophy!
Thanks for sharing your experiences!
poster:Mila S
thread:246353
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030728/msgs/246879.html