If you need an estimated 5 hours a day every day plus weekends to complete your undergrad homework, you shouldn't be in school.

#1 cause of feeling foggy and unfocused and sluggish is poor sleep patterns. go to bed and wake up at the same time every day. i know it's easier said than done for a competitive tf2 player but trust me when i say you don't want to be taking adderall if you don't absolutely need it. it's a legal amphetamine and getting dependent on it to feel 'normal' while leading an otherwise unhealthy life is really really bad. speaking from experience here

buy a 1L (or, uh, what 1L is in imperial, idk) water bottle that you can carry around in a bag or whatever, keep it as full as you can whenever you have the chance. thirst is weird, I feel like a lot of people don't mentally connect all the things being parched causes with actually being parched

Went through something similar in my last years of college. Definitely recommend seeing your school's personal counseling services, they're there to help you with these sorts of things and are good for just letting some anxiety off. Keeping counseling visits on a regular schedule helped a lot with a lot of troubling stuff. I don't know how far into your major you are but if you think you'd enjoy something else in the long run go for it.

As for health stuff, yes try to stay hydrated and have regular eating habits [I found that I'd get very irritated and fatigued when I didn't eat while on campus]. And at least try to get some fresh air every day, even if it's just sitting outside for a few minutes to get away from the computer screen.

Thank you guys for your words and advice. It has been a few months so I think I may as well give an update on blogfortress.tv. Sorry in advance if this is a little long. I hope you guys agree that making long self absorbed posts is okay as long as you acknowledge that its a long self absorbed post. Please notice how self-aware I am.

I finished last quarter with somewhere around a 3.6 GPA which is much better than I usually do so I'm very proud of myself for that. Taking some easy classes helped a lot but I noticed that my work ethic was much better in all sorts of ways such as not doing assignments at the last minute. Being more communicative with my professors was also a big help. I go to a private university with pretty small class sizes so I understand that its easier for me to get some leeway than it is for a lot of other people, but I was surprised at just how accommodating professors can be if you show that you actually care. I fucked up an assignment really badly, by which I mean I got a 20%, because I didn't see that you had to get the directions from multiple different parts of the class's website. That last part is fucking stupid, but when I emailed my professor about it he was very understanding and gave me a couple days to redo the assignment. My teachers in high school gave me this impression that professors were super strict about everything even if they do "seem" cool, but I'm finally starting to realize that most of them are actually really nice.

I tried to avoid taking medication or seeking out a diagnosis mostly because I'm stubborn about a grade school teacher I had who went through my backpack, found my 5th grade, pseudo edgy proto-memes and shitty song lyrics, which were basically plagiarized green day songs, and tried to get me in trouble, to see a therapist, and on ADHD medication. Then again, that was the same year I put a carrot in the microwave for 5 minutes so maybe I did have some issues. Sorry about that tangent, anyway, I saw my psychiatrist for the first time about a month and a half or so ago and he diagnosed me with inattentive type ADHD. At first I wasn't so sure because I and many others believe that it is a very over-diagnosed condition even if it is real. After I took vyvanse for the first time though, I realized that it really doesn't matter if its real or not as long as it makes things easier for me.

I used to think that I was just really bad at math, but after going on medication I realized that wasn't really the case. Before I started taking medication I would always have a splitting headache whenever I was faced with any sort of math problem and just being in math class stressed the hell out of me. As soon as I would stop thinking about one number or variable to think about another, I would instantly lose it in the sea of white noise that is my mind. Numeric anchors held my ship stagnant in the storming sea. Poetry is fucking dumb please ignore that. I'm embarrassed to say it, but I failed a remedial pre-calc class a couple quarters ago simply because studying math gave me such bad headaches and mental fatigue. When I took the class in high school I had a teacher who was pretty damn mean to me to and would deliberately let my classmates know how poorly I was doing. She destroyed whatever confidence I had in my mathematical abilities which lead me into a feedback loop where I wouldn't do problems I actually could do simply because I thought I was too bad at math to actually know the solution. That along with the headaches made me basically just a nervous wreck whenever I was doing anything math related. Even calculating tips made me anxious. Thankfully, I'm retaking pre-calc now and it is going better than ever. The professor is really nice and concise which makes it very easy to pay attention and the medication I'm on makes doing math almost effortless. Catching up to where I should be is going to take a while, but I'm actually looking forward to it because I know how much its going to help my self-esteem when I can say I don't suck at math.

Anyway, here's some advice from capnfapn, the wise ol' sage, to the youths strugglin' in school.

• I'm not following this advice right now, but working out really does help a lot. Mentally, it helps you focus, gets rid of stress, and improves your work ethic.I believe that the different parts of ourselves that we can be confident in are permeable in the sense that confidence in one area can turn into confidence in another. Even if it doesn't help mentally you'll still feel better about being a more gorgeous gamer than before. Be warned though, if you have a low sensitivity and aim with your arm your aim may suffer during the first few days of soreness. In the long run though, I think your gaming skills will improve due to your improved mental health and improved mind-muscle connection.
  
  
• Don't be afraid to quit tf2 for a little bit. I got grounded from tf2 all the time in high school and was always afraid that by the time I got ungrounded the game would be dead. Trust me, you don't need to worry about that unless your parents are asian and ban you for a decade. Its easy to worry about losing all of your hard earned DM skill when taking a break, but I can assure you that it will come back much quicker than you think. Once a fragger, always a fragger. When you do return in full force with your improved school situation, you'll probably do a lot better in the mental aspects of the game because you aren't worried about school in the back of your mind.
  
  
• If you can't get yourself to completely stop, do yourself a favor and try to limit your time to whatever your situation allows. This can range from only playing scrims and DM/MGE and not playing pubs and other less umm... "productive" forms of tf2, to limiting yourself to just an hour of DM a night so that you can keep improving while not being invested in a team. Won't it be awesome when you come back from the hyperbolic time chamber, ready to smash mid open with your death new-found deathmatching skill? Since nobody remembers you anyway, people might think you're like the new yomps or something!
  
  
• Be friends with productive people. I'm not saying you need to completely change your group of friends if they aren't productive, but try to use the success of your friends as a source of motivation. I know it sounds trite but having someone around who really cares about where they're going in life will probably rub off on you. I think a lot of gamer type people are aware that they would be content with a very modest style of life, which makes it hard for a lot of us get motivated enough to become our best, so being around people who really want the best for themselves can really have an impact on where you want to be.
  
  
• If you're concerned you may have ADHD, a learning disability, or any sort of mental issue don't be afraid to talk about it with your parents and other advisers. Before you talk to other people though, look stuff up online so that you have a better understanding of what you may have, which will make it easier to communicate with whoever about it. That being said, don't go straight to medication especially if you're still in high school. Try your very best to get as far as you can without taking medication because it isn't something you will always be able to rely on.

Thank you for reading my blogfortress post.

jfc dude 10/10 post

i got an addie XR RX last month and its p decent if kinda weak +recc lookin for help if you need it

it's good to hear that you're doing a lot better capn

LSD is more likely to fuck up your brain even more if used in the wrong hands. Same with weed. Don't listen to the uneducated "stoners" who tell you weed or LSD are the cure to all your problems, They're not and both can be very dangerous if used by the wrong person. LSD especially shouldn't be used by someone mentally unstable.

I'm no expert but I wouldn't be surprised if what sheepy is saying here is true. I don't think LSD can make someone go crazy, but it makes sense to me that it can make somebody who is predisposed to some sort of mental illness or in the early stages of one go crazy.

^this. LSD is under studied and one of the most powerful psychoactive chems in the world. You're probably fine having fun with it but like why risk it? Only just this week did someone bother to even scan someone's brain while they were high. It does wild shit, and has a ton of therapeutic use, but if you'd avoid opiates for being dangerous you'd probably be better off if you apply that same caution to LSD :)

Are you happy with your major?

the psychedelic experience can be either profoundly helpful or profoundly negative depending on your mindset going into it. however, psychedelics are not nearly as dangerous as opiates (in fact, as far as we can tell, not physically dangerous whatsoever, and there have been studies demonstrating positive effects on brain cell growth with psilocybin, the active chemical in magic mushrooms) and carry very close to zero risk for dependency.

i don't think everyone should go out and try lsd tomorrow, but if your set and setting are good and well thought out (meaning you are somewhere you feel safe, you are generally feeling good that day, with little risk of unexpected things happening during the course of your experience, with people you deeply trust), your experience is likely to be at the very least decent, if not beautiful and fun.

its vitally important to exercise caution when using any drug, especially ones as powerful as psychedelics. do your research, use test kits, be smart. drugs, especially psychedelics, can be a wonderful thing. of course, if you're predisposed to schizophrenia or mourning the death of a loved one, you should obviously avoid hallucinogens.

for me, LSD and mushrooms have had enormous positive effects. mushrooms pushed me to be kinder to myself and others and finally start going to therapy for my depression, LSD showed me the beauty of the small things, pushed me to start meditating, and helped me confront problems from my past that were getting in the way of fully trusting anyone.

this is totally off topic from the actual thread but i'm happy to hear you're feeling better man! always nice to hear stories of improvement.

i didn't know weed could be dangerous. thanks for your expert opinion doctor sheepy. It's actually more dangerous for me to not smoke weed as I'd probably be in jail for murder right now. Been smokin almost everyday for 11 years

typical uneducated teenager who knows fuck all here. I work with drug addicts and have studied the effects of drugs extensively. Weed is not a harmless drug as it can be very dangerous if you overdose or if it's taken by someone with certain mental issues. Before you laugh and say "lmao u cant od on weed", you can overdose on weed very easily if you eat it or smoke too much of the wrong kind. Weed affects everyone differently and while one person could get a lot of therapeutic use out of it someone else could have a really bad reaction to it, especially at high doses. Anyone can OD on weed and it's really horrific, it might not do much harm psychically but it can easily become the most terrifying experience of your life. you can feel like you are dying and you will start panicking extensively. Also there is evidence out there that it can enhance current mental illnesses.

Glad to hear youre doin better capn, posi vibes

N1 capn, ADHD sucks, glad you've got it under control. 5th year unmedicated here with ADHD combined type after being on meds all throughout school, it's a struggle but putting these things you stated in place helps a lot.

If I could give one bit of advice, don't feel like you have to stay on the meds all your life. Experiment with lowering dose or even going off them for a little while to see how you do. Possibly in the time you've had your coping mechanisms and strategies will have become more developed and you can handle life a bit better. Not right away mind you, but a few years in, look for adjustments that make you more comfortable.

And do watch your appetite, a lot of these drugs destroy it.

Also can we not turn this thread into an argument about lsd and weed.

you cant OD on weed. youre a retard, kill yourself

yes you can. you can't really die from it but you can OD on weed and its pretty horrible and it can fuck you up mentally. You can OD on literally anything, people have been known to die from drinking too much water. It's easier than you might think to OD on weed when you eat it. You have no idea what you are talking about here.

I didn't realize how old this thread was or see capn's new post til now. Still, look at my advice if you want:

Also, I'm super mad about that high school teacher you mentioned, capn. I've worked as a math tutor for a couple years now, and a good third of my job is just trying to help people undo all their anxieties about math built up from shit like that... I've had people who actually sweat and have their hands start shaking when they don't get something. How is making people feel like that supposed to help? D:<

This thread is old but just recently finding it makes me feel a lot better about what I've been going through. Gives me some hope and ideas on how to make everything a bit better.

if illicit substances are the only thing keeping you from killing people u need to be institutionalized

also smoking anything daily for 11 years is fucking terrible for you

i loved this post im glad you are doing well my dude

Get tested for Mononucleosis. Fatigue, foggy thinking, mild fever, etc. Fucking had it twice and it came on slow and make me functionally retarded for a month at a time.