Comment by Eleison23 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Eleison23 | Hacker News Reader

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Anyone with brain fog and other mental symptoms should seriously consider questioning their diet, and whether it has changed in the past 3 years or so.

I have a long history of psychiatric troubles such as C-PTSD, anxiety, etc. I have steadfastly resisted medication for it, but when I did accept medication I was afflicted with brain fog and other terrible side-effects. However, I recently committed to an organic diet of fresh fruits, vegetables and meals prepared from scratch. Contrast this with my previous diet of fast food, casual restaurants and plenty of delivery, and it was like night and day.

One of the chief benefits of switching to a healthy diet was the end of brain fog and an absolute renaissance of good sleep hygiene. I woke up with the dawn and I had plenty of energy throughout the day. I ate several small meals on a regular basis and I slept soundly and restfully. My blood pressure dropped to normal levels and I experienced much less stress, and I benefited from increased exercise through housework and meal prep.

As soon as I "fall off the wagon" and begin to eat restaurant food again, I return to horrible insomnia, brain fog, and reduced executive function. I have trouble working through the day.

So I can't blame the psychoparmaceuticals for this stuff anymore, it was 95% my diet. I'm super glad that I found a way out, and I'm grateful for the clarity and health promised by better lifestyle choices.

I want to add (without proof) that stopping caffeine consumption, frequent orgasms (once a day every day = frequent) and information consumption (video streaming, social media, gaming, Reddit, hacker news, forums, news sites & comments) will have similar effects on mental clarity after about 3 or 4 days of being "sober". Give it a shot.

Another thing that makes a difference is self care: clean your place, throw stuff away, take a warm bath for relaxation (not to get clean), moisturize your body and be thankful toward it. Do some stretches for 15 minutes. Buy new towels & bedding. Buy something that makes your place smell nice. Wash all your clothes, bedding, towels frequently. If you have crappy old furniture, get rid of it, esp if it makes you feel icky. If you have permanent carpets, get rid of them and get wood floors or decent tiles. Try to get rid of all plastics and replace it with glass (kitchen) or cotton (clothing & fabrics).

If you are used to always having music playing, experiment with music deprivation for a few days, or at least, music without lyrics.

Not going to get into alcohol consumption, nicotine and cannabis - they all have effects on your mental state and modulating how often you use them makes a massive difference.

Lastly, do get therapy (and medication) if you need to or a good friend you can talk to, it makes a difference. Walks in nature while talking about life can help.

Also try to disconnect from work when your work hours end. Set boundaries with your teammates and clients, that also mean blocking time on your calendar so they cannot book meetings with you. Make other people use the calendars and make sure you keep it up to date and encourage them to also use theirs and to disconnect from work when possible.

Remove work email/chat programs from your phone if possible. Switch off notifications for all apps except a handful of apps. Mute all group chats if you are on WhatsApp/similar. If you use slack, you can set you active hours so it won't send notifications.

Remember to schedule leave, try to take at least one day off a month to do nothing (I recommend spending time in nature if possible). Travel to a different part of your city/province if you can, a change in scenery is good.

Basically, you need to curate exactly what your time and attention span gets spent on every day. You only have so many "attention points" to spend, so make sure you spend them on stuff that matters to you. Automate the things that you cannot escape (getting a dishwasher is worth it washing dishes agitates you or you spend 2+ hours a week on it). Calculate how much you are worth per hour in money terms, when deciding to buy something or paying for some service (like getting a cleaning crew to clean your place instead of doing it yourself).

If you are forced to use the internet to earn money, minimize the noise: get Firefox + ublock origin for starters. After that, get a raspberry pi and install pihole on it, and search for different lists for it to block various aspects of the internet on your network: on top of ads/trackers, you can block porn, social media, gambling sites. You can also view semi real time which domains are loading on your network and which device is using it, and blocking it right there and then. Using pihole will greatly improve your relationship with the internet and information in general. You can also set your router to disable wifi between say 23:00 and 05:00, if you have trouble disconnecting. Even better if you can trim it to 21:00 and 07:00, but make sure your family knows.

Try to prefer long form content over short ones, especially comments. Reading hundreds of comments a day is like having hundreds of conversations a day - it will exhaust you. By extension, do not do it before bed. Leave your phone in another room to charge. The bedroom's purpose should be rest and relaxation (sleep & sex & self care) only. Try to remove every other thing from it that gives it more functions (tv/desk/excercise equipment). Do not eat in bed.

There is serious lake of food research ,i bet most of fast food we eat can't be considered human food ,also i have conspiracy ,big food companies try to impede these research

Sounds like you're very sensitive to salt. Restaurant food has a ton of salt, because that's what makes it taste good.

I'm glad that you're figuring something out, but alas the prescription may not be so easy for many.

So, can you come over and cook for me? Because reduced executive function sure makes it hard to cook! Or even meal plan!

Also you'll have to figure something out for my incredibly picky 4 year old... good luck!

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