The term "blank mind" has been used 586 times in this forum. Considering that this term isn't well known, and seeing it being described as everything from retardation to mental fatigue it's safe to conclude that the prevalence is much higher than 586, and because of this i think it warrants its own dedicated thread.
The purpose of this thread is to gather the blank minders under one roof to create a more structured conversation instead of it being scattered all around the forum. It is also my hope that we'll establish a definition of this syndrome from our combined symptomatology. This is also the place to discuss symptom relief, day to day life with a comprimized cognition, possible treatment, ideas and thoughts. All things blank mind related essentially.
I might as well kick it off with a brief summary of my story.
I experienced sporadic depersonalization as a child due to early trauma. I was a very anxious and neurotic kid.
At the age of 14 i developed chronic DP following a 2 week existential freak-out. I lived just fine with this condition up until 2 years ago.
At this point i had been chronically depersonalized for 10 years. I started noticing cognitive decline.
Doing simple calculations got tougher, my language suffered, my short term memory deteriorated.
There were no apparent reasons for this sudden change in cognition. No traumatic events, no nothing.
Fast forward to may of this year, i contracted some form of gastrointestinal infection. Being who i am i intepreted this to be cancer which sent me into a hypochondrial tailspin. My brain responded to this by shutting down further cogntive functions to protect myself from my thoughts.
Well, my brain succeeded and i longer have conscious thoughts. A win for my cowardly brain, but a tragedy for me.
My life as a broccoli is what it is. i Haven't given up yet though. The bright side of this is that i feel no emotional despair. I'm shut down. I can stick around.
A perfect example of my challenges is writing this thread. Which took me two days . Two days of hard work, mind you.
The methodology i have employ to write anything is to google every word, every sentence i "think" might be fitting, paste them into the page, then try and organize them into a somewhat coherent sequence as best as i can.
The reason behind this is that i'm not able to visualize anything. I can't transport a sentence into my brain and determine whether it's correct or not.
Because, again, it's shut off. This is across the board. My brain doesn't register speech, writing, music etc. I can't recall anything, because it wasn't registered in the first place. It never happened. I can't watch series, i can't listen to the radio. I don't hear it.
Several times while writing this i had to literally repeat sentences out loud 50 to 100 times. And i have to do it at blistering speeds because it's wiped off my brain within milliseconds.
This should be enough to get us started.