Confused about something even though you know it?

[Dillon]

i have a problem sometimes where I’m working on I know well but as I’m working on a particular thing my mind goes blank.
For example, I was in lab for one of my marine biology classes earlier and we had to identify as many organisms as we can that we collected on the beach on brought back to lab on campus. We had to identify the scientific name and what phylum, class, order etc they were in. I’m going through what’s called a dichotomous key where say statement one say this organism has these features and if it describes your organism go to the next statement and keep going until you are able to identify what the organism is actually called. As I was doing that I suddenly had no clue what I was doing, even though it was actually simple but menatally it was the other way around making it more difficult for no reason. I’m going through the key and in the middle of it I loose track and thought to where I’m actually starting all over a few times and kind of stuggling until I finally figured what I was doing after 30 minutes later like it finally clicked.
I would also be taking an exam and I every now and then tend to second guess myself thinking it should be this answer when I know the other answer is the right one since I know it by heart but I go with my second choice.
I seem to be seeing things in bigger detail, making things more complex than it needs to be also with second guessing myself. Does anyone get what I’m saying and has trouble with something like this along the lines

 

[Fino]

Just a wild guess: I only go blank as my Adderall is wearing off. Adderall effects norepinephrine and dopamine... so maybe it has something to do with those?

Have you had this problem for as long as you can remember, or is it recent?

 

[Pats]

You're putting a lot of pressure on yourself, which is why you're second guessing yourself.
Your biology classes sound very interesting. I do get making things harder and losing track and, yes, I have done that. More so in school and when working.

 

[Clay Major]

I find myself in similar circumstances, namely with remembering an individual's name. I seem to always forget the simple things in life.

 

[Dillon]

Just a wild guess: I only go blank as my Adderall is wearing off. Adderall effects norepinephrine and dopamine... so maybe it has something to do with those?

Have you had this problem for as long as you can remember, or is it recent?

It’s been like that ever since I started high school. I’ve actually never took adderall so I wouldn’t know. I am on asthma medications ever since middle school as will as a anti depressant Lexapro which I’ve been on for 4 years so I don’t know if any of those play a part?

 

[Fino]

It’s been like that ever since I started high school. I’ve actually never took adderall so I wouldn’t know. I am on asthma medications ever since middle school as will as a anti depressant Lexapro which I’ve been on for 4 years so I don’t know if any of those play a part?

I would guess not. The timeline doesn't match up, and they aren't known to cause those problems.

 

[Moomin]

Ah yes, I know this well. I trained in archaeology, and specialized in zoo archaeology. When I first started my classes, I would get to a point that I’d utterly confuse myself to the point that I felt stupid. I would often be doing too much, over complicating it in some drive to get as much information as I could but I would also second guess myself and worry that I might be wrong. Femur lengths in cattle was a “fun” experience. Bizarrely goat and sheep skulls went well. Same for exams. Aside from the fact that exams suck, I hated taking them because in my worry I’d panic and muddle most of my revision, I’d also would put pressure on myself that if I didn’t do x amount of this, I would fail. Not that I ever did....

Anxiety is hard. In the need to throw yourself in to a task, your anxiety to do more is driving you. You might not feel it but it’s the pressure that you’re putting yourself in that’s making the anxiety cause you to second guess yourself and lose track and complicate things.

Easier said than done but don’t put too much pressure on yourself. You know this. Otherwise you’re anxiety wouldn’t be panicking you.

 

[Progster]

Yes, both of these happen to me. I work with foreign languages, and I often find that a word that I should know won't come to me. It happens more when I'm under pressure and when speaking. I also tend to forget things like my phone number - my mind just goes blank, and I often second guess things like spelling or names.

 

[Dillon]

It also never helped when I’m working with a group which is what we did in lab for this assignment and the two people were just so ignorant and rude they left me with the bulk of the work to do and just left 20 minutes prior to lab being finished with so I was the only one who stayed after class to finish it up. I think that part left me with more pressure and stress I didn’t know what I was thinking.

 

[the_tortoise]

I have similar problems, not sure how similar. I have terrible working memory, so I can't keep track of everything and get confused and overwhelmed....I tend to be very slow at complex information processing tasks.

 

[Nervous Rex]

I went through this when I was taking some programming classes in college. I would write a part of the program, start a second part, then think of something I should have checked in the first part, go back, see that I actually did it right, then try to start on the second part again. When I was on the fourth part, I was spending more time going back and double-checking things in the first three parts than I was writing any new code.

I realized that at some point or another, I am going to have to trust myself and believe that myself-5-minutes-ago was just as clear-headed as me now. It was a difficult to break the habit of constantly questioning myself, but I eventually got to the point where I could write something, trust that I got it right, and move on. And it saved me so much time!

 

[Hedgehog Instigator]

i have a problem sometimes where I’m working on I know well but as I’m working on a particular thing my mind goes blank.
For example, I was in lab for one of my marine biology classes earlier and we had to identify as many organisms as we can that we collected on the beach on brought back to lab on campus. We had to identify the scientific name and what phylum, class, order etc they were in. I’m going through what’s called a dichotomous key where say statement one say this organism has these features and if it describes your organism go to the next statement and keep going until you are able to identify what the organism is actually called. As I was doing that I suddenly had no clue what I was doing, even though it was actually simple but menatally it was the other way around making it more difficult for no reason. I’m going through the key and in the middle of it I loose track and thought to where I’m actually starting all over a few times and kind of stuggling until I finally figured what I was doing after 30 minutes later like it finally clicked.
I would also be taking an exam and I every now and then tend to second guess myself thinking it should be this answer when I know the other answer is the right one since I know it by heart but I go with my second choice.
I seem to be seeing things in bigger detail, making things more complex than it needs to be also with second guessing myself. Does anyone get what I’m saying and has trouble with something like this along the lines

That's a lot to unpack. Yes I know what you mean. Overall it's just a thing you have to parse down into easy tricks to stay in the neuroworld. You sound like you have the same problems I do, because you're smarter than what's required. Not to mention, you are probably thinking about things in classification no one has before. Anyways... With the dichotomous chart, save your place on the chart by marking your path with pennies. You can play with your own thoughts and theories separately. Assignment first then play with your thoughts.

 

[Dillon]

That's a lot to unpack. Yes I know what you mean. Overall it's just a thing you have to parse down into easy tricks to stay in the neuroworld. You sound like you have the same problems I do, because you're smarter than what's required. Not to mention, you are probably thinking about things in classification no one has before. Anyways... With the dichotomous chart, save your place on the chart by marking your path with pennies. You can play with your own thoughts and theories separately. Assignment first then play with your thoughts.

That is exactly what I mean I’m seeing things I more detail making it more structured and complex than it needs to be!!
I never thought of doing the penny thing I might try that and see if that helps.

 

[Judge]

Short term memory compounded by stress can make for "strange bedfellows".

It happens.

 

[tducey]

I have it as well. I'm good at solving math problems (Multiplication) but sometimes I get stumped.

 

[Ginseng]

I still remember the day when I was in my 20's and my mom told me to bring her something from the coffee table.... I went into the room where i knew we had a coffee table, but I had no idea what a coffee table was. I became frantic looking around for what might be a coffee table. I saw the in-tables. I knew they were not a coffee table. I saw the couch. I knew it was not a coffee table. I knew if I went back and told my mother I did not know what a coffee table was that that would not go over well. I finally recognized the item my mom wanted right next to me on what I recognized was the coffee table after I found the item. I told my sister about this a few weeks later thinking I was becoming senile in my 20's. My sister assured me it was just stress. I don't know. I have had this type of memory loss happens to me on a few occasions where I would forget something I knew. I still frequently forget passwords i have used for 15 years. That is wild. If anyone can shed light on this I would be grateful.

 

[Dillon]

I had another thing that happened earlier today along this subject. I had 3 exams which drained me after I was done for the day. I was up since 5:00am studying for my 8:00am class. I go in there to take the exam and on few of the questions my mind goes numb even though I felt like I knew it though so I did my best. Same thing happened with the other two exams throughout the day. I think the problem for me is that I feel confident before an exam and I tend to loose focus or that memeory retention of what I just learned. Maybe it’s test anxiety who knows but I was so prepared while as the same time loosing information. I don’t think I did bad overall on any of them hopefully high Bs.

 

[Ginseng]

I learned I never could tell how I did on a test. I would think I bombed only to find I was top of the class or I would think I did exceptionally well only to find out I missed quite a few. What did help me though was when I went to clarify test questions with the teacher. I knew my material so well that I also knew any exceptions to the case. This makes it difficult to answer some unclear questions. But whenever I would ask the teacher about the exception and give them some other info then they knew I knew the subject, I just didn't understand the question. They would just point to the correct answer at that point. Reading too much into test questions has always been my downfall.

 

[musicalman]

Yep I can relate to this trend too. Often when I'm learning a new song or, when I was in school, remembering facts for an exam, I just forget things. Sometimes I legitimately don't remember it, other times I do but I'm trying too hard and my mind goes blank/stuck and it can be embarrassing, depending on the situation. I do think the only way to conquer it really is to relax, accept that you will make mistakes and stupidly forget things, and give yourself plenty of time to prepare and, if a stressful situation is going to come up, work it through so that you don't even have to think while doing it. This last point works for me sometimes, particularly when it is something I know will come quickly.

Cramming is rarely a good idea. In order for cramming to even work for me, I have to force myself to relax. I've had exams before where I didn't study at all, didn't even read the text, only recorded lectures. And the night before the test I knew absolutely nothing so I ended up cramming all the lectures and writing down bullet points for each one and reading them over and over and over, relying on a 24-hour memory of sorts to retain what I could. In order for that to even work I had to force myself not to think about how nervous I would be when I got the test. I had to just pull all those fears of going completely blank out of my mind. I couldn't think about that; I had serious cramming to do, and somehow working under pressure, while not the most relaxing thing in the world, still gets me focused. It gets me hyperfocused on things that I might not have a single care for otherwise. Still, I don't know how I managed to pass those classes, especially when I consider my poor work ethic in areas that aren't part of my special interests. Some of it might have to do with professors not wanting to fail me, I dunno. At any rate, I would highly discourage following my cramming example unless you want to bring on or worsen chronic high blood pressure

I would write a part of the program, start a second part, then think of something I should have checked in the first part, go back, see that I actually did it right, then try to start on the second part again. When I was on the fourth part, I was spending more time going back and double-checking things in the first three parts than I was writing any new code.

Haha I've done that before. I don't program really but I do some basic scripting things and, while I am able to keep a linear workflow a lot of the time, I have run into what you describe and it spins my mind and tangles it in knots.

For some reason I have more trouble when writing long text. I'll cut a section to the clipboard to paste it in what I think will be a more appropriate place, only to forget either the key points in the section I was moving, or the entire purpose of that section in the first place. It's at its worst when I am trying to improve the flow. Then things get tangled really quickly and I end up having to delete whole paragraphs because I had already typed those points elsewhere and forgot. Best solution I've found for that is simple: just start from the top, or well above any problematic section if I can, and try to put any pretenses of what I was originally trying to do out of my mind and see if the text explains itself to me.

 

[WeirdoGuy]

When I was taking a plant systematics class, I had the same problem. I think that it is easily handled with two basic tools: 1) self-confidence -- If you know that you can do it, it doesn't seem overwhelming and throw everything into confusion 2) pause to organize thoughts -- If you keep yourself in that state by thinking that you must act that very second, the confusion will take a much longer time to go away. Instead, look away for a minute while assuring yourself that you can easily do it if you remain calm. Then when you look back, you will probably be able to go through it much easier.