I don't really know, but I will say that you are right about the effect of diet. It's incredible what a difference it can make. I remember when I lived at home my parents cooked for me and I was quite well fed, with two or three healthy meals per day (and skipping breakfast was my choice). Then when I had to move out I needed to look after my own food, but I'm lazy and don't have enough money for two bought meals per day so for a couple of years I was eating instant noodles interspersed with fast food perhaps every second day. I would also have spells of depression in which I didn't bother eating for four or five days and the effect on my ability to think was pronounced.

This year I have started cooking for myself more. I go outside and buy ingredients and cook them on the same day, even grinding up spices to make my own garam masala. Before I was too lazy to even cook curries with paste. Anyway, the point is that I have noticed I have much more energy and can think more clearly, almost like I could when I was a kid. I don't feel as tired when I wake up either.

>What can I do to improve my intelligence and academic ability again?
Reading books will probably help. Start with math.

>>17039
Nootropics, exercise, sleeping correctly, not sitting in front of a screen all the time, stuff like that. Also motivation and the right environment. Most learn better in a classroom/school. Most learn better with a strong reason to do so or if they have a driving passion for knowledge. These things have a tangible effect on learning

I wish I could help, OP. This is my third attempt to get back into higher education after being a hikki for many years and it's been really difficult. I had to re learn pretty much everything from 3rd grade onwards.

In fact I got my results 3 weeks ago and I still haven't told my family because it's so embarassing. Once again I failed spectacularly (28/100) I wish I could say I spent all my time jerking off instead of studying but that's not what happened at all. I've been studying every day and thought I was ready which is probably even worse. It feels like a huge waste of time.

I don't understand the people who say "math is easy", "lol I did calc in 7th grade", etc. Maybe they are getting points just for getting the procedure right or something. Just putting a minus sign in the wrong place will null hours of hard work, and there's not enough time to check for mistakes. It could also be because I'm trying to get into engineering, but still. Some of the kids in the room were only 18 and spent their senior highschool year preparing for it with private tutors and support groups and stuff and still failed. Some of them even got negative scores (wrong answers will substract points from the total) What hope is there for a recovering hikki?

And more importantly what fucking hope is there for someone who can barely make it through the entrance exams? It only gets even more difficult from here on.

Fuck I can't even leave my room to get some food, my family keeps asking me have you gotten the letter yet and I can't dodge their questions forever.

Maybe I should get some drugs like >>17043 says.

>>17044
How did you start the relearning process to begin with? I don't even know where to begin with, I have the education of just a single year of high school, I don't know how or where to start.

Join the cult of normals... Only do normal things... If it all fails blame society... Yeah right.

>>17045
I don't think I'd be able to cope if I had only one year of high school, to be honest. Even if all the content in high school is pretty dumbed down and you have the learning skills of an adult, theres just too many years to catch up.

Do you want to get into higher education or just study advanced stuff by yourself for the fun of it? Do you have any interests?

>>17047
Yeah, it's really depressing and makes me feel hopeless. I don't even know where to begin.

>>17048
I'd like to attend college one day, but mostly I want to learn for myself. I want to see what sort of subjects I might like, if there is any, I want to feel less uneducated and I don't want to be doomed to a life of minimum wage work which almost always involves being very social if I do get better. I don't have any interests, I just spend all day on imageboards.

>>17049
>I don't want to be doomed to a life of minimum wage work

Keep that in mind when you pick what field to study. Unless your parents or their network can guarantee you a nice position, do your homework on what kinds of majors will be in demand and what kind of positions they will lead to.

>>17049

and do an internship. seriously. If you don't have one set up by the time you are a senior in a 4 year program, you are going to be pretty much fucked as your resume will read the same as a 3rd world graduate: "I HAVE DEGREE GIB WORK NO VISA NEEDED FOR ME TO WORK FOR YOU"
and affirmative action means that 3rd world gets preferential employment to you. Unless you are black or american indian, anyway.

For me, the hardest part about college is going on campus and being surrounded by people, not the academics. I want to learn but I just can't stand people.

>>17066 I'm in college. Study hall is mostly quiet more often than not. My roommate has been playing quite a bit of Starcraft/LoL so staying inside this quarter... Although he's not obnoxious, he's just too normal to get along with, he watches shonens but probably doesn't know what a loli or waifu is and has a gf and gets 3DPD sex and blowjobs from her.

I have trouble sleeping when he's in the room with me and he goes in and out and sometimes brings his gf over.

People oftentimes are on their phones or whispering in lectures too.

I'd go out of the room more if I could have the campus and scenery for myself. I'm pretty used to feeling isolated by now although it gets pretty bad from time to time...

I think I could pull off college if I could take a year off for every year I completed. As is, it's not looking great.

>>17044
I failed calculus so many times I just switched majors and now I'm starting languages. Learning any language seems much easier than learning calculus. Maybe I'll end up being a translator or some shit, I don't really care, I just want to get enough money to live on my own.

College was the worst time of my life.

>>17097
What about your work experiences? Working 9-5 or worse for the majority of your life.

I hate being stupid and being scared by people. Not like I even want to go to a post-secondary institution. But maybe something would have sprouted as a result of some sort of individual study for the last few years. Could have learned a language, could have learned maths, could have learned something. But here I am.

I can't think of a worse punishment than to make an unintelligent person be aware of how stupid they are.

Has anyone gotten a doctor to prescribe them modafinil? Also, what experiences have you guys had with any nootropics you've taken?

>>17099
I know exactly how you feel. I'm just beginning to realize how much dwelling on my inadequacies is hurting me, though. I feel like I'm not good enough to even try learning a new thing, whether it's a video game or just basic arithmetic.

Some small comfort: compared to any alien race sufficiently advanced to find us, you, me, monkeys and geniuses wouldn't seem all too different.

Learning a foreign language has given me something to be proud of, whether or not all of my work goes down the drain due to computer translation. I'm sure I can carve a career path teaching eccentrics a language just for fun in case that happens. Well, maybe not with my social anxiety, but whatever. The point is, I'm definitely 10 IQ points below average, but a foreign language is a pursuit that rewards the Rock Lee style of having no innate talent but busting your balls.

Well, I can reasonably expect fluency quite a bit later than my peers who have started at the same time, but whatever. I'll stick to it.

I am going to college now again, after 5-6 years being a Hikky NEET.

It's fucking hard to focus. I always doze off. It's a fight against my inner self. No way to focus on the lecture.
And if I can sometimes, it's impossible for my brain to absorb the information and even process it for understanding.

I am pretty much fucked. It's useless attending the lectures. No gain at all for me.

I am 28 this year. I hope it will be last, at last.

>>17159
What are you going to college for? Not underwater basket weaving I trust.

>>17159
>shotgun to the head
>duration: 1.72 minutes

What?

>>17160
Delaying the inevitable I guess.

I have never had hope that I could pass any of the tests to begin with anyways.

>>17159
How hard is it to procure cyanide?
I am a terrible shoot, so #1 seems to be a pain.

>>17172
Exit bag is a better option.

exit bags are difficult to procure.


idk frankly, i've always tried to learn despite being a neet and i can't focus on anything for too long.

in school/community college/uni it was enough for a non-math intensive major to do stuff as much as i could but i couldn't excel at uni. i graduated but scraped by.


ive gone to a programming bootcamp but i can't focus enough to make things that are good on my own and i was the only one in the cohort to not get a job and am like 4 months out now. it's been a real hell when my social skills suck too. the whole not having work history is a bitch too.

When it comes to brain cells storing information and such it's a principle of 'use it or lose it'. If you stop learning new things for a long period, your brain will literally deteriorate. To rectify this you simply need to rebuild your neural paths by learning new things and challenging yourself before old age hits, and rest assured you're a long ways off from hitting old age. When you get back on your education you may hit a bump at the beginning, but it will smooth out soon enough. Your genetics won't ever change though - your intelligence will boost your ability to learn new things and relearn old knowledge.

I find myself in a similar place, OP. This is my third time trying to do post secondary and I'm despairing constantly. Second semester, and I've spent half of it despairing. This is a program that, in order for it to work out for you, requires you to actually learn things, rather than just regurgitate things out onto the programs. I don't want to learn, I don't want to think, even though I know it will be good for me. It's hard. And it's much harder when your most formidable enemy is yourself. I don't want to become a NEET again, but it just may happen. I'm also very fortunate to live with my parents, who cook for me, and a few blocks away from my college. I look at people who bus from across the city. They work hard. Often, it's inspiring, but only with my fragile good mood. Today, it's despairing.
I wish you the best.

>>17206
There are plenty of bullshit majors that aren't mentally challenging. But their day of reckoning comes on graduation. Put in the effort now, have a better chance at getting a good high paying job later. Of course this assumes that you're in it for that good job which most people are.