Apps to train your brain: Top Ten

@NikNik This hyperlink is broken! So I can't tell you what I think of it

Hi @morningstar ,

Good to hear from you! Thanks for the link. Interesting article, I found it intriguing that she played so little (hard to tell but av 1/wk over a month is about 4x ?) yet still wrote the article in the way she did. It also looks like the studies cited were short term playing (number of weeks not months).

My own personal experience is that Lumosity training for a while did help me. But I was starting from a base of being severely impacted by mutliple traumas (having C-PTSD), so many things - particularly short-term memory - were not as good as they had been nor probably ever what they might have been.

After playing many games on Lumosity over months I ended up focussing on a couple of games in my own training regime, and that DID help. What I did was I found I really struggled for ages to master all levels of two particular games that help with brain flexibility (Disconnection and Disillusion). So when I finally did master them I started deliberately playing them when I knew I was triggered (so my cognitive response was badly inhibited by the adrenaline rush).

Repeatedly I would find that my scores would be WAY below my best when I first played in this state. But playing this way enabled two things: 1 it gave me something to focus on which helped me calm down, 2 it helped me get my "lizard brain" back under conscious control more quickly so I could think clearly again - and I could tell when that was becasue the scores were back up near my best. I saw it as working on improving my ability to make clearer decisions under pressure (which I needed to do a lot because of being triggered so easily for so long).

Have a look at this "hand model" of the brain video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DD-lfP1FBFk and you might get the idea I'm talking about. A trigger would "flip my lid" but playing the two games helped me get it back on, and over time I was able to regain conscious control quicker plus retain a bit more consciousness even when I was triggered.

An example: I had a car accident a few months ago and wrote my car off. I am pretty sure that what I used Lumosity for helped me to instantaneously override my initial natural reaction to try and avoid the accident - which in the circumstances would almost certainly have resulted in someone being injured or worse (as I would have hit the car in front of me on the LHS, instead of behind, and bumped them into the 80km/hr oncoming traffic). I did go into shock - but after the accident, and having pulled over safely to the side of the road - when I saw the car in front had children in the back seat. In the past just seeing I was about to have such an accident would probably have been enough to put me in shock.

I was also able to refuse to go to hospital even thought the ambos were fairly insistent. I really hate hospitals, I've had too many traumas there already - so it would not have been a good move.

So whilst Lumosity may not live up to all the hype, it has its uses. Incidentally I don't play any more. I think it has served it's purpose for me . I am MUCH better at managing my PTSD and this is one of the tools that helped. I can't say for sure whether it would be helpful to someone else in this way, but it might be worth a try.

(Incidentally I would be very surprised if Lumosity would have much impact on IQ scores, unless you didn't manage to complete the tests in the time given - then it might help you answer quicker after training.)

Kind regards,

Kristin

Hey @w1sdumb

Welcome to the forums, and to Australia! I'm going to call you wisdom if that's ok? (I like the humorous play on wording of your username, very clever - but perhaps a bit unkindly self-deprecating?)

Sounds like you've got caught up with all these apps in a big and very unhelpful way. Possibly part of the territory with having bipolar? I certainly find I can start doing something (pretty much anything) which is helpful, but then I do it to excess - way past the point of helpful and the mania takes over. Eventually I crash.

It has happened repeatedly to me, so now I check in with my psych if I'm even considering something like starting a gym program. She's been great: pointing out that it's not the activity itself that is the threat of getting manic, but doing it to excess - whatever it is - which is the mania threat. So now I watch for beginning to get excessive in anything, and then ask myself "is this too much for me, do I need to slow down or even stop for a while?"

I even started getting manic a few months back with responding on the forum. I so readily turn anything and everything into work (a habit born of some of the abuse I suffered as a child) - so I had to have a break from the forum to be able to re-embrace it as the gift it is.

You are so right that it is human interaction which we need, and that too much interaction with technology can get in the way of that big time! That is very hard earned wisdom indeed. I truly hope you find the very real people of this community are worth connecting with, and that doing so helps foster your wellness.

Kindest regards,

Kristin

Interesting thread topic.

I married a computer nerd back in the 80s who encouraged that kind of stuff, but he also had a diagnosis of schizophrenia on both sides of the Pacific Ocean. Any way I have been thinking about these issues for a long time. He was obssessed with his brilliance and it was not a clearcut delusion .. it was partly true.. he was clouded by jealousy from his socio-cultural past which was quite different from mine though we met living in the same suburb.

I was ok with computers when I met him, eg work and math/science background but did develop an allergy to them, as he used me as a 24/7 empathy giver for him and children. When he found out that I was a flesh and blood human with needs he treated me with disdain.

Brain training feeds into those who believe in "continuous imporvement" which was a mantra in the education sector for a while. I believe in it also, but conditionally.

I personally tend towards the type A driven personality, my bigger challenge is to calm my brain down. There are others who need ramping up. So it is definitely not a one size fits all.

@morningstar

Great article. Well researched and also ending with sense of humour!

looked at this a bit but did not find it convincing enough for me to stick with .. found this forum instead!