Concentration

you used to be able to go to camps to help you concentrate back in the day!

Same here, usually when I'm anxious my brain is trying to get me to think about something else, or as others have said if something I'm not that interested in or it's poorly presented I struggle to stay on topic.

I find a coffee helps, I think the caffeine helps focus, then it's down to trying hard to concentrate and not be side tracked. conversely I think drinking tea makes me worse. Never worked out why!

I have good days and not so good days concentration wise. I can be very anxious and out of sorts when it's like 20 TV channels are on at the same time, each showing a different programme. I tend to concentrate/focus better on the things I have an aptitude for/like.

Sorry for you current issues.Yes when my anxiety spikes I cannot focus on anything.it would be best you speak to your GP, mine helped me with medication and talk therapy not a complete cure but got me at least to be able to function again

Glitters said:

I'm really struggling to concentrate when I need to be concentrating most.

I suffer from this too - I used to have to read thousands of pages of technical jargon and pass tests on it as part of my job (if anyone knows the qualification of ITIL Expert then they know what I mean).

I found a technique of 20 mins on and 20 mins off helped me - I could do something more relaxing for the off time, grab a drink etc and go back for a focussed but short 20 min on session.

My concentration seemed easier to maintain as I knew it was short and I basically used this until the work was finished as it could be sustained for long periods.

It does require discipline to stop the off times running on for tool long but setting alarms or stopwatches helps.

Does it depend on what you have to concentrate on? I find if it's something I don't understand, is poorly presented or am not interested in my eyes glaze over and my attention wanders. I don't believe myself to be alone in this, of course it makes concentrating harder. Are there things you find it easy to concentrate on and what makes them easy?

Sometimes taking a break from you’re trying to concentrate on can help - make a tea or get a breath of fresh air and then come back to the task in question. If that still doesn’t help, you could try breaking it up into parts and trying to do one part at a time and then having a break and cone back to part 2 and so on.