I have ADHD and I scored as mostly inattentive | I do not have experience with every mental disorder or illness, however, because there is so much overlap of symptoms, this blog is for anyone neurodivergent to try some coping skills I have built and see if they work for you | This is a safe space for minorities and women; be respectful or face my block button | If you have suggestions on how to tag what, I am all ears đ
executive dysfunction is legitimately physically uncomfortable. iâll be trapped between two things, weirdly caught on how-much-time-it-might-take-me. i take hours worried im going to take hours doing things. iâll sit on the floor for the entire day, caught up in the middle of not-doing the chores i actually do want to be doing.
& the amount of mental energy that goes into it. & the legitimate amount of anger and discomfort and self-hate. is not âbeing lazyâ. itâd be a lot less work if i didnât have to fight myself to just get up and do it.Â
i just need you to understand itâs not effortless. itâs never effortless. itâs not âokay let me just get up and finally start doing this.â itâs more like. i am slamming my foot on the pedal but the car is in neutral and nothing is moving. itâs more like shouting instructions into a dying telephone. itâs more like being trapped in a small electric box, and someone who hates me is administering shocks.Â
Do it halfway. Take one piece of trash out of your room, throw one dirty shirt into your hamper. Go to one class and miss a different one. Start a drawing without pressure to finish it. Give yourself space to Be without the expectation to Become, and do small things to make the Being livable.
ADHD pro tip: Use psychological warfare on yourself.
For example, in order to do long tasks, like folding laundry, I put on the Mario Hat:
The main feature of the Mario hat is that my headset does not fit over it, so when The Bees⢠try to put me back in front of the screen, the headset issue forces me to remember why I put the Mario hat on, and back to the task I go
As a bonus, the Mario hat is also a very clear indicator to my housemates that business is getting done, and they have learned not to distract me when I'm wearing the "goofy-ass cosplay hat"
Please do things to strengthen your attention span. It stresses me out so much when people just accept their small attention spans and cater to them without any acknowledgment that they are making it worse by doing that.
There is a reason attention spans are worse now and it didnât just happen by chance. Media and the internet designed it that way and we went with it because it was easier.
Some of us with ADHD and brain fog need to meet ourselves where weâre at and lengthen our exercise span by watching a two minute video instead of a one minute video. Some of us need to sit down and read a novel with our phones turned off.
Wherever youâre at, just realize that not doing things that feel hard will keep making your attention span worse.
every once in a while i learn some wild new piece of information that explains years of behavior and reminds me that i will never truly understand everything about my ridiculous adhd brain
OK Tumblr Geriatric Ward, letâs talk about your posture-
there are things you should be doing now to prevent yourself from starting to look like đĽ
Why does it matter? Future you would like to avoid the pain, limited motion, and fall risk that goes along with worsening posture.
Whatâs the focus?
1. Keep the flexibility in your spine
2. Stretch the muscles in the front
3. Strengthen the muscle in the back
Here are some simple things you can do daily while sitting and when you get up to go into the bathroom or the kitchen
Keep the flexibility by doing these repeated movements: 10 repetitions several times a day
The goal is to give yourself a double or triple chin. Keep your nose pointing forward, donât let it tip up or down
Thoracic extension- use a chair with a seat back that comes up to the level of your shoulder blades. Try to bend back over the top of the chair without arching away from the seat back and without extending your neck. If the pressure from the top of the chair is uncomfortable you can place a towel there
Stretch the muscles in the front by using a door frame. This one will feel good afterwards
If this isnât enough of a stretch you can do one side at a time. If you have the right arm up step forward with the right foot and turn slightly to the left. Then do it on the other side.
Strengthen the muscles in the back by squeezing your shoulder blades together for a count of 10 and then repeating 10 times. You can do this several times a day Hint: Donât lift your shoulder blades up
There are lots more exercises for strengthening your back muscles but this is a good starting point and easy to do. I like doing it while driving
Tips:
Do the best you can
If it hurts stop
Envision future you saying thank you each time you do one of the exercises
People with low spoons, someone just recommended this cookbook to me, so I thought I'd pass it on.
I always look at cookbooks for people who have no energy/time to do elaborate meal preparations, and roll my eyes. Like, you want me to stay on my feet for long enough to prepare 15 different ingredients from scratch, and use 5 different pots and pans, when I have chronic fatigue and no dishwasher?
These people seem to get it, though. It's very simple in places. It's basically the cookbook for people who think, 'I'm really bored of those same five low-spoons meals I eat, but I can't think of anything else to cook that won't exhaust me'. And it's free!
how did you guys like. relearn doing creativity. i feel like my automatic response to creative vibes is to just return to endless scrolling rather than writing/art/doing the thing, and if i DO try, itâs just the endless stare into an open word doc
who are you when you are not watching tv or movies? when you aren't playing video games or reading a book or fanfiction or listening to music or whatever other kind of media that you engage with? who are you when your mind isn't in another world or story, when you are forced to sit with yourself and the only experience you have is your own sensorial life? can you define yourself outside of what you consume? who is that person? do you like them? can you bear it? can you bear it?