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ADHD Problem #6

I made plans with an art buddy to meet up and draw together. 

Me: I’m already trying to decide what I should be working on when we meet up. Them: It’s fine, we can find inspiration in the moment. 

I don’t think you understand that it will take me a century to make this decision. In fact, I probably should have started thinking about this a century ago. 

#adhd #actuallyadhd #executivedysfunction #efd #adhdlife #impairedworkingmemory #ADHDproblems #executivefunctioningdisorder #spacecadet #analysis paralysis

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being mentally ill + having adhd is just you thinking ‘it can’t go on like this forever’ but then it just… goes on… like this… forever

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The thing they don’t tell you about ADHD is the emotions. The regulation of emotions. There is no, ‘I am happy’ or ‘I am sad.’ Nearly everything is to an extreme. You’re sad? You probably want to go hug a friend and cry or ball your eyes out in the shower- there is no ‘I’m feeling a little down today,’ you’re on the floor and don’t have the mental strength to get yourself back up. And God forbid you get angry or exited. It’s like flipping a light switch, you either feel an extreme positive or an extreme negative, either hopping up and down flapping your hands or hiding in your bedroom under a pile of blankets, but the scary thing, the thing no one warns you about, is that this switch can be balanced in the middle. The emotion of ‘absolutely nothing.’ Where you feel absolutely nothing at all.

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adhd102: more like ‘failure to prioritize, captain’

adhd is a terrible name for this disorder because it’s not that we lack the capacity to pay attention to things (a deficit of attention): it’s that we lack the capacity to control what we pay attention to (failure of prioritization).

The ADD/ADHD person’s focus center is just … hideously bad at self-regulating.

(& the reasons are poorly understood, though we’ve identified some pretty effective treatments.) 

where most people’s brains are able to prioritize tasks based on weighing time sensitivity, ‘importance’, how long it will take to complete, cost-benefit analysis, etc, ADHD brains prioritize tasks based on two things:

is it interesting? (‘new’ also counts as ‘interesting’.)

is it due now? aka: is it urgent? (if not, it is due ‘later’ and is ‘not urgent’.)

if nothing is interesting and/or due now, we cannot prioritize. everything is equally unimportant (boring).  otoh if something is interesting and/or urgent, our brain can seize on that thing and focus extremely well, going into hyperfocus and totally shutting out everything else.

by the way: the only understanding we have of time is ‘now’ and ‘not now’. like

Calendar: *shows the final is tomorrow* ADHD Brain: fuck the calendar! everything after today is *~THE FUTURE~*! ADHD Brain: and *~THE FUTURE~* is far away. like millions of years away. ADHD Brain: so that’s why we’re going to read about a totally random subject for 10 hours instead of studying.

but then the next morning is like

ADHD Brain: HOLY SHIT THE FINAL IS TODAY ADHD Brain: CRAMMING TIME

and has no problem focusing on the important subject material that it couldn’t focus on the night before.

that’s how you know it’s not a lack of care, by the way. if you didn’t care about it, urgency wouldn’t change how much you can focus on it. it’s just that your brain can’t tell how urgent it is until it’s too late, because it lacks the ability to prioritize ‘normally’. 

and those problems can’t be fixed by willpower alone. here’s an example of some tools we use to help:

meds can make it easier for our focus center to self-regulate by giving it the chemicals it needs to reward itself for prioritizing properly, the way non-ADHD brains do. and because we usually do understand prioritization, it can make it easier for us to focus on the stuff that’s important at the time we want to.

otoh, it’s also very helpful to practice good organization habits until they’re so habitual they bypass the focus center, happening on autopilot. it keeps us from self-sabotaging our efforts to be focused on the right thing by reducing distractions like clutter or not having the tools we need to do a thing. day planners can help with this, for instance.

it’s also helpful to have a person who doesn’t have focus problems to check on us and help us stay on task, or guide us in selecting which tasks are most important to get done.

tl;dr: it’s okay to need help with picking your focus or organizing big/long-term projects, even as an adult! ADHD impairs our ability to self-regulate our focus and prioritize things, so developing healthy coping habits is a good thing.

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October 7, 2018

Parts of the brain affected by ADHD:

Frontal lobe

Low grey matter density

White matter abnormalities

Neurotransmitters

Amygdala

Caudate Nucleus

Nucleus Accumbens

Hippocampus

Basal Ganglia

ADHD is not just a “made up disorder”. It is an actual neurodevelopmental difference. Our brains have developed differently and aren’t the same.

Our brains literally look and act different than a neurotypical’s. We are not fake, we are very real. Don’t forget that.

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sometimes we have to remember things.. apparently (sentences are beyond me so i edited to try and at least break it up better)

- Change the sound on your alarms regularly, this stops them from becoming familiar background noise.

- Setting 3 alarms in a 15/30 minute succession with 3 different noises is far more effective then one noise on snooze.

-  Using visual reminders like whiteboards/corkboards become ineffective if placed in rooms you spend all your time in ex: bedroom, Living room

 Try instead Kitchen, Entrance area, maybe even your bathroom if its spacious, think areas you frequent but dont spend large amounts of time in.

- Combo activities when your in good spaces to enforce the habit when your not, just did the litter collect up your garbage and recycling take it all out together make it one activity. tidy your bathroom while you brush your teeth and prepare for the day.

- Respond to your thoughts the minute you have them! If your in the middle of a non time sensitve activity safe to walk away from when you remember to shower, don’t tell yourself you will do that next get up and go shower.

  In the middle of watching a show remember to brush your teeth. Do it then, do it there just brush your teeth.

 In work environments it helps to carry a small care bag with your stuff, travel toothbrush and paste, your favourite face wash, dry shampoo. This way if you forgot to do something on your rush to get out the door you can try for a washroom break to get these things done instead of hoping your remember later.

- its OK to ask the people in your life to help you remember things, never make this your only option humans are all fallible but a good source of help and support

- writing things down physically works far better then putting it in your phone, carry a travel notebook to write things, write it on your hand, write it in your phone, writing it in several places commits it to memory better then doing it just once ( not for everyone but for a lot of people)

- sticky notes on your walls, different colours different shapes, little notes for basic things rinse dishes, brush teeth, place keys here,( dont use for super important time specific things cuz you eventually may tune out the visuals)

- Adapt to your own habits, if your adhd brain thinks the keys are better left in the kitchen stop expecting to find them on the key ring just make them home in the kitchen.

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I put the fun in executive dysfunction

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Happens literally every day. Usually accompanied by a “I own one of these? Huh, well wadya know!” 

adhd is: the excitementing of finding things you didnt even realize you misplaced

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ADHD Life Hack #2

Buy a rice cooker with a Keep Warm setting. Once the rice is done, the cooker just flips on the Keep Warm setting automatically.

Now it doesn't matter if you forget about it for five hours, it'll still be good 😋

#WhatDoYouMeanTwentySevenHoursIsTooLongToCookRice #RIPAllThePotsiAccidentallyIncinerated #TookMeFiveYearsToThinkOfThisLifeHack

#adhd #actuallyadhd #adhdproblems #adhdlifehacks #efd #impairedworkingmemory #adhdlife #actually adhd #adhd problems #TIL #whyamionlylearningthisnow #betterlatethannever #simplethings

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ADHD Problem #5

Sometimes I zone out while I’m talking, then zone back in and I’m still talking and I don’t know what I said while I was zoned out. When this happens, I stop mid-sentence and say "Wtf was I just talking about?" and my friends fill me in on what I said and then let me carry on talking once I've been caught up.

They don’t realize how much it means to me, but they make it feel like less of a problem. My friends are the real heroes.

#adhd #adhdlife #actuallyadhd #adhdproblems #efd #impairedworkingmemory #zonedout #ilovemyfriends #adhdsupport #adhd problems #friends are the best #supportfromfriends

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adhd is constantly flip-flopping between confusion and hyperawareness 

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Me: I have ADHD. Every Neurotypical Person in a 5km Radius: Hahaha don’t we all! One time I forgot what day it was XD

Me: One time I burnt my hand because I forgot I was holding a lit match. Get on my level or get out.

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ADHD Problem #4

When you're feeling good about your ADHD so you buy a calendar and stick it on your wall.  One day you notice that it’s actually on the correct month and you feel so damn accomplished. Then you realize that the month is indeed correct, but it’s actually a year old.  You managed to forget that you owned a calendar for a year.  #SinceWhenDoIOwnACalendar? #WellThen... #AlongWithThoseFiveHundredDiaries #MightAsWellLeaveItThereNow #IWalkedPastitEveryDayToo #NotTheFirstTimeAnditWontBeTheLast #ItWasAnImpulsiveBuyAndiStandByIt

#adhd #actuallyadhd #adhdlife #actually adhd #adhdproblems #adhd problems #spacecadet #girlswithadhd #efd

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ADHD Problem #3

Trying to explain the memory problems to people who don’t have ADHD. I’ve started explaining it like this... You know how sometimes you walk into a room but you can’t remember what you walked into the room for?  That’s how I feel all the time... 24 hours a day... and it never stops. 

#actuallyadhd #adhd #adhdproblems #spacecadet #impairedworkingmemory #efd #adhdlife #adhd problems #actually adhd #girlswithadhd

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“I was gonna do a thing, but then I got distracted”

An autobiography by me and my adhd brain.

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Forgot to take my medication this morning

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adhd culture is reblogging a post 5 times bc u dont remember if u reblogged it