The ADD/ADHD Thread (cont'd from Peeves)
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I had one of those days today (at least during work) where I was so focused. I was zeroed in. I was getting shit done. To the extent that my coworker began creating work for himself because he (per what he told me) felt bad because I was 'doing so much.'
I told him not to worry about it - I was fine! Well. I was fine for where I was.
I was also super disappointed that my Day Of Focus (I get one a month on average) was being wasted on work. I would have preferred to have been at home writing.
Because now that I'm home and trying to work on some shit I just feel like a broken thing.
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I have finally been offered to be evaluated for medications. So I am hoping to get something to help me with my ADD.
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Oh hey, a disturbing number of these ring true for me. Probably for you also!
a.k.a. Packetdancer (or "Pax" for short)
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'Sitting properly in a chair is torture.'
...my 33-year-old ass is sitting cross-legged in my chair right this second.
I do it at work, too, sometimes.HOW DOES ANYONE SIT NORMALLY
Also, re: groceries? My method that has been working thank god: keep list throughout the week (or, I guess weeks, since I grocery shop every couple weeks) of things needed.
Day or two before grocery day, sit down and write out entire list of what's needed, denoting things that are 'need' vs 'can wait'
Do all shopping via Walmart's grocery app/site, set for car pickup.It means I don't forget anything and I don't impulse buy.
Saying the quiet parts out loud since 1996.
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@Sparks said in The ADD/ADHD Thread (cont'd from Peeves):
Oh hey, a disturbing number of these ring true for me. Probably for you also!
If by 'disturbing number' you mean "almost all of them"? Totally.
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@faraday said in The ADD/ADHD Thread (cont'd from Peeves):
@Sparks said in The ADD/ADHD Thread (cont'd from Peeves):
Oh hey, a disturbing number of these ring true for me. Probably for you also!
If by 'disturbing number' you mean "almost all of them"? Totally.
I think... 2 don't apply to me.
That 'being so bored it hurts' also hits home. Man, the times I've legitimately gotten angry because I can't find or settle on anything to do.
Saying the quiet parts out loud since 1996.
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@Auspice said in The ADD/ADHD Thread (cont'd from Peeves):
I think... 2 don't apply to me.
That 'being so bored it hurts' also hits home. Man, the times I've legitimately gotten angry because I can't find or settle on anything to do.Ditto on both counts.
Some of the ones that were entirely too spot-on for me:
Constantly late even when I have plenty of time... Oh man yes. Don't expect my +events to actually start on time. Sorry. I do my best.
Cleaning the whole house or nothing at all... I call it "cleaning frenzy".
Having a hard time switching what you're doing... I'm like a parent arguing with a young child inside my own head. "It's time to stop now." "But I just need to finish this one thing." "Does NOW mean something else in your language?" "I'm almost done!"
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@faraday said in The ADD/ADHD Thread (cont'd from Peeves):
@Auspice said in The ADD/ADHD Thread (cont'd from Peeves):
I think... 2 don't apply to me.
That 'being so bored it hurts' also hits home. Man, the times I've legitimately gotten angry because I can't find or settle on anything to do.Ditto on both counts.
Some of the ones that were entirely too spot-on for me:
Constantly late even when I have plenty of time... Oh man yes. Don't expect my +events to actually start on time. Sorry. I do my best.
Cleaning the whole house or nothing at all... I call it "cleaning frenzy".
Having a hard time switching what you're doing... I'm like a parent arguing with a young child inside my own head. "It's time to stop now." "But I just need to finish this one thing." "Does NOW mean something else in your language?" "I'm almost done!"
The last one there doesn't really apply to me. It's more the inverse: can't focus on one thing.
I get hyper-focus episodes once every few months. The rest of the time it's an utter inability to focus on anything. It's why I just can't ever get shit done. -
Most everything. The hyper-focus and getting pissed when I am broken out of it is way up there, but so is the not being able to focus on any one thing. I've also constantly have the 'I'm bored, but I can't choose something to do' cycle. It's gotten so bad at times it ends up being hours of me trying to find that one thing I want to do, but end up just having to go to bed since I have wasted so much time trying to pick that thing.
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I also have two that don't really apply to me.
I have learned to cope and focus (which is admittedly way easier on the ADHD meds), but my coping mechanism tends to lead to a very interrupt-driven method of functioning; if I am in that mode at work and you bring me something new, I will shift to work on that and then return to the original thing afterwards. Unfortunately, I often then find it hard to return to the original thing. So the "can't switch tasks" only really applies when in hyperfocus, but "cannot switch back" is constant. I have one context switch in me per half-day, I think. One in the morning, one in the afternoon, make me use it and I'm going to never be able to context switch back to the original task.
I can cope in chairs; I don't like it, unless the chair reclines, but I can cope. (Couches, though, I am incapable of sitting normally on.)
a.k.a. Packetdancer (or "Pax" for short)
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ADD hyperfocus is how I get on the computer after work to 'unwind' and start off by reading some news or whatever and something makes me think of something that sends me into a Wikipediahole. I emerge six hours later, armed with nuanced information on totally random things that I will soon forget.
I spent an entire afternoon reading everything about Tunnel #3 (And then sidetracked to 2) under NYC. I don't even live in NYC, nor am I especially interested in anything involved.
I spent another entire afternoon on 'The American Sheep Wars" which I did not even know was a thing but now I do and in such detail!
It's actually not a horrible way to spend time, the issue is if I slip into a hyperfocus Wikipedia hole and planned to do...anything else at all. Because then I did not do that.
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This is why I have the best job for ADD. The average kindergartners attention span is 7 minutes. Mine is maybe 8?
Doing many things but never for very long is a very successful day teaching Preschool.
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I did it again.
Took on roughly a half dozen major projects more than any sane person could do.
Now I'm seeing how long I can juggle them before everything collapses, and I have to say, I beat my previous record.
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One of them is a course towards PMP certification, project management professional.
They stipulate you need to outline the projects you've worked on.
They stipulate the projects are supposed to be sequential. As in, one project ends BEFORE the next one starts.
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@Selerik ...have these people ever done project management?
a.k.a. Packetdancer (or "Pax" for short)
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@Auspice said in The ADD/ADHD Thread (cont'd from Peeves):
'Sitting properly in a chair is torture.'
...my 33-year-old ass is sitting cross-legged in my chair right this second.
I do it at work, too, sometimes.
HOW DOES ANYONE SIT NORMALLYI am laughing, 'cause... YES, THIS. I've never seen it mentioned before that image, too!
The looks I get at office supply places when the first thing I do to see if a chair is comfortable is to sit with one leg tucked under, or both pulled up on the chair, are priceless.
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@Sparks Despite being called the Project Management Institute, I'm not sure they have!
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@Auspice said in The ADD/ADHD Thread (cont'd from Peeves):
It means I don't forget anything and I don't impulse buy.
No force in the universe can stop my impulse buy.
Oh, I can plan. I have to plan or I'll never make it out of wherever I am going with the things I need, that I know I'll forget upon crossing the threshold(I maintain this is the sole use of Amazon -- for the 5 minutes I can remember I need a new toothbrush, or bulbs, or, you know, FOOD, I can log in and click that damned buy button secure in the knowledge that after I forget to get it again, it'll at least be on the way.
No amount of planning seems to prevent the impulse buy, though. Whatever part of my brain allows me to follow that plan or form habits is gone. I couldn't even get addicted to cigarettes in the 90's when I tried.
