I used to do martial arts several times a week. It being a group class, I was forced to participate. It being martial arts, I had to PAY ATTENTION or get smacked somewhere. That combination was gold.
That's what is saving me. I zone out in karate all the time, but at a certain point you need to be present and in sparring especially so. I'm training for a belt test which means I need to take class AND walk AND run stairs. Fun fun fun!
I’ve considered trying to put a running or cycling machine in front of my desk so I use it while I’m entertained playing games (with a controller) but the barrier to just trying that is a lot higher.
I did this, but it's hard to remember to go use the thing. An old trick is getting a pair of indoor sneakers and putting those on whenever you want to Accomplish Things, and I've also found I'm a lot more likely to exercise in this state.
I found it helpful set reminders periodically (every 10-15 min) to either remind me to start back up again, to go back to the station, and most importantly track the progress of time. One of the first times I used my stationary bike I grabbed the switch and started pedaling and then figured maybe 30 or 40 minutes had passed. When I got off the bike I had enough presence of mind to toss the switch onto the bed before crumpling because I'd been on a leisurely pedal for nearly two hours 
I'm not playing competitively or anything, and it's not the most demanding sport, but table tennis has proven to be a good fit for my ADD. Whenever I zone out and miss a point, there's always another one. And it's fun and varied enough to keep me going.
When I got off the bike I had enough presence of mind to toss the switch onto the bed before crumpling because I'd been on a leisurely pedal for nearly two hours :D
One of the best features of both the watch tracker and Ring Fit Adventure on Switch is they let me know when I'm finished...
Just a few thoughts I've had since starting medication. It's been about 2-3 months now. Finally settling on the right dose for me.
Physical sensations/side effects?
I was wary upon upping my dosage that I was starting to feel a bit "high", but it absolutely helps my productivity. I understand it's a stimulant and what that entails, but I was starting to get concerned that I was having too much. I take 3 pills most days, but sometimes I'll take 4 if I need the boost (cleared with the psych/doc so don't worry!).
Mostly, I think I've just been overly anxious for so long that when I'm medicated I don't feel as down in the dumps. I'm more social, happier, and can do things I want to do. Combined with the elevated/caffeinated feeling, I may have been misattributing feeling "normal" and "happy" with feeling "high" 
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I can play board games now?!
Well, Warhammer specifically. I used to get so overwhelmed and tired by the second or third turn. I never stuck with these hobbies long because I'd get so antsy waiting around doing nothing. I'm really excited to jump into some more board games now that I can focus! It seems like such a cool hobby!
Socialising is actually nice now
I've been a bit of a hermit all my life. After social events or being out, I'd always need so much time alone to "recharge my social batteries". I still love my alone time playing games and painting miniatures, but I'm finding I make more plans to spend time with friends and visit the local tabletop gaming/TCG shop to meet new people.
I'm a lot more comfortable talking to people in general. I complimented someone's shirt yesterday, and struck up a conversation with another person at the book shop when I saw them considering buying one of my favorite books. It was just so nice to feel normal.
Honestly, ADHD medication has helped me with my anxiety far more than dedicated anxiety medication. It's a strange feeling being 32 and rediscovering who you actually are and how limited you've been throughout life without knowing! Gosh I wish I knew this at a younger age!
Wonderful news! And the reduced stress will make you more resilient overall. Enjoy life!
Thank you, Robear!
Yesterday I was in a very important meeting for a project where I am a core contributor. Today I was reviewing the transcription and recording of that meeting to take more notes and make sure I understood some critical points that I noted during the live meeting.
I probably shouldn’t be surprised how many things I missed during the live meeting and how distracted I look in the recording. I look like I’m doing 3 things at the same time during a lot of the meeting. That’s because I was. I’m usually multitasking during meetings.
If it's an important meeting, I always put away my distractions and force myself into concentration mode.
If it's an important meeting, I always put away my distractions and force myself into concentration mode.
If I try to brute force that my imagination just invents stuff to distract me.
I need to find a parallel activity that takes up just enough of my attention. Or I need an important job like running lights or operating a camera that requires keeping up with things.
Sometimes something like Freecell will do the trick. Sometimes the puzzle gets too compelling and it backfires. Maybe I should take up knitting…
Try Holedown, on the ipad.
Holedown is great. I’ve been playing a lot of that lately for quick dopamine hits.
I use it during meetings where I am just listening in, but have to stay on the call and alert for questions. Works well while other people are droning on about things I don't have anything to do with; then I just stop when the topics come closer to my areas. 
I'm trying to get the 2K badge, assuming there is one.
I might need to uninstall Vampire Survivors because it is too addicting.
It's just a constant stream of tiny rewards in bite sized packages so that one-more-level feeling is too strong to resist.
I'm a little disappointed that I still struggle to watch movies, read books and play narrative games despite the meds. Trying to play 13 Sentinels has made me realise this is still a bit of a problem for me.
I think I've settled on a dose that feels good, but it's definitely not a magic pill like I (somewhat foolishly) expected. It must be years of habit I'm trying to break, but fast-paced videogames are still very enticing and what I prefer to do in my downtime.
Wondering if anyone else has found this after starting medication, or if you were the opposite? My focus is definitely better but I'm still working on myself.
While I tried to manage my expectations before starting my meds, I still kind of hoped for a life changing effect. Which didn't pan out for me either. On meds, I'm able to breathe and slow down when my cogwheels start spinning in overdrive, but even there it's hard to tell why. Is it because of the meds or because I now know why I'm struggling? When I forget to take my meds, I am more easily agitated and more inclined to recline in my bubble.
It's not foolish though, hope is a good thing, and the ADHD thread on Reddit is full of "MY LIFE CHANGED COMPLETELY" testimonies.
Don't be too hard on yourself! So what if you still enjoy fast-paced games and have little patience for slow burning media? That's your time, you've earned that! Especially when it takes so much energy to adapt to whatever we deem "normal" in our professional lives.
I'm able to breathe and slow down when my cogwheels start spinning in overdrive
This is exactly how I feel! I'm prone to anxiety, overthinking, and getting really worked up (by good and bad things) but have noticed a distinct change in how my brain spirals out of control quickly. I'm able to take a moment to readjust my thinking and move on. It's helped the anxiety so much, and I'm so much more relaxed and less reactive. ADHD medication has been more helpful than my anxiety medication in reducing those bad thoughts, it's really amazing.
I definitely still feel like my life has changed, but it's not the most overwhelmingly huge shift that I expected.
And thank you for the affirmation, it's good to hear
I feel like at first meds were magic, but then I equalized and all the old bad habits and tendencies started to creep back in. Now I take meds to be baseline because if I don't I'm a complete mess of withdrawal and spiral. I am, at the current and consistent dose I'm on, able to manage using the many tools and tricks I've accumulated over the years, better than I would without them.
I thought I could do away with these little life hacks when I first started the meds journey because I too was looking for a magic pill. It's very much not that, unfortunately.
Sitting with any piece of content for extended periods of time is a learned skill, not an innate ability bestowed on everyone. Historically, it was a status indicator of being able to afford the wealth and education of literacy by being able to sit with a single book for hours and read. Or have the leisure afforded to you to spend long periods of time doing focus work at any given time. It is an unnatural state of being that we created for ourselves with the invention of the printing press to segment and outline class distinction.
This urge to push long-format consumption was carried over into the realm of tv and movies (and later video games) for capitalistic reasons. Contrast that to the internet, which has largely shaped itself to our habits of more natural tendency to multitask or skip quickly from thing to thing at a moment's notice, and marketing and content creation has been playing catch up ever since. No one in marketing wants people to have short attention spans, they yearn for the time when people spent extended amounts of time focusing on the intake of a single thing, but that's not the reality of how most of us actually behave anymore. It's why so many roguelites are so popular; short bursts of playtime with long-form progression to assist future short-duration play loops that require very low current commitment.
long-form reading and media consumption has been ingrained in our society for so long due to the slow increments of exponential advancement from the turns of the century with these inventions. We're just seeing the tail end of that false characteristic by bemoaning that no one can seem to sit down with a book or movie for extended periods of time anymore because our generation hasn't known any other way.
Yes I learned all this falling down an adhd learning rabbit hole.
Regarding meds... My current meds are helping me a bit with my executive function. But they don't undo a lifetime of a conditioned aversion to making an attempt at something. My lizard brain remembers how difficult things were before, and still reacts accordingly.
(edit: left out a "don't")
Regarding meds... My current meds are helping me a bit with my executive function. But they undo a lifetime of a conditioned aversion to making an attempt at something. My lizard brain remembers how difficult things were before, and still reacts accordingly.
I keep going back to Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria. It's not just regarding people, but jobs, projects, even modes of improvement. Something doesn't work out at first = "my only constant success is failing."
I feel like at first meds were magic, but then I equalized and all the old bad habits and tendencies started to creep back in. Now I take meds to be baseline because if I don't I'm a complete mess of withdrawal and spiral. I am, at the current and consistent dose I'm on, able to manage using the many tools and tricks I've accumulated over the years, better than I would without them.
-snip-
I sat with this post for a long time trying to figure out how to reply, but I don't have the exact words...Just want you to know how important reading this felt to me. It's something that's really opened my eyes and will influence how I think about myself for years to come.
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This thread is just so comforting and helpful as I spend more time learning about myself. Life hasn't flipped and suddenly become easier now that I know I have ADHD and am medicated, but it does take the "edge" off it all. I have a few hours where I can actually get solid work done now. But more importantly, I know that I'm not neurotypical and can further implement my own strategies to help me navigate the world. Even if I didn't have this medication, just knowing this about myself is half the battle.
And over time, the value of ADHD will start to show itself. The strengths will begin to overwhelm the weaknesses, with behavioral changes and mindful self-reflection. It's a wonderful change. You can start to become the person you really are inside.
And over time, the value of ADHD will start to show itself. The strengths will begin to overwhelm the weaknesses, with behavioral changes and mindful self-reflection. It's a wonderful change. You can start to become the person you really are inside.
1000x this. Once there was a confirmed name for it, I stopped blaming myself for being a failure all the time? When there are words, history, and methods shared on how to mitigate how brains work differently, there is an ease to which you spend less time focusing on trying to behave on a metric that is different from how your mind operates.
Sitting with any piece of content for extended periods of time is a learned skill, not an innate ability bestowed on everyone. Historically, it was a status indicator of being able to afford the wealth and education of literacy by being able to sit with a single book for hours and read. Or have the leisure afforded to you to spend long periods of time doing focus work at any given time. It is an unnatural state of being that we created for ourselves with the invention of the printing press to segment and outline class distinction.
Thank you for that post!
I keep running into people who talk as if eternal hyperfocus were the normal state for humans but we broke our attention spans by overusing the Internet/mobile tech/social media/whatever the speaker feels like complaining about today.
Amoebic wrote:Sitting with any piece of content for extended periods of time is a learned skill, not an innate ability bestowed on everyone. Historically, it was a status indicator of being able to afford the wealth and education of literacy by being able to sit with a single book for hours and read. Or have the leisure afforded to you to spend long periods of time doing focus work at any given time. It is an unnatural state of being that we created for ourselves with the invention of the printing press to segment and outline class distinction.
Thank you for that post!
I keep running into people who talk as if eternal hyperfocus were the normal state for humans but we broke our attention spans by overusing the Internet/mobile tech/social media/whatever the speaker feels like complaining about today.
For a long time I genuinely believed my ADHD symptoms were my fault because of this line of thinking.
I'm starting to despise it. If I knew then what I do now, my mental health wouldn't have taken such a hit.
Has anyone else here struggled to get important people in their life to take their diagnosis seriously and learn about what it means?
The strengths are real, and I wouldn't trade them for a "normal" brain, but saying they overwhelm the weaknesses is a bit much. I think I'd rather say that knowing what's going on has given me the perspective to appreciate both.
On a tangential note, $29 is a lot to spend on a t-shirt but I'm tempted by this one:
Has anyone else here struggled to get important people in their life to take their diagnosis seriously and learn about what it means?
Yes and no. My wife and most of my friends have ADHD so everyone takes it seriously. But my wife's symptoms are very different from mine. Her attention span is a lot shorter for one thing. On the other hand she doesn't have anywhere near as much executive dysfunction as I do, and I don't think she understands what that means. Every time I have an unproductive day and hear "well you had time to scroll to the end of the Internet"... it hurts a bit.
Every time I have an unproductive day and hear "well you had time to scroll to the end of the Internet"... it hurts a bit.
"You had time to play games on your phone..."
Yeah, cause if I left the room to do chores you would have whined about that, too.
Has anyone else here struggled to get important people in their life to take their diagnosis seriously and learn about what it means?
Yes...I am currently in a fight about this now. I am told I am just using it as a crutch.
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