Only advice that has ever worked for me is to set micro-goals for the start of tasks.
Like, stupidly easy goals. Got a paper to write? The goal is to open a new document and type 3 words. Need to go work out? Do 1 push up. Need to clean your room? Put one shirt in the laundry hamper, or take 1 dish to the sink.
That’s it. Stupidly easy. Not feeling it after that? Cool, you already hit your goal. But momentum is a hell of a thing. The majority of the time, I’ll just keep going, precisely because the micro-goals was so easy.
3 words done? Ok that took no time at all. Might as well finish the sentence, maybe even a whole paragraph.
1 push up? I’m already down on the floor, why not do another? Or 10?
I could grab just 1 shirt, or just 1 dish; but I could carry more at the same time. Might as well.
You don’t need to trick your brain into doing the whole task, you just need to trick your brain into starting the task. Momentum will take care of the rest. And on the times that it doesn’t? Well, again, that’s fine. You met your goal already. You don’t HAVE to keep going. That can be enough for now.
at least for me it’s also a matter of breaking it down so things actually feel achievable, so i know what to do right now. Doing the dishes is for me always a matter of doing each individual dish at a time and praying to god my energy lasts through at least 5 items before i deflate like a balloon.
I use this trick when I have projects in the garage I need to work on. Don’t feel like working on it? Well I’ll just go stand in the garage for a bit. Next thing I know I’ve been working on it for three hours and I need to force myself to take a break to go eat.
My problem is when I switch into “doing shit mode” my brain fucking pingpongs between doing all the shit, so I’ll work one one thing for like 10 minutes, realize I need to do something else, switch to that, and so on. Which does mean I make progress… but still not a lot gets actually done unless I have some kind of huge breakthrough on something that gives me enough juice to focus on it because I can see the finish line.
Same for me, but I’m screwed if I don’t have the next goal ready and planned before I finish the current one, because if it’s not lined up and ready to go, it’s over as soon as it’s complete.
Great advice, thanks!
I misread this as erectile dysfunction and was super concerned about the solutions.
Put your cock 15 minutes ahead.
I did but always came too early
Bravo
10/10
Well, one of the non stimulant adhd meds gave me light ED while I took it
I can see guanfacine doing this, as it lowers blood pressure.
I did try guanfacine, but it was actually the atomoxetine that did it. Can’t remember if it occurred with the 25mg, but for sure did with the 40mg
Thanks for sharing that. The guaf is helping me now, no side effects noted. It’s pulling double duty for my BP as well. Only concern is that I think it was making me drowsy for the first month or so.
That’s great it’s working. None of the non stimulants worked for me unfortunately. Atomoxetine gave me some euphoria for a couple days and then some ED later on. Guanfacine had no effect that I noticed. I’ve been on lisdexamfetamine for over a year now and it has been going great. I started on 25?mg, upped to 40mg, and then to 60mg which is where I’m at. It started with a couple days of euphoria, especially the first day. The dose kept getting upped because I wasn’t sure if it was working, but I think it was because being medicated became my new normal. It was noticeable that it was working when I didn’t take a dose :P. I think I’m more prone to binge eat when I miss a dose, more likely to be overwhelmed and become frantic. My wife asks me if I took my medicine when I don’t, she’s never asked on a day where I did take it, so it is pretty noticeable to her. My blood pressure is on the border of elevated, so I wonder if a lower mg would be fine, at some point I might try, but currently I have switched from regular coffee to decaf
Guaf took over a month to start working. It’s a very even keel kind of thing. It was less an instant fix and more a realization that I seem to have shit together.
The guaf is also with Concerta XR, and it helps counterbalance the stimulant effect.
Ah, yeah… I think I was on it at most for a month, could be why
When I was a kid I had a hard time slanting my cursive writing. My teacher told me to just slant the paper, so I kept turning it more and more until it was fully sideways, still writing upright because I adjusted to the angle. After days of this my teacher cried “Just write angled letters!” and I went “Oh!” and was able to do it perfectly from then on.
Anyway I guess my point is different stuff works for different people.
Did we ever find out why cursive was recommended to be slanted? I’d mostly forgotten that was a thing and now it seems stupid. Probably one person thought it looked better that way and people did it to seem fancy. A lot of grammar “rules” started from one person’s preferences so this might’ve been the same.
Makes it easier for right handed people to write legibly. At least that was the reason we were taught back in the late '80s when I was learning cursive. Doesn’t help us lefties since we just smudge the damn writing.
I know if I try to write cursive straight up and down it looks very jagged.
There’s also research that says blood sugar is really helpful for people with ADHD so having something sweet to sip on while you work can be really helpful
And if you’re also diabetic, you can just sip a little bit of your own piss
Found Bear Grylls’ account
Uhhh. I mean. You could also have Gatorade if you’re diabetic. You’re not without other options 😅
i find it doesn’t really even need to have sugar in it. ill usually have some sugar free sweet drink to sip on and just the sweet taste is enough to give me some dopamine. sadly real sweets are my kryptonite. if i have them in the house i will eat them all far too quickly. like in an unhealthy and embarrassing way…
Huh. I just like deliciousness and use it as a motivator. Sometimes it’s my sweet tooth, sometimes coffee (black), but I’m really getting into mint tea in the afternoon.
I think this is good advice and creating fake urgency is nothing but destructive for many. But then again we’re all different and the clock setting techniques may be the perfect fit for many others. The most important thing is that you try things and if you try something that doesn’t work, most of the time you can’t just try again harder to make it work. That will eventually break you.
No, the important thing is that we never ask ourselves why we have to do all these things we don’t want to do.
Me: “Man, I’m so fucking hungry rn…”
still doesn’t make anything to eat
“Wow, I’m really hungry, I should make some food.”
Thinks about food
“Nevermind I’m not THAT hungry.”
The “give yourself a treat after” type of advice is pretty shit. I know the guy who hands out the treats, and we’re on pretty good terms. I’m pretty sure I can get him to give me a treat without doing the task. Heck I’ll probably give myself two treats.
Well there problem for many ADHD as explained in the post is that we just don’t have the dopamine to even consider starting a task, and a little treat gives us that boost to get going.
For me personally it’s often a task that I want to accomplish, I just like can’t because brain says no.
it’s literally just standard operant conditioning, associate the thing with something positive like food until your brain just inherently likes doing the thing.
Which clearly works really effectively!
The previous works because you’re putting yourself in a state of anxiety and creating adrenaline as a result. Your brain can run on adrenaline instead of dopamine, so it does that. If you learn to cope this way you’ll be fucked in old age like me though. In addition to adrenaline, you’re filling your body with cortisol and that will destroy you from within. Don’t do it. Just go get the damn ADHD medication.
except for those of us who just get a panic attack from the adrenaline, yay!
That part also sucks
So true. I’m like Superman during a crisis, and a slug any other time. I sometimes fall in to the trap of subconsciously manufacturing a crisis just so I can get things done. It’s not a great way to live.
That final hashtag really caught me off guard, made me realise that’s exactly what I’ve been doing to myself my whole life.
Same here. It took me years to start undoing the maladaptations it caused.
The best method I’ve found is to externalise the hate, not internalise. E.g. I don’t get annoyed at myself for not doing the washing up. I let myself get annoyed at the washing up itself. It still motivates, but doesn’t do the corrosive mental damage internalising it does.
This seems like a good reading recommandation. Thanks for it and for the tip.
I cannot start rewarding myself before starting. I at least need to get started first. Granted i usually reward myself with beer and weed so that could be a factor
Just switch to pony beers and shake, it’s like eating Snackwells instead of actual good cookies.
(I don’t know what “shake” means in this context.)
“Shake” is scraps of cannabis plants left behind after processing it for consumption (trimming). It’s less pleasant to smoke and contains less THC than the main bud, so it gets sold off in bulk or reprocessed into concentrates.
Thanks!
I feel seen.
This is why I’ll never truly be able to quit nicotine. Apparently I don’t meet the threshold for adhd medication despite regular debilitating functional freeze, so nicotine and the dopamine it gives me is only reason I’m a functioning adult.
Gosh, when I smoked, I punctuated my life with cigarettes. Get dressed, smoke. Coffee, smoke. Do the pots, smoke. Start laundry, smoke. Finish laundry, smoke. Vacuum, smoke. Shave, smoke…
I stopped smoking a decade ago, but I’ve recently got into rum in a properly way. Which I think might be worse.
I was able to switch to vaping, but there is a hard lower limit to the amount of nicotine I have to add. Everytime I reduce below 6mg/ml freebase my life starts to unravel and I can’t put the vape away either. It’s not classical withdrawal - I know how that feels all too well from the time I tried to get rid of cigarettes without the vape, and withdrawal itself is a done deal after a few days.
I might actually try a higher amount again, even the 6mg are pushing it on some days.
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This assumes executive dysfunction only ever comes from lack of (available) dopamine though.
It’s better advice than stressing yourself out, sure, but it may just be useless.
The only thing that has ever worked for me - and I have tried giving myself treats before and during a task - are hard, immovable deadlines.
They’re not saying it’ll fix everything, they’re saying try it. It’ll either help, or it won’t; but you’re no worse off for trying a gentler-on-yourself approach
They were a bit too absolute-y in my opinion.
But yeah, there’s no harm in trying to see whether it will work for you.
Instructions unclear, am fat now.
Instructions unclear, am high functioning alcoholic/stoner now
Anyone have any clarification on what “pretend the hat man is pointing a gun at you” means? I’ve never heard that phrase before.
Is the hat man the guy people see when they abuse
cough syrupBenadryl?I thought he was the sleep paralysis demon
Perhaps it’s a reference to “mad as a hatter”.
