New Lemmy Post: Highly enjoyable things require concentration too (https://lemmyverse.link/lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/27962411)
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This is me. Help how do i do stuff?
Coffee did not help me. A few years ago i was averaging 2 liters of coffee per day it was a real problem. I don’t drink coffee anymore.
Have you talked with a psychiatrist and gotten a diagnosis yet? That’s a good step to take towards helping yourself, but start with your own doctor of you haven’t already, and get a referral (or however it works in your country). If you have ADHD it’s often that the brain is underestimated hence stimulants work wonders for ADHD to get the brain knocked back on track. You’d probably need to try a variety of stimulants to find what works for you even within the same family of stimulants like release times and brands, small variations can make you react differently.
I wish you the best and hope you’ll find something that works. This forum is a great source of help and motivation.
I got put on Ritalin. Was told it’s a miracle drug. All it does is make me extra nervous and jittery but it doesn’t help my (lack of) motivation at all.
Sounds like it could be too high a dose if you get jittery, been there at 30-40mg but 20mg + 10mg both extended release later in the day works really well for me.
Remember that the way Ritalin (methylphenidate) works is not by boosting dopamin but rather slow down dopamin uptake. You still need to create the first “spark of dopamin” yourself that then slowly snowballs itself stronger. I’d say you need to take it at least a few days to weeks to see an effect and learn how it affects you. Start at just 10 to 20mg. Otherwise try another variation of methylphenidate like concerta or medikinet.
Medication + therapy is the magic combo. Adderall was the magic bullet for me but I was lucky, and I hate that it only works for a limited time each day. And even then, it just makes actually doing things not suck. The drive, time management, and understanding what motivates me all come from therapy
The best analogy I found was it’s like wading through a river to get to the other side. Medicine gets you out of the river, but you need therapy to find the bridge and cross it.
Free time helps. But also, finding other people in the hobby/trade to work with helps. Being in a book club is nice, because talking about the book you read can be as much fun as reading the book. Same with art.
I feel like watching new movies is a no-brainer, though. I might suggest pulling from the Criterion Collection on random, maybe by genre. But it’s often fun to watch this stuff with other people.
Got my wife into old movies for a minute. “Bringing up Baby” and “One Two Three” managed to hold up after over 60 years. Give those two a shot.
Some people say “hack yourself” … create a TODO list in anyway you like. First thing on that list is to “create a list” and cross that off after you’ve listed some items.
Keep the items small and doable. Going outside or watch a movie isn’t a “big” item but it’s worth on this list damnit!
Don’t be down on yourself for any reason about doing nothing on the list. If you are, recognize that you did that, forgive yourself for feeling that way and try again. Feel free to throw out items and put even simpler tasks on it, if you can.
Doesn’t work for everyone, but it does work for some.
That sounds more like depression to me. Because, when you really enjoy something, your hyper focus is kicking in and you can’t let go of it.
The hyper focus only kicks in when i’m doing something, the problem is to start to do something
Precisely. When trying to talk to others about this, I usually use the term activation energy
Understanding it doesn’t help in alleviating it, though.
Send help!
Or, you really enjoy a hobby but your hyperfocus makes you research the hobby instead of doing it. E.g. you like photography and your hyperfocus kicks in researching places to go take photos, or gear to buy… Or you spend hours choosing the best cycling route until it’s too dark or the weather changes and you go “What happened to my beautiful afternoon??”.
My hyperfocus tends to kick in whenever the ADHD gremlin inside my brain chooses, not always when I’m doing whatever I enjoy. I wish that was always the case.
Fuck. This is me with music production about a month ago. I produced exactly 5 seconds of music trying to learn it after several days of endlessly learning about it.
Not necessarily. I definitely go through waves like this, and it doesn’t feel like depression to me.
I’ll have a couple of days (or weeks) where I want to do things, but not enough to actually motivate myself to start any of it. Then I’ll bounce back for a while and be so focused on something that I’ll forget about taking care of basic needs like eating and sleeping.
I’ve kinda learned to embrace those extremes. What I hate is the middle ground where I want to focus and get something done, but I realize about every 5 minutes that my brain is off topic again.
The trick is: see what you’re doing now?
Enjoy that.
I think it’s more a reference to pausing the doom scrolling which is maybe a habit to avoid the boredom or discomfort of the current situation, and trying to focus on enjoying that. Enjoying your time eating lunch or dinner, and focusing on that, instead of scrolling or watching a video always. Enjoying a walk without a podcast or music. Enjoying the comfort of being safe and warm in bed instead of distracting from thoughts. Things like that. It’s a skill you build and as you build it you will be more open to getting dopamine from sources other than doomscrolling. Other benefits include being able to manage uncomfortable thoughts and feelings better and also have the boredom and discomfort drive you to do other things. Of course this works best when paired with things like DBT skills to help with thoughts and emotions.
Now I have a bit more function, I want to address this. Being locked into myself while doom scrolling on the couch is not enjoyable. It’s not something I want to or should enjoy. It is distinctly unpleasant and a reminder of just how much I am a slave to my fucked up brains constant need for stimulation. I have things I will enjoy and WANT to go do and fucking can’t because I’m stuck to the couch or stuck in my chair, doing something that provides my brain immediately activity. It fucking sucks. And, when I talk about how ADHD preventing me from doing stuff sucks, there’s always someone who comes along saying something along the lines of “your productivity doesn’t define your worth =D it’s ok to not do anything!” And like. I understand what you’re saying and that you’re trying to help and that that’s probably something that’s positive to a lot of people but you just don’t understand that it’s not a job or a hobby or chores not getting done that sucks, it’s being a nonfunctional human being that’s the problem and that that positive platitude applied to THAT problem is saying “stop trying to be a functional human being =D” and that is so incredibly frustrating.
I’m sorry, I understand the positive message you’re trying to spread but it’s… When someone complains about not being functional, telling them to enjoy their misery is actively unhelpful.
Needs to be in the perfect mood
Never in the mood
