👽cmdrspacebabe👽 @cmdrspacebabe@witches.town

aah, the familiar surge of displeasure when I come home to find extra shoes on the mat and realize my partner has guests over

@bea ):< no because I can't have coffee and I want everyone else to suffer with me

@bea your hair is so majestic

@ruth I've had great luck with it for managing ADHD, so hopefully it'll also do well when it's more targeted towards depression.

i think someone accidentally gave my number to the Genius Bar because they've texted me 4 times but i've literally never needed or been to the Genius Bar

yaaay i had my intake call for counselling today
they're gonna put me in a wellness workshop to do cognitive behavioural therapy/mindfulness for depression and also book me with an individual counselor once a space opens up~

@naman too late he's coming tonight instead 😎

working on a new piece for a friend and I am so glad to be working in Gothic again because it is so satisfying https://witches.town/media/LKQPSiQZscrKgJKp4F4

nooooo he finally got back to me but I missed his call this is Unjust

tfw u gotta bus through downtown Ottawa at rush hour on 4/20
pretty sure some stoner dude was staring at me really hard at the bus stop but I managed to ignore him

@jwisser I borrowed mine from a friend, but I think he also had a pdf which I have kicking around in my inbox somewhere.

@jwisser If you want a really thorough education (from the same place I got all this advice), I highly recommend "The Adult ADHD Toolkit" by Ramsay and Rostain. It's legit life-changing. I've improved SO much just in the couple months since I read it. It's a cognitive behavioural therapy handbook, which is the most highly recommended non-medication form of treatment - generally the recommendation is that you should do both at once. The meds give you the brainpower, but it's not much good if you don't re-train the habits, and CBT can also function without meds - great if you don't have access to those right now.

@jwisser Absolutely! If you can't tell, it's one of my favourite subjects :P

@jwisser Yeah, that's hard to get past for me too :P it took me quite a while - over a year - to figure out a bullet-journal structure that worked for me, but it works great now and I actually enjoy using it, which means I actually DO use it, which is the most important thing. Gotta make it a serious habit and be consistent about using it every day.

@jwisser And I mean tiny - as small as you need. Like, 'open word document, write title' small. Much easier to coax yourself into that. Or go by time increments. 'I'll just work on this for 10 minutes, and if I still don't want to, I'll stop. Just 10 minutes. I know this is hard but I can totally handle just 10 minutes.'
It's the getting-started that's the hardest part, and once you get over that hump, it's usually way easier - it shows your brain that actually, it's no big deal, and you can totally handle it. After a while it becomes habit and you re-train that instinctive 'NOPE' response.

@jwisser my other best tip is to break things down into the tiniest steps possible. ADHD brains are very easily overwhelmed, and that's generally what causes that 'can't make myself do it' thing. Your brain looks at this task, and it has so many steps to completing it; but our brains aren't great at planning or processing, so it can't see how you could possibly do all those things and just shuts down and says 'no, no thank you, I Would Rather Not'.
Solution, via to-do lists: break it down into teeny teeny steps. Tell your brain, 'it's ok! We just have to do this one! Just one thing! We can handle that!' Continuing is MUCH easier than starting.

@jwisser I do actually recommend giving a written one a shot, if it appeals to you - writing things by hand is known to help drill info into your brain and help you remember better, as well as having less inherent distractions like a phone or computer would. But that's a matter of personal preference as well - you have to use whatever's easiest to you to make sure your brain won't protest too much or consider it a burden. (I'm also very into handwriting and calligraphy, so naturally I find the act of writing/creating my journal structures very satisfying :P)

@jwisser Nah, I'm super open about this stuff :P I'm on biphentin - a long-acting ritalin variant - as well as wellbutrin, which is an antidepressant, but highly recommended for use in people with ADHD because it's a stimulant, much like ritalin/adderall/etc. ADHD is associated with low levels of several neurotransmitters, and stimulants act to make up for that and bring us up to a 'normal' level of functioning - normal to everyone else, at least.

@jwisser a big factor in ADHD is a lack of working memory - our brains just can't hold onto as many pieces of info as most people, so you have to externalize it. Use an agenda and to-do lists to build up the infrastructure that your brain can't naturally maintain on its own like most people's can.
ADHD is associated with low levels of dopamine, aka the brain's reward center doesn't work right. This is why we have trouble doing hard or boring things, and poor impulse control: brain is desperate for more dopamine, so it jumps around quickly to things that will provide it - which means short-term pleasures, and planning goes out the window.

@jwisser oh man, pretty much everyone I've had this conversation with - and I've had it many times - has felt the same way. We really internalize this idea that we're just shitty at life and finding out there was actually a reason is such a huge relief.

Biggest things for me are bullet journals and to-do lists. A good agenda is a key tool for managing ADHD - you gotta write down eeeeverything. I use a bullet journal so I can customize it and make sure it's easy to use - the simpler it is, the more likely you are to use it. Making things convenient is a big factor.
I also carry around a mini-notebook with daily to-do lists, which is a great companion.