iriganthefool

[iriganthefool]

if you have ADHD and struggle with cleaning/keeping things clean, I’m going to offer some aggressively practical advice that may or may not work but has been so helpful for me to keep a base level of tidiness without losing a whole day to cleaning hyperfocus or ending up stressed to the point of crying about how much stuff I have to deal with.

(It’s best suited if you’re in your own apartment/house and have multiple rooms to manage.) But just start moving. Walk around your place. Put on some music or a YouTube video or whatever floats your boat in your headphones and go for a stroll. See some scissors on the coffee table? Snag em on your way by and drop them off where they go. A dish in your bedroom? Bring that bad boy to the sink as you round the corner. Going room by room or breaking tasks into smaller chunks honestly just stresses me out more lmao but wandering around aimlessly emptying trash bins and tossing socks into the hamper as I notice them?? Now I’m just playing one of those object spotter games babey. No pressure there. If I’m feeling extra ambitious I’ll carry a trash bag with me. Can’t get overwhelmed by a room if I leave it two seconds later. Something doesn’t have a place to go? Make one! Or leave it! Who cares!

A bonus tip is to go to Target or Goodwill or Homegoods or any place that has cheap bins/baskets (little ones that you’d keep pencils or rolls of tape or something in not large storage totes) and keep a few sets on hand. If you realize you’ve accumulated a comical number of sharpies you can go grab a little pencil tray for them and suddenly they have a place to go and now when you find a sharpie on the ground you can toss it in the sharpie bin. Doesn’t matter if the sharpie bin is still on the ground, I’m not going to slip and die in a marker-based Looney Tunes incident and I know if I need a sharpie I go to the spot on the floor next to my bookshelf.

And if you go for a walk and don’t pick up anything that’s also fine you at least moved around a bit. Familiarized yourself with the landscape.

It also tricks my brain into seeing “moving from one room to the other = picking up a few things to put away” which just generally helps keep piles from getting out of hand.

Once I’ve made a few laps things are generally tidy enough to do the same thing with vacuuming/wiping down surfaces/dusting etc.

(side note but if you’re in HS/otherwise living with your parents and being constantly squished under a hydraulic press of shame and pressure about your inability to keep your room clean without actually being given coping skills or help, I see you and I love you and I was you and having a messy living space is not actually a moral failing it’s just a thing that happens sometimes)

[iriganthefool]

Out of all the voices in my head, there’s always one screeching at the top of it’s nonexistent lungs, and one bard singing whatever the most recent two-second song clip I have rolling around up there.

Also there’s that little guy in the corner who pops up occasionally to sing the part of “hooked on a feeling” that goes “AAAAAAH AAH AH AH AAAAH- (dun dun-) I’M HOOKED ON A FEELIN!” …or however that goes.

[iriganthefool]

ADHD is not cleaning your Converse for months even though you need to because the sight of the dark, dirty water pouring away to reveal stark white rubber in the spot you scrubbed fiercely with an old toothbrush is so much more satisfying than brushing off a bit of dust.

[iriganthefool]

Anyone else notice how similar the symptoms of ADHD and the symptoms of depression are? And anyone on meds also feel happier then when off meds?

Because I really wish more NT people realized how very similar the ADHD experience is to that of depression, and is NOT in fact the Happy Silly Disorder.

[iriganthefool]

I can often tell if the poster of a YouTube comment is middle aged or older by the double spacing behind periods or the extra space before punctuation. In their defense that was how they were taught. It just looks funny. And a bit French.

[iriganthefool]

Sometimes when I’m slacking off I make myself do something I like to call “productive fun” where I still don’t do the thing I need to or anything actually productive, but instead of mindlessly doomscrolling I play Minecraft or something. It still gives me that sweet, sweet dopamine, but I have something to show for the time I spent, and I don’t feel as bad or like I completely wasted my time.

[iriganthefool]

Yesterday I started ADHD meds again after a five-day break (to lose immunity so they would actually work) and I think it really made my mom finally realize what they actually do for me. She commented that she could really see the difference they made (implying that my mood was totally different then the day before) and yeah, they really do lift my mood- my theory is that it's because I'm more productive and I think more clearly so I'm significantly less stressed meaning I'm less snappy and annoyable.

[iriganthefool]

Being able to use the #actually adhd tag is just so validating

[iriganthefool]

I hate when I have to take the bus home because I know I’ll spend hours “recovering” from the walk home instead of getting shit done

[iriganthefool]

Anyone else have an obsession with multiples of five? Like I will crash tf out if the TV volume isn't 10, 15, 20, 25... when I microwave food and have to stop it early I wait till a multiple of five no matter how desperately I need to stop it, if I don't wait my hand feels disgusting and the nerves feel corroded. If I even look at the microwave counting down and it isn't a multiple of five I have to shiver away the icky.

[iriganthefool]

This is the calmest I've been at the end of the year like there was some panic for a bit but I fixed and now it's up to the gods and the quality of my chemistry cheat sheet

[iriganthefool]

UPDATE TOOK THREE EXTRA DAYS OFF FOR A TOTAL OF FIVE I AM A PRODUCTIVE GOD

I fucked up.

I could have upped my med dose a few weeks ago but I got scared because I felt like I already did too recently and a higher dose would only be effective for a few months before it would stop working again. But the thing I forgot whist being a idiotic people-pleaser at the most inopportune time was that I would only be taking the dose for one more month before an entire three month break for summer.

This last month of school has be torture. The meds do nothing. I was thinking about taking last week off to try to lose some immunity but I was to scared to try.

Now it's the week before finals, I have so much to do and I feel like I can't afford to lose time. I just might have to. Honestly, I already am.

[iriganthefool]

pavloving myself because adhd is a bitch

[iriganthefool]

I fucked up.

I could have upped my med dose a few weeks ago but I got scared because I felt like I already did too recently and a higher dose would only be effective for a few months before it would stop working again. But the thing I forgot whist being a idiotic people-pleaser at the most inopportune time was that I would only be taking the dose for one more month before an entire three month break for summer.

This last month of school has be torture. The meds do nothing. I was thinking about taking last week off to try to lose some immunity but I was to scared to try.

Now it's the week before finals, I have so much to do and I feel like I can't afford to lose time. I just might have to. Honestly, I already am.

[iriganthefool]

I love 9/11 jokes. WAIT WAIT HOLD ON I'M NOT DONE!

I love the generational disconnect, the in-real-time historical shift. I love that we can clearly see and experience history being made- not the actual event, but the process of historical acceptance that comes after. Like, betraying and murdering your leader and the man who thinks of you as his son sounds tragic and traitorous, yet one look at this wonderous website during march and it's clear that people don't really feel that way anymore. The people of Rome 2068 years ago would not be happy. Actually no some of them might be pretty amused...

It's clear that sometime in history there almost always is a shift in the viewpoint of an event, typically towards comedy. As a history lover it is incredible to experience it first-hand! This is a part of history I never see people talking about- when history becomes history.

[iriganthefool]

It feels suffocating to me too, but also it feeling like my skin has separated from the muscles and nerves and has transformed into a hard shell, something unbreakable that I have no control over, that I can scratch and claw and scream at without ever breaking through. When I take my ADHD meds I literally feel more present, more connected to my physical body. I once tried to explain it to my mom like this: hold your arm down on a table. Now lift your arm, but don't actually move it. Just feel the phantom arm rise. The phantom arm is me stuck inside, the physical one is what everyone else sees. It's horrifying.

something i see people talk about often is adhd paralysis aka when you have things you need to/want to do but it all seems overwhelming and you can't seem to get up off the couch even though ur screaming in your head to just do something

this, basically

what i want to know about it the physical sensation. yes, there's the mental struggle where you are yelling at yourself and berating yourself to do something, anything, but what does it feel like physically? because to me (and i'm not being hyperbolical) it feels like suffocating. if you have ever experienced sleep paralysis, it feels like that: this suffocating weight on me and the overwhelming feeling that I can't even move and it makes it almost hard to breathe.

what does it feel like to you?

[iriganthefool]

oh.