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jens-chapter · 1 year ago

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a little omega bad batch <3 fearing for her life <3

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jens-chapter · 5 years ago

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ADHD study tips!

I may not be the most accomplished student, but I’ve been slowly finding what works for me. The following advice probably applies more to the “inattentive” and “combined” subtypes; the former is my diagnosis. Also, it is probably applicable more to science/maths than humanities.

* Follow your nose - set an outline for what you want to cover in a certain period of time and don’t force yourself to do any one thing in particular

* Embrace nonlinearity in your notes - don’t force yourself to make them exceptionally neat & compartmentalised; scribble your ideas down and use arrows to connect things together

* If you have an idea or a question, investigate it yourself - make a mathematical model of the system, visualise it, etc

* Prove the theorems in the textbook rather than doing the (boring) exercises - this really helps with understanding, and also develops your mathematical skill

* Look at more material than the course requires - this makes studying feel worthwhile, because you’re actually beginning to understand

* If you’re hyperfocusing, don’t force yourself to take a break! Wait until your concentration starts drifting and then get outdoors for a bit. I find that studying in anything less than a 1.5h session is pointless because I don’t get immersed enough to make deep connections.

* Get a fidget toy - it can make concentration much easier, even without medication.

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jens-chapter · 5 years ago

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adhd and exams

disclaimer: these are some things that make it easier for me to study when i can’t take my adhd medication. i have inattentive type adhd, so it might be different for people with combined type or hyperactive type. my experiences are not universal, and what works for me might not work for others.

alleviating symptoms

if you have adhd medication, fucking take it. i know it can make you feel gross and anxious, but if you can, it’ll make studying so much easier

if you don’t have adhd medication, having a cup of tea, coffee, soda, or an energy drink might help you gather the energy that you need to focus more intently. if caffeine makes you anxious and jittery, skip this step. you can’t study if you’re having a panic attack

meditate!! i know, i know, it isn’t going to magically make all of your symptoms go away, and it doesn’t work for everybody, but there’s really no harm in taking five minutes out of your day to try. it might not make it easier to focus, but i personally get a lot less irritated with myself after meditating, which makes it easier to be forgiving when i get distracted

preparing your workspace

put on clothes that make you feel productive. these vary from person to person. you might feel more comfortable in sweatpants or pajamas, or you might feel more motivated to work in nice jeans and a button-down shirt. socks and shoes are great so that your feet don’t get cold, and it might be a good idea to tie your hair back so it doesn’t get in your face

clean off the space where you’ll be studying. if you don’t have time to organize the room, just take everything off of the desk or table and set it aside. it’s hard to focus when the area around you is cluttered

gather all of your materials. books, pens and pencils, looseleaf or notebooks and binders, folders and classwork, technology, chargers, a speaker to play music if you want, a bottle of water, maybe a snack. you should have everything you need to stay in this space for a few hours without constantly getting up to fetch things

that being said, keep your immediate workspace clear of everything that you’re not using at the moment. minimize distractions in your field of view

as you’re studying

try listening to music while you work. it can help you divert some of your excess energy. i like video game soundtracks, because they’re upbeat and fun to listen to but don’t have distracting lyrics

if music is too distracting, white/pink/brown noise can be a good way to block out outside noises and distractions

fidget!! bounce your leg, squeeze a stress ball, play with putty, roll a ball around with your feet, mouth the words to a song or chew gum

make it fun. it’s a lot easier to focus on a subject that you’re interested in. if you don’t care about what you’re learning, have fun making your notes look cool, or seeing how much information you can fit on one page. make a game out of it, if you need to. flashcards are great for this

switch between subjects! once you start getting bored of one, switch to another until you’re bored of that, and keep moving until you’ve finished everything

take!!! fucking!!!! breaks!!!!!

honestly this is what’s saved my life in terms of studying with adhd. there are tons of different ways to do this. you can use a timer, an app, or just your intuition to know when you’re starting to lose focus

if you’re having trouble getting started or getting your words down on to the page, try using a very short cycle of work/breaks. i like to have four minutes and thirty seconds where i sprint to get down everything i can, and then thirty seconds to catch my breath before i start again

for subjects like science and reading, where you might need more of a consistent flow of thought, a scheme like twelve minutes of work, three of break might work better. adjust the times to fit your liking. if you need longer breaks, that’s ok! if you need less breaks, but can’t work for more than an hour without a longer break, that’s alright too

do things in your breaks, if you have enough time! if you need energy, dance around to a pop song or do push ups or jumping jacks. if you need to rest, meditate or just sit and let your mind wander. if you need to keep busy so you don’t lose your streak of productivity, check emails or reblog posts to your queue

forgive your own “imperfections”

i know how frustrating it can be to feel like you always have to put in three hours of work to somebody else’s hour, or like you’ll never be able to focus as well or as long as they can. don’t beat yourself up for this. give yourself time to be annoyed, and angry, and sad and hopeless and lost, and then get up and give it your everything all over again. everybody works differently, and you bring things to the table that nobody else could. don’t let anybody tell you otherwise

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jens-chapter · 5 years ago

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Practical Tips for ADHD College Students

I know a few posts like this already exist, but I wanted to add my own experiences to the mix in case it would be helpful to someone else. Some of these will look familiar, some not so much.

Disclaimers: 1) What works for me may not work for you, take everything with a grain of salt and experiment, 2) These are what I’m using for a 4-year school but I imagine it would be applicable for any college? I wish I’d known to do some of these things when I was at CC, 3) I won’t pretend that I am an ADHD success story, not yet. I’m still finding my way, learning to cope, learning to thrive. It’s a process.

NOTE: This post is kinda long; if it’s too long I recommend just reading the bolded/italicized headings and only reading the ones that pique your interest :)

Sensory Issues:

Wear comfortable clothing: Screw the mentality that you always have to look your best in college. At the end of the day, feeling hot but ridiculously uncomfortable will trigger sensory issues (especially if you’re someone who is sensitive to certain materials/styles of clothing) and it will impact concentration and can cause a lot of distress. Are you comfortable in those sweatpants, pajama bottoms, baggy shirts? Cool, wear them.

Stim toys: Love yourself, buy (or make!) stim toys and bring them to school. Can’t speak for CC because I didn’t use stim toys when I went, but at my 4-year school everyone is too busy drowning in deadlines to notice you squishing thinking putty or using a fidget cube under the table.

Try different stim toys: I used to get caught up on trying to make the more popular stim toys work for me when they didn’t, so I had to experiment a bit to see what worked. It’s not always as simple as cubes, spinners, squishy toys, etc. If you have issues with texture you’ll want to really experiment, especially with things like putty, squishibles, etc. to see what is comfortable and what isn’t. But there’s a big ol’ market out there!

Headphones/Earplugs: The single most helpful sensory detail for me was always bringing my headphones to campus. I get easily overstimulated in uncontrolled situations with lots of different sounds. I make sure my volume is enough to block the noise out, but the songs I choose in these instances are usually familiar, so they don’t provide too much new stimulation when I can’t handle it. I also keep earplugs in my backpack for exams.

Studying/School Related:

If possible, leave your house: This has been one of the hardest changes I’ve had to make because I’m an introvert and genuinely prefer being home. But I’m starting to learn that my ass will not do work 9/10 times when I’m home. Too much to do, too many other things to get done, lots of fun distractions, and cats! So many cats! Unfortunately cats won’t take my exams. I’ve found that the library is okay, but for me small cafes worked much better. Armed with my headphones, some coffee, and an atmosphere that caters to silently getting work done, I’m able to focus longer, and to focus on what I really need to.

Note-taker: Admittedly I’m talking out of my ass on this one, because I haven’t yet done this. But that’s exactly why I want to stress getting a note-taker. My college life would be infinitely better if I’d done this when the semester started; instead, my notes have gaps where I couldn’t concentrate, or couldn’t process what was being discussed, etc.

Other accommodations: Accommodations for ADHD differ depending on the college, but some of the common ones are: note-takers, silent exam spaces, assignment extensions, and use of tech such as recorders, speech-to-text software… If you’re like I was and are worried that you’re asking too much asking for accommodations, remember two important things: 1) Accommodations exist to level the playing field, not to give us an edge, and 2) YOU PAY FOR THIS SERVICES. That huge, overwhelming tuition bill with all those “extra fees”? You’re paying for these services already, might as well take advantage of them!

Talk to your professors: This part is truly terrifying for me, but I’ve started opening up this semester to my professors and it has made a difference. The professor for my hardest class actually has a son with adhd so she understood and was even able to provide me with some resources that would help. At the very least, it made my professors aware of my struggles and aware that I wasn’t just being lazy, which calmed my RSD a bit.

Organization: Staying organized is important for any college student, but especially for those with adhd. We lose things a lot, and if things aren’t in obvious, constant places it becomes so much easier to lose or forget where we put things. That being said, your ‘organized’ will probably not be other peoples ‘organized’. For example, I use my Ipsy bags for organization. One holds any writing utensils, flashcards, and post-its, another holds anything medical-related, etc. It seems a bit cluttered and disorganized to other people but it works for me. So try keeping things in the same spot if possible, but remember that finding what organizational structures work for you might take time and effort. If your school has success coaching, I highly recommend it for this purpose! Which brings me to the next point.

Success Coaching: Most colleges offer some kind of program like this, though names may differ. Success Coaching is designed for students of any academic level in order to help them get and stay on track. My college offers study skills, schedule planning, test prep, time management, help navigating campus resources, and a whole host of others. And the people doing the coaching are usually grad students who’ve been through the process. They’re typically trained in working with students with adhd, because that tends to be a significant portion of their students. They’re also just really nice to talk to. Almost like a therapist, but not quite.

Really forgetful? The best thing you can do is change your environment, not try to change yourself. You probably won’t be able to stop your brain from forgetting your notebook at home, but you can get a five subject and keep it in your backpack at all times. Same with folders. Keep losing pens/pencils? Just get a fuckton and shove them in a pouch in your backpack in the beginning of the semester. I’m not kidding when I say I have at least 20 pens and pencils in mine, not including the glitter pens and highlighters.

Planners: Many people have said that it will take time to find just the right planner for you, and they’re correct. The planner I use right now is 8x11 with wide boxes. Some prefer smaller planners, others will use planner apps or just the calendar in their phone. You’ll have to mess around a bit to see what works for you, but you do have options!

Printables: Oh man I love printables so much, but a lot of the time I find that they’re more trouble maintaining than my adhd can handle. You can find a ton on tumblr, free to download and print, and some very beautiful packs for sale on etsy. Right now I use a monthly budget printable and one for studying terms/definitions. Sometimes the adhd mind needs something pretty and different to cling to, so I try to switch things up every so often.

Color-coding: This absolutely will not work for everyone (I’ve seen people say color-coding notes gets the hung up on the coding and not the notes, and I can definitely see that happening). For me, I use color-coding in my planner. Each class gets its own color. This keeps me from seeing a page covered in the same color of ink or pencil and mentally blocking it out. Gelly roll has the most amazing glitter pens!

Test prep: Will vary depending on the person and how they learn best, but for me I’ve found that no one method will work on its own. I have class notes, typed notes, hand-written flashcards, flashcards on quizlet. I won’t pretend that it’s easy; it’s fuck-all time consuming and sometimes I don’t have energy for it, but depending on the class I usually need a combination of at least two different methods to work. This is definitely something success coaching can work with you to figure out!

General Life Advice (that will impact college):

Get on a sleep schedule: I don’t even care what your particular schedule is (because it’ll vary person to person) but just get on one. Much easier said than done, because our brains never want to shut up at night, but lack of a consistent sleep schedule will mess with your concentration, focus, hypersensitivity, etc.

I’ll just do this later…: is the adhd monster talking. What even is later? Does it exist? Sometimes I have to tell myself “nope, we’re doing this right now!” Doesn’t always work, but I try my hardest to do things in the moment if executive dysfunction isn’t at my door.

Develop a support system: This can be difficult because sometimes making and maintaining friendships with adhd can be hard, and sometimes family members aren’t very receptive or supportive. But a strong support system can make all the difference in the world! If your current friends don’t understand the extent of what you’re dealing with, send some resources their way and you might be surprised how fast they get in your corner. But sometimes people without adhd just don’t get it. If your college has a meet-up for students with adhd like mine does, this is a great place to meet like-minded students who understand what you’re going through and can provide support and advice!

I’m going to stop this here because it’s already too long, but I hope this is helpful to someone and I’d love it if you could add your own tips as well!

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jens-chapter · 5 years ago

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Any tips for focusing on schoolwork? The quarter ends next week for me and I have 12 missing assignments but I can’t just sit down and do it smh. My meds don’t do shit to help me so I basically run on caffine and Doritos

I was planning on making a longer and more detailed post about this since I struggled with the exact same thing last semester but I’ll do a quick one since you’re in a hurry!

-Ask a university student with ADHD

How to overcome executive dysfunction and just get it done!

A quick overview for the stressed and depressed ADHD student

All strategies mentioned are ones I have tried during a very stressful period in my life and I can happily announce that I succsessfully passed all my re-exams!

1. Study at the library or a similarily quiet place, by no means attempt to study at home or god forbid a café you’ll regret it.

Studying at the library takes so much less effort and energy than studying at home or in s noisy café, save your precious energy for focusing on your work instead of trying to avoid distraction

Libraries are great and full of people who are also studying which will help you feel more motivated!

2. Get rid of your phone 📱

This one ☝🏻 oh boy, it was a game changer, I know you think you may have the discipline not to get distracted but it makes a world of difference

Put your phone in a seperate room on silent if you can, this is the most effective way.

If not, put it at the bottom of your bag and make it as hard as possible to find

Use wireless headphones 🎧 for music so you don’t have to keep your phone within arms reach

3. Write down exactly what you’re doing and divide into small easily doable tasks

Part of the struggle is not knowing what to do, or the task feeling too big and too hard. Write down the task in steps, as many as you need, as simple as you can. Break them down to the smallest and most easily done bits until you feel like you can handle them.

Example: For uni last semester I had 3 smaller tests per week apart from the usual exams. We had to translate between 1500-3000 words every two days on our own and during lectures We’d do a quick 15 min test based on what we’d read that would affect our final grade.

”Translate 2000 words” sounds like a lot so the way I did it was that I put the text into a word file and dived it into seperate paragraphs

I’d end up with 10-12 paragraphs and that would be my focus

So if I had two days to translate, I’d translate 6/12 paragraphs the first day and the remaining 6 the next day

It feels much easier than sitting with a document of seemingly endless work. Because we can have a hard time planning and looking ahead, it helps to give yourself some structure

4. Check off and visualize finished tasks to boost motivation ✅

Again, using last semester as an example

The way I did it is something I call:

The heart strategy❤️

At this time I was obsessed with Zelda games and I randomly drew a little heart in my planner while thinking of Zelda and thought ”huh, what if I used ”video game hearts” as a representation for my own work?” And I have been doing it religously since.

The way I did it was I drew 12 hearts in my planner in a line like this, seperating them with a line in the middle.

🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍 | 🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍

When I finished translating a paragraph I would fill a heart with a bright pink pen because I love pink💗 It was almost like a reward and it made me more motivated to keep going, it also provided a visual to let me know how much work I had gotten done and how much was left

So when my planner looked like this:

💗💗💗💗💗🤍| 🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍

It would motivate me because it meant I was almost finished for the day and I knew that I had completed half of the task already.

5. Wireless noise cancelling headphones 🎧 + ADHD friendly music

Noice cancelling keeps you from getting distracted by 🗣🎶👏🏻✍🏻👣

Wireless is just amazing in general but it also keeps you away from your phone which will often distract you even when you’re trying hard. Some models allow you to even change songs without touching your phone, which is super helpful

Make a list of music or find good mixes on youtube/Spotify that are not distracting 🎶 They can be motivational and upbeat or slow and relaxing, whatever helps you the most

I have a ”Motivational study songs” list with a lot of upbeat high tempo songs that are about reaching your goals, a mix of rock, pop, Disney and musical songs

Never gonna give you up by Rick Astley is the perfect ADHD study song idk why but it just works wonders for me

But some days the upbeat music is just too distracting so then I put on classical music (mostly Tchaikovsky) or a lofi youtube video. Changing up music is good since your ADHD brain will get bored of the same thing easily

There are also quiet and very aestethic ”☕️study with me 📖” videos on youtube that are like 2 hour long where a person just sits quietly and studies

they can be great because it makes you feel like you have a study buddy but they wont distract you by talking 🙊 as long as you don’t get distracted by them

That’s all for this post! BELIEVE ME i tried SOOO hard to keep it short and it was a lot longer at first i’m sorry if it’s a lot to read🙈

I hope some of this is at least somewhat helpful. Thank you for reading and good luck with your studies!💗

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jens-chapter · 5 years ago

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Masterpost of ADHD Coping Things I Learned to Do In College

Both as a resource for other people and a reminder to myself of habits to pick back up as I’m going into a Ph.D. program this fall.

This can all help cheat the executive function and focus challenges that trip up ADHD people in school and at work.

Here’s the short list of tips. They’re all explained and elaborated on after the cut!

Manage energy, not time

Treat motivation like inertia

Diversify productivity time

Use baby stimuli while studying

Learn the brain’s quirks

Maintain yourself and your environment

Keep tasks small

Exploit impulsivity

Don’t memorize, use

Keep reading

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jens-chapter · 5 years ago

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Adhd symptoms no one talks about:

I cant finish cleaning my room because I can’t organize my desk because I haven’t organized my vanity because I cant organize my vanity because I haven’t organized my closet drawers because I cant organize my closet drawers until I organize my nightstand and I cant do that until I GET A NIGHTSTAND because the space between my really heavy bookshelf full of books and the space between my bed is abnormally narrow BUT TONIGHT WHILE I WAS AT ROSS I found the perfect nightstand so now I can go home and put all the stuff thats supposed to go on and under my nightstand on and under my nightstand and then I can organize the space next to my bed, then I can organize the closet drawers, then im at another impasse because I still need the proper vanity organizational materials; but we have made some achievements tonight boys

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jens-chapter · 5 years ago

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I’m slowly getting back into writing and this was my first piece in a long time. I used the idea to use a story you know and write it from a different characters POV.

So here I introduce to you “The Peach Scene,” from Call me by your name, in Oliver’s POV. I’m happy to receive any comments or criticism if you read it, it’s about a 5 minute read.

https://my.w.tt/Oyxjc26mwab

Love you all!