theriverwithoutend53

[theriverwithoutend53]

As someone who was dignosed with ADHD late in life, here are some of the coping mechanisms i used in my school life to help me focus and how i implrmented them:

-First off try to get along with your teachers. Im not daying be a teachers pet but more like a type of friendship (they are more likely to listen to your input and help you in any way they can)

- Second is gum. Throughout school i noticed i talk A LOT so after chewing up about 15 pens in 2 years i understood if i kept my mouth busy by chewing i would talk less and focus more so i rnded up carrying a secret gum stash in my bag, blazer and pencil case.

-Music. Here is where the whole good kid thing comes in. Usually after we get our lesson for the period i woulf put in one earphone to listen to music while doing my work.

-Routine. I usually enjoy a routine in specific classes. I usually always sit at the dame desk(desk arent really assigned to us we can sit where we wanted) but i usually picked one desk and stayed there, unless there us a serious reason to move.

-Colors. Coming to the routine part i usually made my workbooks interesting and colorful since i am a visual learner. Printed pictures, pastel highlighters, colorful pens you name it. I basically made my school work books into scrapbooks and my teachers and even principal loved it and it made me study better.

-Sports and cultural activities. I am not really athletic in a traditional sense, however i did play hockey but after i got hit with pneumonia i stopped and joined choir. Something to help your mind relax and keeps you a little bit social and off of my phone and away from my books. It really helped me to develop time management as well.

-another thung i enjoyed was homemade food. Where i live we didn't have a cafeteria, we had a small shop to buy stuff when it was break time, however i liked to bring some homemade lunches because they have what i wanted. bell pepper sandwich (basically you hollow out a bell pepper and stuff it with cheese, ham and uf you wanna be fancy some bacon instead) and a tiny flask of tea. Water is also a must.

-have a codeword system with your friends or teacher. I got immense ADHD burnout and dissociation spells in highschool so when i felt like that on some days i would give my friends a codeword on what is happening. There were 7 in total. Three for burnout specifically and the severity, 3 for dissociation specifically and severity and 1 for both. It helped a lot.

-skip out on coffee. I love a good more sugar than coffee coffee but i can admit that it messed me up when it was exam season so i opted for either matcha, normal rooibos tea or hot chocolate.

-use vitamins. I used these strawberry flavoured omega 3 oil chews and another vitamin a lot. It helped somewhat and kept me healthy so i didnt get sick that much(but when u fid get sick it was a bitch)

- Body-doubling. Before i knew there was a term for thus and WTF it actually is, i enjoyef to body double with my parents. My dad would play games, my mom woulf be lying in the couch with her phone and i would be sitting on the other couch with either my phone or a book.

-sleep. I am a snoozer. In free periods i will take any opportunity to sleep. This is also great when you have awesome friends because when it rains in winter, we usually stay in class for break so we usually go to the warmest classes to take a nap in (computer class, the dance studios bc they had unsolated wooden floors, or the drama classes bc the windows were covered and it was carpet floors) so we all would just sleep in a nuce puppy pile until its time for class or break is over.

I hope this helped some people out a bit. This may not work for everyone but it has worked for me and maybe can for a few others.