(no subject)
Hello, Livejournal. It's been a while, yeah? Yeah. I've kinda been dispersing everything to Twitter, which isn't exactly the best possible outlet for my more rambly thoughts and general life updates.
I have been reading The Everything Health Guide to Adult ADD/ADHD by Carole Jacobs and Isadore Wendel. It differs from the previous books on the subject by being less "Hey guys, so, there's this childhood condition called ADD which is why your children are so crazy and can't pay attention to anything!" and more "ADHD is a well established but surprisingly complex condition, here is a breakdown of issues and solutions"
My method of dealing with ADD has been basically ignoring it. I remember going on Ritalin back in highschool, but I do not recall it doing anything for me. In fact, i remember deciding that it did nothing for me, and stopped taking it on my own. I can't even remember how long I was on it, either how long I had it prescribed OR how long I actually took it. Despite it working for my sister, I for some reason didn't really give it a chance for me. After high school, I downplayed it every chance I got, basically forgetting that I had it. Whenever my inadequacies surfaced, I'd give some nebulous "That's how I am :| "rationale, instead of simply blaming ADD. Which is GOOD to an extent, not relying on my condition as a crutch, but it also means that I never developed any ways of really DEALING with my condition.
One of my issues has been having difficulty switching brain modes. When I'm at Work I'm in a hyperfocused super intense UberWorker mode, where I rock the pants off shit. When I'm at School, I'm in a somewhat less focused but still fairly attentive Skool mode (well, as long as it's not TOO much sitting still taking notes. Um. Ok, no, I'm bad at that) SCRATCH THAT do-over WHEN THERE ARE PROJECTS OR ACTIVE INVOLVEMENT activities in class, I am a hyperfocused super intense UberStudent.
Everything kinda crumbles when i get home. I sit down to relax and recharge, and then it's hours later suddenly. Forcing myself to do homework or chores becomes a horrible process that leaves me extremely open to distraction. It was about all I could do to force myself to do the homework for my one or two classes before succumbing to distraction, there is no way I could have managed a full student workload. Part of the problem is my setup: My computer is both my work machine and my relax machine. The blending of the two makes it SO hard to focus.
One thing the book brings to light is the need for discrete areas of focus. I need a whole separate area for work, study, projects or I am doomed to wander off and do other things. Hence the desk project! I am building an awesome office desk for the second room, which will house the lil server computer as my Office Machine. There will go the printer, scanner, drafting tools and drawing supplies, all that productivity gear. Also will be my woodshop! I've got all the lumber and most of the tools switched over, looking good. I will soon have an actual OFFICE! And I can then finish cleaning and organizing, but it's hard because I keep getting DISTRACTED.
Oddly enough, turning off the computer and playing CDs seems to help focus better than streaming audio from the computer, because it's so easy to dart back to the machine and goof off.
This journal entry has become incredibly rambly, raise your hand if you are surprised. Anyone? No? Good. Then godnight!
I have been reading The Everything Health Guide to Adult ADD/ADHD by Carole Jacobs and Isadore Wendel. It differs from the previous books on the subject by being less "Hey guys, so, there's this childhood condition called ADD which is why your children are so crazy and can't pay attention to anything!" and more "ADHD is a well established but surprisingly complex condition, here is a breakdown of issues and solutions"
My method of dealing with ADD has been basically ignoring it. I remember going on Ritalin back in highschool, but I do not recall it doing anything for me. In fact, i remember deciding that it did nothing for me, and stopped taking it on my own. I can't even remember how long I was on it, either how long I had it prescribed OR how long I actually took it. Despite it working for my sister, I for some reason didn't really give it a chance for me. After high school, I downplayed it every chance I got, basically forgetting that I had it. Whenever my inadequacies surfaced, I'd give some nebulous "That's how I am :| "rationale, instead of simply blaming ADD. Which is GOOD to an extent, not relying on my condition as a crutch, but it also means that I never developed any ways of really DEALING with my condition.
One of my issues has been having difficulty switching brain modes. When I'm at Work I'm in a hyperfocused super intense UberWorker mode, where I rock the pants off shit. When I'm at School, I'm in a somewhat less focused but still fairly attentive Skool mode (well, as long as it's not TOO much sitting still taking notes. Um. Ok, no, I'm bad at that) SCRATCH THAT do-over WHEN THERE ARE PROJECTS OR ACTIVE INVOLVEMENT activities in class, I am a hyperfocused super intense UberStudent.
Everything kinda crumbles when i get home. I sit down to relax and recharge, and then it's hours later suddenly. Forcing myself to do homework or chores becomes a horrible process that leaves me extremely open to distraction. It was about all I could do to force myself to do the homework for my one or two classes before succumbing to distraction, there is no way I could have managed a full student workload. Part of the problem is my setup: My computer is both my work machine and my relax machine. The blending of the two makes it SO hard to focus.
One thing the book brings to light is the need for discrete areas of focus. I need a whole separate area for work, study, projects or I am doomed to wander off and do other things. Hence the desk project! I am building an awesome office desk for the second room, which will house the lil server computer as my Office Machine. There will go the printer, scanner, drafting tools and drawing supplies, all that productivity gear. Also will be my woodshop! I've got all the lumber and most of the tools switched over, looking good. I will soon have an actual OFFICE! And I can then finish cleaning and organizing, but it's hard because I keep getting DISTRACTED.
Oddly enough, turning off the computer and playing CDs seems to help focus better than streaming audio from the computer, because it's so easy to dart back to the machine and goof off.
This journal entry has become incredibly rambly, raise your hand if you are surprised. Anyone? No? Good. Then godnight!