Hi, I wanted to share Cake Timer here as it might be helpful.

It’s a focus timer I made for studying. In it's core its a circle that represents 24 hours (noon is at the bottom). At midnight the circle is completed and a new cicle starts growing. Logging work sessions create green arcs, so by the end of the day you get a “cake diagram” of your activity. To me its very powerful psichologically, since it visualizes time always running, and when you are not focused the time is clearly wasted.

Features: session tags, daily/weekly/monthly stats, streaks, and a simple to-do list. All data is stored locally in your browser. It's Open source I started it 6 years ago (during the COVID lockdown) and have been improving it ever since.

Website: https://jakobkreft.github.io/CakeTimer

Thanks for your feedback!

So I found an app a few years ago that has helped me a lot. There are a few around, but the one that has helped me is Habitica. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s an app that gamifies chores. You get xp and levels and equipment and shit when you check off chores. As you do more and more chores, the xp adds up and you level up. I am currently level 55. It has helped me a lot. I get SEVERE executive dysfunction. So having something I can see and almost feel as a reward is good. I love seeing my level go up.

It’s at Habitica.com. I’m not being paid by Habitica to say this. I just thought yall might get some benefit out of it. It has the added benefit of being open source :)

Does anyone actually find video games boring and a waste of time? And by extension gamification of anything is not a motivating drive? Every ADHD advice usually centres around some form of gamified strategy but to me this is flawed. How do you manage dopamine without it being gamified?

It’s very rare that I can find myself engaging with any video games these days and it’s usually down to a few reasons:

• The gameplay is something that I recognise the mechanics of and feel like I’m playing something I’ve already played and once I recognise it there’s little reason to continue. Completion or challenge of the game is not a motivating factor to stick with it.

• I have so many things that I need to be doing that I can’t even do and anything not on the list and video gaming is a waste of that time that could be going to literally anything else.

• Narratives in games are… not that interesting. I usually find the balance between interactivity and story always off and any gameplay is either boring or the narrative is boring so one is always cancelling the other out, so “engaging” with a story is cumbersome and at that point I may as well watch a passive form of media.

• Online multiplayer is rarely fun as I have little time to invest in being any good at a game to the level I can enjoy it. Usually the enjoyment comes from making other people’s lives miserable by beating them.

Oh and forget about achievements, they are just a bunch of todo items that I can’t process at all as they are either micro indicators of progress in the game and useless eg. You do literally nothing aside from play the game as intended and you get some achievement. Or it’s some ridiculous set of tasks that I get task paralysis by which in the end there’s zero reward for accomplishing so why bother.

What the fuck? I had a serious allergic reaction to ritalin (hives and throat closing up)

And now Im afraid that any amphetamine will kill me 🥲

Atomoxetine it is 💪

I’m in kind of a weird situation. I’m past my 40’s, and a close younger relative of mine got diagnosed with ADHD and I was talking with their psych and she said “uh it’s pretty clear you have this too., and you’ve been masking.”

So I was already seeing a psychiatrist, for anxiety, paying out of pocket because I didn’t want people in my profession or the health insurance company to know.

I told my own psych about the ADHD idea and she started prescribing stimulant meds to see if it helps.

It’s been amazing. My anxiety has practically melted away and just everything has gotten better for me.

Should I get diagnosed officially now?

On one hand I like the privacy.

On the other hand, my current psychiatrist might retire soon, and also if I have to change jobs, I think I’m required to list any pre-existing conditions.

I’d really like to hear other people’s experiences either way.

Hey y'all!

I'm trying to add more tools to my arsenal to just quiet down and ground myself, and make it easier to start and stay in meditation.

I find that Andean pan flute and such has really helped me in the past, but I can't find any good albums/playlist or songs anymore. Leo Rojas has some nice tunes, but also some way too active ones.

An example of something that really makes me melt is the beginning of this instrumental:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ijw86VcE4f8

Just waves, no unnecessary stuff at the side with a different tempo or volume, etc.

But this thread isn't just about me! Please feel free to share what music helps you to ground, relax and find calm. I'm sure it can be useful for other folx browsing. :)

Thank you!

I was diagnosed 20 years ago. I joined this forum and was astonished when I saw a post entitled "what kind of earplugs do you have?" I thought "wait, you all have ear plugs too?" My point is that when I was diagnosed, we didn't know all these things about ADHD (auditory sensitivities, etc). I used to flip shit and get angry immediately when I heard leaf blowers. Certain sounds would send me over the edge when I was younger. I am also finding out about a correlation between ADHD and rejection dysphoria. What book can I read to find out what else I don't know that's been discovered since 2005?

Also, I'm female, so I'm probably missing info about that too.

If someone of you have been following my posts, you'll know I said that i probably can't get stimulants due to a bad ticker. but i saw my GP yesterday, and while i was there, i asked her about whether my heart problem would stop me from being on stimulants, and she said no!

So hopefully when i see my psychiatrist, i will give him a copy of the holter monitor results, and hopefully he will be able to give me stimulants if he diagnoses me with ADHD!

How do they expect people who are suspected of having ADHD to do all this paperwork for the assessment?? it's like Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia being the fear of long words!!! WHO DECIDED THIS??

Experts weigh in on the phenomenon of 'task paralysis' and why it's so prevalent among people with ADHD.

I'm trying to learn more about the feeling that I'm not doing something right and that my priorities are wrong because I'm not considering the full picture.

It feels like I have something I need to do, but I don't know what it is, but it's gonna bite me in the ass when I realize it.

Do you all have any techniques or ways of thinking that help you evaluate where you actually stand in terms of doing all the things you need to do?

How do you go through your life and re-priorotize?

How do you feel confident in thinking I don't have to do anything right now? I can just rest or do what I want?

Am I overestimating just how much they will help me?

I have an assessment soon, and I am absolutely confident i have it, so if i get on ADHD meds, will they help me read books again? will they help me study? will they help me get back to work if able? How much do they help with executive dysfunction?

I feel as though I'm putting all my eggs in the ADHD meds basket.

How much do they help you?

I recently made a post in this community about how ADHD has caused me to lose a lot of relationships over the years through forgetting to stay in touch, and a lot of you guys resonated with the post (145 upvotes!)

I also mentioned how I used an app to help me resolve this issue and whilst it wasn't perfect it definitely helped me keep some close relationships. Well funnily enough, the founder of the app reached out to me and said that he was happy seeing his app was a solution to my problem and wanted me to let people know he has made it free for people to try now to help solve the problem even more.

For anyone who upvoted or just seen the post and related the app is called Kinly Connect and I would recommend

cross-posted from: https://piefed.social/c/comicstrips/p/1642354/side-projects

Not diagnosed with anything but struggle with executive functioning.

I have a thing where I challenge myself to do five small cleaning things any time I get up, usually when I’m doing something that has a lot of little natural stopping points where I usually take a break anyway (eg, moving to next chapter in book or completing a level.)

The small cleaning things can be throwing away a piece of trash, finding one thing to attack with a wet wipe, putting away one laundry item, etc. Anything that’s easy to put in discrete chunks. I don’t have a dishwasher so it is sometimes even just wash one dish.

The good thing is that I don’t feel bad when I go back to my game or book, and sometimes I keep going after I’ve met my quota of five things.

I also bought some wooden dice from the dollar store, and I’ll write some tasks that almost always need to be done on them. This helps when I am so overwhelmed that I can’t decide on doing laundry or dishes. I can roll to find something to focus on.

I genuinely care about my friends and family, but I forget to stay in touch and it makes me feel awful.

I’ll go weeks or months without reaching out, not because I don’t care, but because once someone is out of sight they’re out of mind. Then I remember randomly, feel guilty, and put it off again.

I’ve tried reminders, calendars, notes but nothing really sticks long-term. It’s especially frustrating because I do want to maintain these relationships, it's like my brain just doesn’t cooperate.

Recently I've found a mobile app that helps (after rummaging through the useless, overwhelming ones) but I’m curious does anyone else struggle with this? Have you found anything that actually helps, or is this just one of those ADHD things you learn to live with?

Edit: For everyone asking the app is called Kinly Connect

It hasn't been that much longer of a break for me (4 and a half day weekend), but new years doesn't usually have me going to several dinners like Christmas or Thanksgiving and I actually got some really good rest, but I'm extremely upset at the idea of going back to work, it doesn't help that I don't like my job, but I'm too the point that I want to breakdown and/or quit. I've had similar experiences in school, and I'm curious to see if others have this or just me

Does anyone else experience variation in what the effect of their meds feels like?

I've gradually increased my dose to 2 x 30 mg of slow release methylphenidat and have had a couple of days where I felt fantastic. Very focused but also calm and balanced. I had this very strong feeling of "really being myself" as in being able to use my full potential as a person.

Then I have some days where I barely notice anything and today I've mostly just felt jittery and a bit anxious. I can feel the stimulating effect on my body (higher heart rate) but without the mentally calming effect.