@Kestrel said in ADD/ADHD/Etc:

does anyone feel like their ADHD might’ve gotten worse over time, in particular in any part due to their online habits? I feel this way, and I’ve been thinking lately on ways I should maybe try to undo the damage.

Opening this with the context that: I don’t see it as ‘damage’, just a drift in priorities / framing / opportunities in which to place attention.

Focus is not infinite, and the capacity for holding multiple threads effectively can be lessened when one has ADD/HD. All the ‘free’ space that can be filled up as an adolescent with reading is pretty much effectively exhausted by all the little and not so little responsibilities of being an adult. Even in our downtime, the impact of having ‘so many things on the go’ - relationships, bills, projects, jobs, obligations - even if they’re on the back-burner, can take up cognitive bandwidth. Zap that focus.

So really it’s no personal failing, if someone has trouble keeping focused on the page.

The wider world’s sort of been designed - horribly - to syphon off attention as much as possible. It generates a lot of capital that way for itself, at least in the short term. We’re just left with the shit end of the stick, because ADHD further complicates that individual capacity to keep engaged -and- disengage with focus. Prioritise, and all that.

Mindfulness is not for everyone, neither is meditation or ‘no mind’ techniques so I won’t talk about that. But… One thing which has helped me, is thinking of the environment I’m doing whatever things – personal or professional – and trying to optimise the design of its layout and how I use it; ‘is this functional, is this comfortable, is this contributing to doing what I want without interruption’.

If I’m reading, my phone and laptop are out of hands reach. People are told not to bother me unless someone is on fire. I keep a notebook and sticky-tabs for annotation and jotting random thoughts. I put on a very specifically non-lyrical playlist, which helps me ‘keep time’ and quiets background brain noise with music/a beat, so I can just take in whatever’s on the page and process. If I want/need there to be an actual timeframe, 30m hourglass is a silent and casual visual indicator - it’s also rather good, if the pomodoro technique is being used to fit in reading (or whatever hobby) – and it can be good to release the pressure/obligation of any ‘big set task’, just by being like: ‘I will read for five minutes / two pages / whatever’. A nice trick (and all my coping mechanisms feel like tricks), because I can commit to five minutes and then oh look at that: it’s been two hours and what a wonderful book this is.

So yeah. ADD/HD can get worse, but from my perspective it’s a matter of external pressures / stress of existing, lessening the capacity to hold multiple threads or not become derailed by obligations – so not that I am getting worse, but just that the demands of life are irritating and constant. Old techniques of managing stuff might no longer hit like they used to, and new ones might need developing. But…

There’s pretty much always room for change. It doesn’t mean that change can be implemented smoothly or it will be particularly pleasant - but if one understands what their actual underlying priorities are (‘I want to do X because Y because I value Z’), it can help move things along.

@Noraaa said in MU Peeves Thread:

It feels like I’m in some sort of sitcom or something.

This drives me bonkers as well, which is absurd in itself since… it’s just people walking through a door, yet the visual of person after person doing the same thing is so irksome.

Similar as when an event or scene starts, and players go through the process of their PCs saying hello and greeting one another with little further context. How many minutes and rounds of poses over however many scenes will just become devoted to placid greetings instead of like, story or development or anything else? No. I just cannot.

Which is a convoluted way of saying: I’ve a preference for scenes that start within action already set/agreed as taking place - everybody already being somewhere, doing some thing in proximity, and/or picking up their conversation or whatever; no need for tedious pleasantries and introductions - because the stream of characters all walking through a door en masse and saying ‘hey!’ just tires me out.

@Kestrel said in ADD/ADHD/Etc:

does anyone feel like their ADHD might’ve gotten worse over time, in particular in any part due to their online habits? I feel this way, and I’ve been thinking lately on ways I should maybe try to undo the damage.

Opening this with the context that: I don’t see it as ‘damage’, just a drift in priorities / framing / opportunities in which to place attention.

Focus is not infinite, and the capacity for holding multiple threads effectively can be lessened when one has ADD/HD. All the ‘free’ space that can be filled up as an adolescent with reading is pretty much effectively exhausted by all the little and not so little responsibilities of being an adult. Even in our downtime, the impact of having ‘so many things on the go’ - relationships, bills, projects, jobs, obligations - even if they’re on the back-burner, can take up cognitive bandwidth. Zap that focus.

So really it’s no personal failing, if someone has trouble keeping focused on the page.

The wider world’s sort of been designed - horribly - to syphon off attention as much as possible. It generates a lot of capital that way for itself, at least in the short term. We’re just left with the shit end of the stick, because ADHD further complicates that individual capacity to keep engaged -and- disengage with focus. Prioritise, and all that.

Mindfulness is not for everyone, neither is meditation or ‘no mind’ techniques so I won’t talk about that. But… One thing which has helped me, is thinking of the environment I’m doing whatever things – personal or professional – and trying to optimise the design of its layout and how I use it; ‘is this functional, is this comfortable, is this contributing to doing what I want without interruption’.

If I’m reading, my phone and laptop are out of hands reach. People are told not to bother me unless someone is on fire. I keep a notebook and sticky-tabs for annotation and jotting random thoughts. I put on a very specifically non-lyrical playlist, which helps me ‘keep time’ and quiets background brain noise with music/a beat, so I can just take in whatever’s on the page and process. If I want/need there to be an actual timeframe, 30m hourglass is a silent and casual visual indicator - it’s also rather good, if the pomodoro technique is being used to fit in reading (or whatever hobby) – and it can be good to release the pressure/obligation of any ‘big set task’, just by being like: ‘I will read for five minutes / two pages / whatever’. A nice trick (and all my coping mechanisms feel like tricks), because I can commit to five minutes and then oh look at that: it’s been two hours and what a wonderful book this is.

So yeah. ADD/HD can get worse, but from my perspective it’s a matter of external pressures / stress of existing, lessening the capacity to hold multiple threads or not become derailed by obligations – so not that I am getting worse, but just that the demands of life are irritating and constant. Old techniques of managing stuff might no longer hit like they used to, and new ones might need developing. But…

There’s pretty much always room for change. It doesn’t mean that change can be implemented smoothly or it will be particularly pleasant - but if one understands what their actual underlying priorities are (‘I want to do X because Y because I value Z’), it can help move things along.

@Noraaa said in MU Peeves Thread:

It feels like I’m in some sort of sitcom or something.

This drives me bonkers as well, which is absurd in itself since… it’s just people walking through a door, yet the visual of person after person doing the same thing is so irksome.

Similar as when an event or scene starts, and players go through the process of their PCs saying hello and greeting one another with little further context. How many minutes and rounds of poses over however many scenes will just become devoted to placid greetings instead of like, story or development or anything else? No. I just cannot.

Which is a convoluted way of saying: I’ve a preference for scenes that start within action already set/agreed as taking place - everybody already being somewhere, doing some thing in proximity, and/or picking up their conversation or whatever; no need for tedious pleasantries and introductions - because the stream of characters all walking through a door en masse and saying ‘hey!’ just tires me out.