#ADHDammit

[ladytemeraire]

My number 1 travel tip, especially if you travel with any regularity and DOUBLE especially if you have ADHD:

Refill your toiletries and travel supplies as soon as you get home from a trip.

If the same night is too much (totally get it, I've had some business trips where I don't get home until midnight or later), at least stick it in the bathroom for you to refill in the next few days. As soon as they're refilled, store them by your suitcase or duffel bag or whatever traveling things you use. For me, the list of things to check/refill looks like:

Shampoo

Conditioner

Body wash

Deep conditioner/detangler (I mix these in one bottle since I use about a 1:1 ratio)

Makeup remover

Lotion

Any other hair products (YMMV)

Any other skincare products (YMMV)

Any makeup like loose powder that you decant into travel containers

Cotton pads and cotton swabs

I have a set of 3 sizes of suitcases that nest inside each other, and I store all my travel supplies and packing cubes inside the smallest one (or right next to the suitcases in a cabinet) so it's right there the next time I'm packing for a trip.

Additional travel tips:

If you need to replace anything you can't immediately refill (such as shaving cream, toothpaste, or other toiletries in squeeze tubes/spray cans) or replace anything that tore/broke/got lost (such as a packing cube or a hair wrap), add that to your shopping list for the next trip so you replace it ASAP.

I recommend immediately laundering things like silk bonnets, TurbiTowels/other hair wrap towels, etc and stashing them with your travel supplies ASAP, so you know they're clean and ready to go when you're packing next time.

Things like meds/supplements/vitamins, pantiliners, period supplies, contacts, etc I will pack for the specific trip depending on trip length (e.g. 2 day work trip vs 7 day Christmas-to-New-Year's-with-family), so I don't refill those until I'm actively packing for a trip. That said, I still stash their storage container with the rest of my travel supplies so I don't have to go hunting for it when the time comes.

If you only travel 1-2 times per year (say, around the November/December holidays) and you're worried about things expiring before the next trip, that's totally valid! Don't refill it if it expires in 3 months! Instead, I recommend setting a calendar reminder/alarm on your phone for a week or two ahead of your regular holiday travel to get your refills in order. There's nothing more stressful than being in the thick of packing and realizing you only have one day's worth of shampoo for a five day trip and not enough in your home supply to refill it. Save yourself the stress!

The minute you KNOW you're going to travel on a certain day (e.g. your boss says "we need you to leave Wednesday", or a family member dies and you find out you need to leave this Friday), set an alarm/calendar reminder for a day or two before you know you have to leave to charge any travel items and/or replace any batteries. Thinking specifically of things like electric toothbrushes, waterpiks, electric razors, computer keyboards/mice, etc.

If there's something you use both at home and traveling and you always seem to forget or overlook it? Consider purchasing a second one of that item. I consider this part of my ADHD tax. I have two silk bonnets, two TurbiTowels, two charging/USB docks that plug into the wall, a smaller travel keyboard in addition to my full sized one at home, and a travel toothbrush and waterpik in addition to my home versions. I recognize this takes a certain amount of financial security and privilege, YMMV. That said, the cost of buying a second one dedicated for travel (either up front or in a sale if you can wait and stalk deals) is, to me, far less than the stress and aggravation of not having the thing while traveling, or having to wrangle a full sized thing instead of a travel sized thing.

Questions? Thoughts? Want recommendations? Drop them in the reblogs and comments! I'm always interested in other people's systems and I love to find ways to make things more efficient!

[silverserpent]

You know how executive dysfunction can stop you from so many things?

I've been here sitting in front of my laptop for a long ass time and I told myself to go to bed more than half an hour ago. and I don't really want to stay awake?

also, guess what it stopped me from earlier. Guess. What.

GETTING ICE CREAM

that's like, the definition of thing I do for fun! Ice cream is because I want it! but noooo no ice cream for you, just sitting and thinking about how it would be nice to get ice cream

[human-enrichment]

Friend: You shouldn’t beat yourself up.

Me, to my brain: THE BEATINGS WILL CONTINUE UNTIL ANXIETY IMPROVES.

[mayra-quijotescx]

nobody: absolutely no one: me, 0.5 seconds after hitting submit on a form I first reread five times: wait uh. can i look at it again i'm. not sure i spelled my name right

[electricpentacle]

If I say "Oh wow, I missed you! I haven't seen you in aaaaages!" that could mean we last talked 15 years ago, or last Wednesday. It was not today, or yesterday, so it happened in The Past, and all The Past is aaaaages ago.

[ladytemeraire]

RSD is such bullshit and it doesn't have to even be actual criticism that triggers it. Tell me why if I find something cool and share it with someone and get "I didn't really get anything out of it" it feels like being stabbed.

It's a reflection on them! Not on me! But it still makes me want to crawl in a hole and die! Why are brains!!!

[silverserpent]

So I am sleepy. I found a post I wanted to append something to. And when I try to remember it, I get something like "it felt like the a smooth rock in a clear stream on my tongue"

My brain comes up with very hinged stuff

[mayra-quijotescx]

ok, I figured out how to fool my brain into keeping up with a day planner (spend a total of many hours making your own in a blank notebook and let that sunk cost carry you home), now I gotta figure out how to Make Myself Keep Up With Skills That Require Maintenance

like I'll emerge from The Depression and be like OH YEAH I wanna GET BUFF and BUILD SPICE TOLERANCE and PARLARE L'ITALIANO and LEARN TO ROW A FUCKIN' BOAT* or some shit YEAH

but I just got the spark back after like a week or two of effectively laying around waiting for death in between work or sleep, and my joints are mad and the hand weights feel heavier than they did a week and a half ago and my tongue doesn't remember that chili powder isn't literally fire e non posso fare le belle parole and uhhh i never actually started on the whole boat-rowing thing

and so I feel like I have to start over : ) and then by the time I make a little progress I'm back in the shit again

so I have to figure out basically a similar 'let this logical fallacy work for you so you can work on you' exploit like I did with the day planner, for stuff I have to do like... every few days.

-

*i live in a place that was once a swamp, got a billion shittons of concrete poured over top of it, and remembers its swampy glory days and tries to return to them every time more than three raindrops fall in the same place. And it rains a lot more than it did

[butchfemanifold]

just come out of an adhd hyperfixation -10 HP immediately

[townofcadence]

I finished the last art piece last night, and I can write again! I'll be working on drafts and maybe reblogging some new starter memes for anyone new (though the old ones don't expire either if one catches your fancy!) ^^

[anonnymaus-author]

This worldwide adderall shortage is such fucking bullshit, I swear to god. My pharmacy gave me ten pills for my script cause it was all they had, and Im grateful, but at the same time Im just.. I wonder if abled's ever consider shit like this happening to them, sometimes. Like what would they do if they had to ration their executive function and ability to think without brain fog or even focus? I dont just mean on work but also things they like.

I dont go through withdrawel from my adderall xr like I do my venlafexine (god, now THERE is a miserable mess) but if I go off my daily dose My sleep schedule gets FUCKED. I'll basically sleep for two whole days with maybe a couple of hours awake (which is apparently a withdrawel symptom from going off stimulants) and then BAM

Suddenly I cant sleep at night or stay awake during the day, and Im only sleeping in two to three hour increments. I could drink all the coffee and espresso in the world and it wouldnt help me stay awake more than a few hours, although it COULD set off a panic attack. Its even worse if you consider that I take generic because I dont have insurance and name brand is ungodly expensive.

I dont know. This is just me being frustrated with the world right now, I guess.

[the-qalankhais-sweetheart]

This...okay. These are new suggestions. I will try them.

By the way, you can improve your executive function. You can literally build it like a muscle.

Yes, even if you're neurodivergent. I don't have ADHD, but it is allegedly a thing with ADHD as well. And I am autistic, and after a bunch of nerve damage (severe enough that I was basically housebound for 6 months), I had to completely rebuild my ability to get my brain to Do Things from what felt like nearly scratch.

This is specifically from ADDitude magazine, so written specifically for ADHD (and while focused in large part on kids, also definitely includes adults and adult activities):

Here's a link on this for autism (though as an editor wow did that title need an editor lol):

Resources on this aren't great because they're mainly aimed at neurotypical therapists or parents of neurdivergent children. There's worksheets you can do that help a lot too or thought work you can do to sort of build the neuro-infrastructure for tasks.

But a lot of the stuff is just like. fun. Pulling from both the first article and my own experience:

Play games or video games where you have to make a lot of decisions. Literally go make a ton of picrews or do online dress-up dolls if you like. It helped me.

Art, especially forms of art that require patience, planning ahead, or in contrast improvisation

Listening to longform storytelling without visuals, e.g. just listening regularly to audiobooks or narrative podcasts, etc.

Meditation

Martial arts

Sports in general

Board games like chess or Catan (I actually found a big list of what board games are good for building what executive functioning skills here)

Woodworking

Cooking

If you're bad at time management play games or video games with a bunch of timers

Things can be easier. You do not have to be stuck forever.

[grosutina]

Biggest dick energy is pulling off a feat of absolute god tier boolean arithmetic to solve an incredibly stupidly complex problem in just two if statements literally live, on a call, out of my ass, and then immediately crying about my one overclocked braincell, getting off the call, and going back to the fourth week in a row of Not Fucking Doing The Easy Part Of Writing Documentation For This Shit God They're This Close To Riding My Ass About It And I Can't Fucking Start

[sokkatheboomerangbender]

HOW am I still this unfocused I took a 10mg adderall and I chugged a coffee and im in an academic setting brain please please please let me do my work AHHHHHHH

[ladytemeraire]

So you know how time blindness is A Thing when you have ADHD

It genuinely just clicked with me that this is probably a huge part of why I struggle to estimate how long things will take or when I'll have something done by, when people ask for deliverables at work

I was literally just talking about this in my peer review a week or so ago, how people will ask when I'll have something done and my kneejerk reaction is "hell if I know" but obviously I can't say that

And yeah, some of it is experience based, I may have only done this task once or twice previously with a completely different sample size and that may provide the most accurate estimate; but it's not me being a bad engineer! It's my freaking brain existing in limbo because time isn't real!

Anyway this is just more reason to practice my "Let me look at my priority list and get back to you after this meeting" responses, as well as a reason to work on giving myself buffer to actually get things done.

[electricpentacle]

I've had both, and they feel very, very different.

An interest is fun, absorbing, brightens life up a little bit. Like dating a fun new person.

A hyperfixation is like being stupidly, obsessively, YA novel in love, with a side order of addiction. It's the sweaty, hectic febrile excitement of teenage obsession when interacting with the target of the hyperfixation, and the gnawing cravings of really, really needing a cigarette when you're not. It'll interfere with your work. It'll make you lose sleep and skip meals. And it'll make you absolutely insufferable to talk to.

never should have let the Internet replace the words "obsession" "hobby" and "interest" with "hyperfixation" tbh