#Lol I got stuck rereading this post after I finished writing and my shower alarm went off so I'm gonna take it as a sign to go shower now.

[giantroboticplatypusbutt218]

Following this advice helps with ADHD too.

Most people know that ADHD is linked to a naturally low amount of dopamine in your system. What a lot of people may not know is that dopamine is less the 'pleasure' chemical and more the 'satisfaction' chemical. Yes, it's released when you eat food and get a good grade in social interaction, but it's also released when you beat up or run away from a perceived threat. It's your reward for doing something that keeps you alive, and it's your signal that you're done with whatever you were just doing.

The biggest problem people with ADHD (as well as anyone lacking in overall satisfaction) have is getting stuck doing things that repeatedly give you a quick but small boost of dopamine. Playing mobile games, watching TikTok videos, perusing Wikipedia (or is that one just me?), etc. Eventually you stop getting dopamine for doing the thing, but you just keep doing it anyway, because you remember getting a reward from it. The oasis has run dry but you keep scraping through the sand hoping you'll find more water eventually. It's empty. You have to leave before you lose the energy to escape.

Obviously, given that the chemical you're searching for is literally the chemical that tells you you're done with your current task, stopping whatever you're doing is really hard because you literally don't feel a reason to... so what do you do?

Well, first, as soon as you realize you're doing something that's no longer satisfying stop immediately, as though it will literally burn you if you don't. Close it like an impulse. Speedrun it. I often close 10 Wikipedia tabs at once in the middle of reading them. Next, bathe in the fact that you've done something good for yourself. It may have sucked to do but now you're awake and have the ability to choose something better.

Time for the next hardest part: Doing something better. That's where the post above comes into play. You don't need to start looking for clubs to join (for me that might just restart the doom researching) but think about something simple that you have been meaning to do but haven't and use the above list of rewarding activities for inspiration. I just picked up a pile of mail sitting on my dresser and put it in a box I had laying around. Then, I remembered the mail on my bookshelf and put that in there too. Then the mail in my desk. And so on.

Your goal is to start small and build up to doing things that are gradually more satisfying. Remember to focus on the fact you accomplished something, and not that the thing is finally done. More "yay, the mail is cleaned up" and less "ugh, took me long enough." My mail got put away as well as a bunch of loose receipts I had laying all over too. I was so happy that instead of mentioning that the above post applies to ADHD in the tags, I added it to a reblog to hopefully help anyone else in the same situation as me.

Maybe be a little cautious believing the science stuff I said behind dopamine since I'm not an expert, and after I looked through like 5 websites to verify my statements I realized I was doing the Wikipedia thing again and stopped, hence why I'm here typing this and not still looking into it. But please do consider taking this as a sign that if you're currently stuck doing something that isn't satisfying to stop and reconsider. I saw this post and put away my mail, and then I starting writing this, and after I'm done writing I might take a shower.

Summary: Complete something small; That thing can be getting yourself out of whatever repetitive thing you're stuck doing. Gradually complete larger goals using that list of rewarding activities as inspiration. Remember to focus on the satisfaction and don't scold yourself for not doing it sooner. You'll get better at all this over time, but don't feel bad when you get stuck again. Just start from the top and keep building up a momentum using the satisfaction you feel.

I think people get mixed up a lot about what is fun and what is rewarding. These are two very different kinds of pleasure. You need to be able to tell them apart because if you don't have a balanced diet of both then it will fuck you up, and I mean that in a "known cause of persistent clinical depression" kind of way.