Since Black Friday is here, I wanted to share some of the items available in my shop 😊
I design and make cute stickers, enamel pins and notepads. My goal is to make people who felt like the “misfit” kid seen and mainstream the marginalised. 🌈🥰
I was having an ok day, until someone said I was being annoying. :sadness:
Feel free to mute me, unfollow, or block me if the way I conduct myself on here is not to your taste. I welcome gentle correction if I'm behaving in a way that's hurtful or inconsiderate, but I don't tolerate rudeness or requests that I alter my behavior just because someone doesn't like how often they see my posts. There are plenty of people who are annoying and you can just...ignore them.
EXACTLY! I follow a lot of people, a lot of people follow me #humblebrag (lol, not really, but it's a lot to me) and most people are just dipping in here and there throughout the day. If someone boosts their own post, it's because they want more people to see it. They're not doing it specifically to annoy the people who already saw it. Just keep scrollin', chief. It's a big world if you let it be.
One of the problems with my #adhd brain is that it files any planning under "task accomplished"
So I can't really make a proper plan with bullet points, deadlines, roles and responsibilities because when I do that my brain goes "Right, this is done, time to move on to the next thing" and immediately loses all motivation to do whatever I've just planned
Please someone tell me how to undo this brain pathway or I'll have to improvise everything I'll ever do in my life until the day I die #today
@JoFloHK Can we switch half and half and you can have the anxiety that sits in my brain until something is completed? Maybe between the two of us we can make something beautiful lol
@RickiTarr I'm afraid I can't because that anxiety still lives in one far, dark, dusty corner of my brain the whole time.
Lurking. Waiting for the 10 days prior to the deadline, when all the work the plan had spread across several months needs to be done with immediacy and cortisol
Fellow #ADHD, #Autistic and #Disability folks, what are your thoughts on book summary apps like Blinkist and Headway?
I’m torn between feeling that it could be a good accessibility tool - but also notice a bit of ableist and allistic language in the advertising that puts me on guard.
KC Davis should be essential reading and viewing for anyone with ADHD or depression. They do such important work. They’ve written a book ‘How to keep house while drowning’ and posts videos on TikTok and IG (yes, I know, sucks but that’s where the audience is!).
Their main message is: unlearn the programming we’ve all had around cleanliness and morality. Stop beating yourself up. Hack your brain to do things in a way that is compassionate and actually useful.
Something that works for me: ‘body doubling’. I book a free appt on FocusMate.com and set my goal. “I want to print out my DMV paperwork” it pairs me with someone at a specific time. We get on at the same time, turn on the video briefly, say what we are doing, then go do the thing. Depending on the person you can turn off cam or leave it on. While I’m doing my DMV paperwork they’re like, doing taxes, or finishing an online training program or whatever they said they wanted to do. It helps!
Also, food for me is a major part of my life. If I eat poorly, my mental health deteriorates quickly, then I eat worse. Eating fresh and tasty good quality food is essential. But when I have ‘low spoons’ I suffer: food that’s heated from a box makes me sad (no judgement if that’s what works for you). Here’s a free cookbook for when you have ‘low or no spoons’: https://traumbooks.itch.io/the-sad-bastard-cookbook
Study comparing health and genetic differences in settled and nomadic groups of the #Ariaal of N. #Kenya. A mutation associating to #ADHD may be favourable for the nomads.
'In modern children diagnosed with ADHD, the genetic mutation generally correlates with restlessness and distractibility. And in those Ariaal children who had settled into sedentary Western behaviours, the gene was linked to poor health and distracted classroom behaviours. But in those Ariaal who still practised a traditional nomadic life, the gene mutation was linked to strength and better nutritional health.'
Cooperation, conflict management, social flexibility, and a restless willingness to leave a bad situation all seem like more relevant selection pressures.
🧵How to Come Back from the Dead: An #Autistic Chats with AI
Q: I'd like to ask a question about my own youtube channel.
Context: I am #autistic.
My work schedule is erratic.
I may produce effectively for a few weeks at a time...
But I may not be able to produce much for a few weeks. Sometimes up to 3 months.
Can you think of ways I might improve my channel knowing my restraints as a creator?
Please suggest 10 ways and feel free to be creative.
You can also be honest and open about your restraints as a creator, and explain why you may not be able to upload regularly or consistently.
Learn from other successful channels - Watch and study other YouTube channels that are similar to yours or that you admire, and see what they do well and what they can improve. This can help you learn from their strategies, techniques, mistakes, and successes.
If any of my friends here would like to semi-private chat...
This whole topic of needing help managing my production comes out of my recent illness... and frankly declining abilities as I age. Altho, I should have asked for help long ago.
But I had a realization that I've developed a marvelous machine... that I can't feed. Over 21,000 followers across Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Mastodon, My own blog, my podcast, YouTube channel, Medium and subStack.
I believe I could help so many folks. Consumers & fellow creators. Maybe pass on a legacy...
I can start another thread ("mentioned", semi-private) if anyone would like to kick around some ideas?
At this point, if you told me in 10 years that Adderall, Ritalin, Vyvanse, etc were actually banned and taken off the market Id believe you.
The amount of systems-based barriers to treatment of ADHD/narcolepsy is ONLY surpassed by the implicit & explicit harassment, judgment, hyperscrutiny, and obstinance observable in society at large but in the healthcare field in particular.
@hannu_ikonen Gotta be careful how I say this, to not draw false equivalencies - but it’s hard not to notice echoes of the transphobe discourse, in the way people talk about ADHD and the meds used to treat it. To be absolutely clear, no comparison in the danger and bigotry faced by trans people. But some of the arguments are strikingly similar.
@EmOiva@actuallyautistic
What I find interesting is that one of the things that guided meditations / "mindfulness" activities often encourage you to "be the observer" to look at what you are doing/experiencing from an external perspective.
Lemme get this straight, #BetterHelp helped themselves to $80 out of my account every month for several months while I dealt with undiagnosed #ADHD with no help from them (kinda hard to get treatment when you have to initiate all of the communication and you have raging ADHD). The US FTC sued them and all I get back is $9.70?
Good grief.
OH SNAP, they got sued for selling customer's data TO FACEBOOK. WOW! WHAT A PARAGON OF VIRTUE.
there's the kind of #ADHD where you go around doing all sorts of risky shit and then there's the kind where you're just a big daydreamer and messyhead. i belong to the latter category, so i'm fairly harmless like that. but also ineffective, because nothing ever gets done. i just get lost in my own thoughts.
#PSA: Tardive dyskinesia and akathisia are known side effects of certain meds, including some #ADHD meds. In my case, I start pursing and pressing my lips together and moving my tongue around in my mouth almost constantly, and it’s a sign that I need to take a break from my Focalin for a day or two. If you notice this happening to you or a loved one, talk to the prescribing doctor about options.
@wendynather I just googled serotonin syndrom and its symptoms. There's no way I wouldve been able to give a keynote under those circumstances. dang that sounds rough.
@deweyritten I was dehydrated and had muscle cramps every night. It’s one of those things that you need to know about if you’re taking SSRIs or SNRIs (or both).
🦋 If you struggle with ADHD or have your focus constantly ruined by a whirlwind of thoughts, then you probably use productivity tools that can help crush those distractions and give you some peace of mind.
Find out how you can say goodbye to those scattered thoughts by customizing the Vivaldi browser to work for your needs and preferences 👇🏻
@beardedtechguy Vivaldi has done a spectacular job just locking me into their browser. I use it for so much I don't even know where I'd begin with a different one. Another example is the Panel. As an admin of an instance, I spend a LOT of time here on Mastodon, and I'm constantly looking stuff up and taking notes. Something that I'm sure has been there forever and I never noticed is the ability to drag text from the active tab to a panel. Works AMAZINGLY for notes and translating.
What to do if you're 40 and you've realised you can't stand office work at all because you have #ADHD, but the only job experience you have is 13 years of being a software engineer?
Add to that the constraint that you can't go to school to re-educate yourself because school is just office work you don't get paid for?
What kind of job can you even get in that situation? I've been thinking about that for 4 years now and I don't have any good answers. 🤷♂️
EDIT: I did not respond well to medical ADHD treatment. Bad side effects. Many people get those, but it's not talked about much.
@thor Min bror blev av med arbetet som elektriker för många år sedan och när han hittade ett temporärt jobb inom hemtjänsten informerade tjänstemannen på Arbetsförmedlingen om att han skulle få mindre pengar som anställd där än att fortsätta gå arbetslös på på A-kassa.
Jag tror att min bror tappade mycket av sin tilltro till det svenska välfärdssystemet där och då.
@nakenbadaren De fleste som snakker varmt om velferdssystemene vi har i Skandinavia har aldri opplevd noe verre enn å være arbeidsløs i en kort periode, og de pengene man får da, de har man i realiteten betalt inn selv ved å jobbe.
Selv har jeg gått tom for slik støtte fordi det har gått for lang tid. Og fordi det har gått lang tid, er det mer utfordrende å finne arbeid.
Det er mindre hjelp å få enn mange tror. Politikerne har en narrativ om gode velferdsordninger og gode helsetjenester, og dette er svært lett å tro på inntil man plutselig får bruk for dem...
While I sincerely value how my #neurodivergent brain so deeply & fully engages with anything I encounter...
...sometimes I REALLY envy the ability to engage with many things simultaneously on a surface level
(Like, for example, be able to stay semi-active on Mastodon while writing a research-intensive article instead of having to ghost out entirely in order to focus 🙃)
@MarkRDavid
Ha! I’m currently writing at a cafe. But I’ll do a combo. Yes I’m in public around people, but I also have headphones on playing brown noise :)
@EmilyMoranBarwick@MarkRDavid@actuallyautistic
I'm a software engineer, not an author, but I use sound tactically. When I need to solve a difficult problem, I'll pace the floor (or the garden), talking aloud, gesturing with my hands, and generally embarrassing Helen if we have people here. 😄 If I'm working on something of medium difficulty, I'll use a very familiar playlist to give me a little energy and block out the world. If I'm tired or trying to power through something boring, the I'll use raucous music as an audio amphetamine.
Why do I wave my hands about? Because I'm building data structures in the air. Autists think in a more visual way than neurotypicals.
Howdy kind Mastonauts! 😁 Welcome to this new account.
I made (another) account to share things that are not health or entertainment related. I have dedicated accounts for those things (links in bio).
I will boost those toots when I feel them "good enough" to share with you.
@Rasta
Awwww 😔 so sorry for your loss. I don't know the "average age" for cats but 18 years sounds like a long time together! So that must have been lovely...
I've been together with Arwen 10 years now, got her as a pup. She's been my lifesaver after my ugly divorce and hellish depression. So I owe her the world. And I'll always do my best to make sure she knows she's loved and spoiled. 😊
@PixysJourney She's a lovely one. And sorry you went through that. My wife is disabled and at the start, her spine was narrowing and she was confined to bed for a year. Buddy, the big cat, never left her. She was devastated when he died (we both were, but he was always with her that year)
And Maya, that just passed, was palm sized, barely eyes open, fleas, mites, horrible shape. Vet clean-up and home to meet the monster cat Buddy. 18 is extremely long for any cat, but a feral averages 2-3 yrs
Apparently, right-wingers are using the #adderal shortage to claim #ADHD is "fake".
It's grimly funny because the different way Adderal affects ADHD and non-ADHD people is one of the clearest, most objectively provable aspects of #mentalhealth
If you didn't know, adderal has almost the EXACT opposite effect on ADHD people (generally-every brain is different). If you're not ADHD, it's basically coke. If you are, it helps you calm down and focus at the right dosage.
@PackardMoose@TruthSandwich Yeah, amphetamine but not the same (which is why you really really really should not try to home medicate with meth during the adderal shortage...sad that that had to be pointed out)
This is going to bevery personal, and also work-related. A long-ish thread on the emotional work happening when we do research that is close to our hearts.
I first intended to post this on my smaller account, but figured it might be good for others to read about, too.
Themes include family (and, I guess, estrangement), childhood trauma ("only" alluded to), and #ADHD and it's "fun" co-occurring disorders. #pascodaGoDrrr
@daniel
that is to 100% what I want to be.
But the absolute failure (maybe unwillingness?) of the other adults in the kid's life to understand the situation, even if it's only an assumption of mine, is what scares me.
I have been on adderall (when available to purchase) for like a year now. And apparently now i have to sign a "drug contract" with the state of Vermont if i want to get a refill.
Like. WTF? It's already illegal to sell it / give it away. A contract can't make it MORE illegal, and if i was doing shady shit i'd lie anyways.
How does this help ANYONE?!
And why was i able to get nearly a year's worth without a contract?!
@dillonsaleh it ended up being provider specific and a bunch of morality pledges and promising toof be available for drug testing on a moments notice and on my whenever they ask. To be clear, I have no criminal history and no history of drug abuse. apparently they treat everyone who takes Adderall like a fucking criminal
Someone pointed me at an interesting paper about #adhd medication and I should pass it on. https://sci-hub.se/10.1016/j.mehy.2013.11.018
I'm not a doctor, make your own decisions. It worked for me better than other non-stimulants (I came off other medication) and not having to deal with prescriptions is a great bonus. Over a month later, 2x100mg standard pyridoxine works well.
I wish there was more follow-up on this research :-(
@sarajw sure:
Self stimulation, gone.
Prospective memory (remembering to remember), improved.
Manic days (exhausted from trying to do everything, achieving nothing), almost gone.
Initiating the right tasks, slightly improved (but I think I'm in a position where I'm able to work on it myself)
Distractibility, not really gone, but I'm way more aware of it and it's very easy to revert.
@viraptor wow, nice! I'm pleased for you 💜 wondering if any of it will do me any good, lol. I think things are mild for me? I don't self diagnose with anything but I do struggle sometimes.
