Implementation intention can also be a good thing, though.

Starting at 6:00 is better than trying to force it “right now”, failing, and doing nothing. Or exerting more willpower and pain than necessary.

Occasionally I have that friend, yes, but I think most of them just endure my autistic unload, be it out of politeness, to unload theirs, or because they just don’t mind that much.

In my current phase in life, it’s too much for everybody :-)

It’s like this little devil on my shoulders, repeating the same lies over and over again, and odd enough, it works quite often:

• I can’t possibly do the whole cleaning before sleep.
• Sure, I could take the garbage out or clean only the sink, but that’s so little that it won’t help anyway. Better do nothing.
• It’s just these two important things on the weekend; I don’t need a list for that. (Narrator: It’s never only two things.)

Many have been there: How much damage in life is happening between suspecting it’s ADHD and receiving treatment.

What I found most effective is Modafinil, if you happen to live in a place where it’s considered a lower schedule prescription drug and is easily accessible. It’s less safe, so follow doctor’s orders and instructions carefully. Use 1/8th of a pill to check tolerance on day 1.

If you have not built tolerance to caffeine, that is effective for a couple of months as well. Consider guaraná or black tea if you need a lasting effect for many hours.

Another option is if you ever got a prescription of an anti-depressant that works off-label for ADHD as well and have some left over. Many of them take a month to work, but sometimes, the ADHD effect is immediate.

Of course, when you get your real prescription, check if you need to stop the temporary one first! In case of some anti depressants, that can be several days.

I always underestimate how much there is to do. “Oh just laundry and that form basically, two things. Picking up the package should be clear. No list needed, easy day!”

Then, when I really don’t make a list, I don’t even do these three things. When I do make a list, it’s many, many more things, but a higher chance to do several of those.

And yes, when I don’t check it off from the list, and be it by adding just to check it off, it feels like I did nothing.

Yes, but they are starting to improve on that. 2 years ago, you could have a lot of fun with prompts like “draw a room with absolutely no elephants in it”.

Definitely know that problem. Sometimes, I use just one term in lack of a better one that I’m not entirely happy with, and the LLM completely pinpoints on that and never lets go.

I call the problem “tuskification”. Because that one time, I discussed walrusses. And later in the same conversation, I had some other things drawn, entirely unrelated, many exchanges later. And somehow, it influenced all of that. E. g. there was a hamster in a cage as a small part of the drawing, and it had tusks. Or a thirsty lost person in a desert, you guessed it: Has tusks.

Got me to be like: Nonono, just draw completely normal people, who have absolutely no tusks! You wouldn’t believe the nightmare it drew after that. Apparently it interpreted it as: Humanoids whose faces resemble proboscidae from a time before they developed a full trunk and tusks.

Even more absurd when they reach this sad state: Too dirty to wear, not dirty enough to wash.

Similar to old-ish things in the fridge that are not completely spoiled, so I can’t throw them out, but they are already too unappetising to be eaten right now.

omg, what an absurd use of this meme …

Effect can vary a lot. I did a tolerance test with 5 mg, and even that was mind blowing. Effect was short, but my executive dysfunction was completely fixed. I cleaned, worked out, did calls and wrote letters I had been putting off for weeks. It felt like a fantastic dopamine shower.

Then, for a long time, I went with 10 - 15 mg. Slowly working up to 50 over 6 months.

The “mind blowing” effect is really fading hard one year later, though. I’m pretty sure that it’s not really what the doctors want. They want regulation of dopamine and noradrenaline in the prefrontal cortex, which is a benefit that does not diminish over time. What gives the amazing feeling is excess dopamine in other regions of the brain, like a recreational drug, and that fades.

Interesting. I absolutely need the list. If I get into the unfortunate situation to start a day without having the list already, I have to use 100 % of my willpower to just make a list. I have to tell myself: “You can eat a whole cake and watch videos for 2 hours if you just MAKE the list. Don’t actually have to do anything on it.”

Surveys too! I feel like if I tried to answer it literally, it’d be interpreted as something I don’t mean at all.

Tell me how it went. I’m curious if it’s the best of all methods, or just what works for me.

For me it works with these two tweaks:

1. the list is written, never just in my head
2. I go through the items one by one and “simulate” them briefly in my head. Then do what feels right, no pressure, also fine to do nothing. Only the “simulation” is mandatory

That is the real miracle method I’ve been chasing all my life.

omg, one of the best

Had lists for 25 years, and they did help to a good degree, but still: Same.

But about 2 weeks ago, I think I really cracked the case! In those situations when it is “too much” to do an item from the list, I ALLOW myself to not do an item from the list, guilt-free, but I HAVE TO “simulate” the items briefly in my head.

More than 50 % of the time, that’ll lead to the realisation that I’m totally up for doing one of those. Still not everything done, but jumped from maybe 3 out of 10 to 6 out of 10 for a typical weekend. And if I don’t feel like it, I can enjoy my shows and other shenanigans guilt-free.

Wrote more about it here: https://lemmy.ml/post/36147982

Does it work? Do you actually do the things on the list?

For me, it works best to have the list on the day before. Otherwise, MAKING the list is what I procrastinate on.

I think it might be true to a degree. Filtering less, or having some people in the tribe who do, who find the odd unlikely solution, who mix the tin with the copper, who spot hidden berries under the snow during a conversation where someone confesses their love to you - it can be an advantage.

But having my heart project, or 5 of those, and never even starting, although I think I’ll do it any day now - that can be suffering. When medicated, I picked them up one by one and finished them, and it felt so good. And I realise, I never would have otherwise! Like this broken electric toy with sentimental value that I kept around, and now I just picked it up and fixed it. And some of these took 10 minutes, and some took 5 hours, but instead I lived with the pain of not having it done for so many decades, yes, decades.

Or my beautiful wife who went all-in with so much love, and I did give my absolute best until I broke, couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t, but it wasn’t enough. Yet all that was missing was 20 - 30 minutes per day, timeboxed, of working through todos. Which is absolutely impossible undiagnosed and untreated, which is why I don’t blame myself, but no problem now.

It crosses the line to a disorder when it is impairing in multiple contexts, which is part of the definition and a must-criterion. If it’s not impairing you anymore, you don’t have it by definition. Impairing you only in a society that shouldn’t be like this? Interesting question.

I phrased it poorly, but the phenomenon stands: I plan for a brain that does not have ADHD. Medicated, after over 40 years, the plans get executed exactly as planned. Makes me wonder where my brain “learned” to plan for that medicated state, and why it never “learned” to adjust to the state it has been in over 40 years.