killeroctopus345 wrote:
Damn! No caffeine? I drink like 3-4 cups a day. I was diagnosed with ADD in high school. I am skeptical of the diagnosis, but here is what I do to keep on task. I am a graduate student by the way.
1. Okay, "normal" people can think about multiple tasks at once. I can't. I do things one at a time. I try and keep all of the other tasks COMPLETELY off my mind until I finish the first one. I send myself emails and cell phone reminders. For example, I will write down four things that I need to do in an email (NEVER do this on paper, you will lose it!). I focus on thing one and COMPLETELY forget about 2,3 and 4 until thing one is finished. Since you are young, you could probably make a list and give it to your parents and have them remind you. This is hard to do in high school because you must take so many classes that are so different from one another.
2. I try and keep "big picture" ideas of what I am studying. I know that I am going to forget individual facts, so I keep "general ideas" about what I am doing in each class. I keep these "general ideas" in my head and REPEAT THEM OUT LOUD to myself a few times a week (sometimes more often). So like, I wake up in the morning and say "In class A I am studying x. In class B I am studying y etc." I also do it for appointments and such. You could also discuss them with another person if talking to yourself seems weird.
3. I always find that exercise calms me down and helps me focus. Even jogging 20-30 minutes a day really calms me down.
4. However, I personally am super dependent on caffeine. Are you sure that your parents won't allow it? Chocolate works too, but it is unhealthy.
Oh, and I don't take medication.
I think that with anyone that has poor executive function, getting the "big picture" of things is extremely important. Think of it like a drawing. If you see a sketch of an outline of a horse, you know that it is a horse even though the "details" are missing. You can fill them back in mentally. However, if you just remember the eyes, you won't necessarily know which animal it is. If you remember "big picture" things about what is going on in your life, you will have an easier time filling the details back in when you forget them.
I would be very cautious about suggesting that people shouldn't (or should) take meds. I take meds and they do help me. They don't fix everything and some people really shouldn't be on them but it is really a matter between you and your psychiatrist.
Personally, the meds help to take the edge off the symptoms so I can use more of my brainpower on important things. I still need coping mechanisms and tools to manage my day to day life, though.
The tried and true methods that can help ADHD is about automating those executive processes so that you don't have to big yourself down with too many details. This can be anything from a daily schedule or a to do list or family support or an app on your phone, etc. I haven't found a perfect system that works for me but the best system I had was at uni, when I would have weekly meetings with disability services. It forced me to think economically about my time and consider my options in academia and even my personal life. I had a support worker who helped me write essays. Well, actually she was more of a sounding board because I found it difficult to organise my study time and my thoughts. She was able to give me some feedback and write down realistic goals for the following week. I think it's possible to do something like that among your peers or loved ones. For example, I knew a woman who would regularly meet up with a Spanish guy and they would practice speaking each other's language. It could be the same idea in which both parties have a valuable skill or perspective that can be used to help each other. I hope that makes sense.
08 Dec 2016, 9:37 pm
