Re: Anger due to the differences between severe and mild sufferers

[Anonymous]

My coping mechanism is to simplify my life.

If I let my ADD fast mind go, I end up with a million-things-I-want-to-do list (and they are all really GREAT ideas, worthy of any amount of my time and energy), and either I pick one thing to focus on to the exclusion of everything else (including family, sleep, eating, etc) and end up not finishing it for one reason or another (what was I thinking of????) or I completely spin my gears because I have overloaded my brain so much that I don’t know where to start. I will download reams and reams of paper in order to “prepare” but I have no organizational skills to help funnel it into a successful effort. I tend to go from waking up really early in the morning to staying up very late at night if I’m not careful, and I have a tremendous amount of energy but lack the bodily awareness that I’m overdoing it, so I don’t always notice when I’m burning myself out. Last night I had a visual migraine when I was supposed to be leaving from work, it’s the only thing that stops me in my tracks, had to lie down as I can’t see to drive, write, read or even use the telephone. It’s my sign that I’ve overdone it.

I do have great hyperfocus abilities but they are totally messed up sometimes by my procrastination tendencies.

I do a regular meditation practice day and night, not easy, very frustrating at times, but it helps calm my fast mind. See the mindfulness thread for some interesting links.

I have found David Seah’s printable time tracker worksheets to be very helpful to track what I’m doing (and keep me on track). I just can’t seem to get it into a plan that I can consistently follow, so it looks like I am tied to just tracking what I’m doing and trying not to fall into the trap of doing what I shouldn’t be doing. I need a constant external reminder to remind me.

I also found David’s blog post about his daily work schedule extremely helpful, it highlighted some issues for me too. Now I am getting to work earlier in the day and some days I am even getting what I plan to do done earlier in the day. Other days, like today, I have goofed off a bit on the internet (it’s always my weak spot). I somehow need the pressure of being behind to get my butt in gear.

Friends??? You folks are my friends these days, and I’m grateful for you all, even if we don’t always agree on things.

Now I’m off, I’ve spent too much time here today, guess I’m making up for not being on the forums yesterday at all.

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