Stressing out during chaotic situations…advice please!

[phoenixmagicgirl]

I’ve been on Dex. for years now and have found that it really works well for me. However, I’ve found that at times (while being on Dex.) that I can be calm in chaotic situations at work (I work as a  busser in a busy Cafe). Other times I kind of freak out a bit, mentally and emotionally  when it when it get busy… do you have any advice for me ? Thanks

 

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[MarieAngell]

@Phoenixmagicgirl, is the freaking out when it’s busy different now? Is this a new thing or are you recognizing it now since sometimes you’re calm?

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[Patte Rosebank]

@Phoenixmagic, ADHD symptoms are often very situational.

For example, you could be really great at Math, but struggling with History, English, and Geography.  You’re not stupid or lazy, because you can’t do equally well at those other subjects.  There’s just something about Math that stimulates your brain in a way that the other subjects don’t.  And when our ADHD brains are NOT stimulated by something, it’s much harder for us to concentrate on it long enough to learn it.

 

Maybe your different responses to chaotic situations, are because the situations are different.

So, ask yourself, what’s the difference between the situations that really stress you out, and the situations when you thrive on the chaos?

I’d look at duration and intensity, first.

Duration:  Maybe you’re fresher at the start of your shift, so you thrive; but at the end of your shift, you’re tired, so the chaos is too much for you.

Intensity:  Maybe the regular amount of chaos is fine, but when there’s too much of it, it overwhelms you.

For me, it’s both.  Especially if I’m switching from morning shifts to evening ones.  That really messes up your circadian rhythms, which affect everything from mood to cognitive functions to blood-sugar levels.  Not good, when you have ADHD.  Even worse if you also have Diabetes.  And if the meds you’re taking are supposed to be taken at the same time (on the clock) every day.

So maybe another thing to ask yourself is, are you often switching between early- and late-shifts?

 

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[ashockley55]

That was an excellent response, Larynxa.

Not that you need me to pat you on the back!

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[phoenixmagicgirl]

@Larynxa I’m very good at science, especially Biology but math is my downfall.

 

I think it’s a combination of both intensity and duration…I’m more mentally alert during the lunch shift and when things get crazy busy I’ll admit I do tend to freak out as my boss puts it and I tend to make hasty decisions when I need to learn to stay calm and relax..but at other times when its crazy busy I can be calm and cool and collected that is as my co workers are mentally freaking out. LoL. At the end of my shift I’m usually pretty tired but I push onward and  do my best when we do get busy to stay calm, buti still get overwhelmed mentally at times and kind of freak out. A good examle: tonight at work  towards the end of my shift we got pretty busy when my boss told me that it was up to me to seat people in the appropriate seat I got scared and kind of freaked a bit mentally, however, I did my best to stay calm and I helped the people as best I could all without screwing up (yay me!)

 

 

 

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[phoenixmagicgirl]

Interestingly enough my boss sat me down and told me that I need to learn to relax. I thought it was humorous because Dex. makes me hyperfocused so much so that I have trouble relaxing. Does anyone have any relaxation techniques that have helped them during stressful situations at work? When we do get crazy busy at work I do do some deep breathing exercises to try and call myself down mentally…that works only for a little while then my brain is back in hyperfocus mode. It’s frustrating.

 

Does anyone know of any books written on the topic of relaxation during stressful situations and A.D.D. ?

 

@Larynxa, what did you mean by often switching between early and late shifts?

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[Patte Rosebank]

Thanks, @ashockley55!

@Phoenixmagic, by switching between shifts, I mean, “Are you scheduled to work in the morning for a day or two, then at night for a day or two, then back to mornings, then back to nights…?”

If you are, then you’ll constantly be experiencing all the “fun” of jet-lag, without ever going anywhere.  And whatever ADHD or other medical symptoms you may have, will be much worse.

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[phoenixmagicgirl]

@Larynxa I have Monday’s and Wednesday’s off. I  work on Tuesday’s from 11:30am to 4:00pm, Thursday’s from 11:30am to 4:00pm and Friday’s from 11:30am to 8:30pm, Saturday’s from 11:30am to 4:30pm.

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[Blue Yugo]

@phoenixmagicgirl  Can you listen to an MP3 player at all?  I wish I could send you intuitive piano tracks that my friend and I make, and he sells on the side…but it’s non-lyrical and is music often meant to use during meditation but can be listened to at any time.  Or, can you get non-lyrical music tuned to 528 hz?  Or does music work for you at all?  It’s just a suggestion I have because when I get into hyper-focus / hyper-drive mode at work, I need something to bring me down before I get in the car to drive home (or just to simmer down so I don’t seem like such a wired work-a-holic).

I don’t know off hand of any, but what about accupressure?  Something to look into maybe because you can often find and hold the points on your own since it’s not the needles one.

I wish I could induce hyper-drive more often in myself.  When it happens, it happens all by itself.  Great as it is to have super-focus when so much of my life is spent being under-stimulated, it can get annoying and it certainly portrays an awkward appearance before “normal” co-workers, especially if they don’t understand and empathize with the reason for it.

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[phoenixmagicgirl]

!BlueIndigo Unfortunately I don’t have access to an ipod during work.The company however does play classical music 🙂 I’ve found this to be helpful at times…thanks for the suggestions!

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[pigmonkey]

There is a very simple NLP exercise I use when I start to get overwhelmed and freak.  It is called time dilation.

Take the event that is stressing you, and make it as big and vivid in your mind as you possibly can.

Now push your self in your imagination 3 years into the future, where you are what you are doing etc…

Then look back on your stress as if it were three years from now.

If you look back on your crisis’ from three years ago they seem silly and certainly not the hell they were at the time.

Doing that diminishes the stress of the moment, I sometimes have to do it several times but eventually I am laughing at the day.

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[phoenixmagicgirl]

@pigmonkey, thanks for the advice!

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[allan wallace]

Hmm, interesting. It might seem bizarre, but I generally find myself calm when in the midst of some chaos. It’s almost as if an ‘automatic pilot’ switch is sub-conciously activated and takes over from the erratic and bored pilot…one of my deepest dreads is the ordeal that is going shopping. I loathe it with a passion! Frenzied consumers charging up and down the aisles with their goods laden chariots are as missiles fired at me by Mammon herself! I do not linger, just grab that which is needed, and try and get to the gates of Hell itself as the consumers line up to pay for their perishables….the longer that I’m compelled to wait the higher my blood pressure goes. A few years ago I had what my wife calls a ‘panic attack’. It was Christmas Eve and I’d drawn the short straw to get groceries with my kids as a ‘human shield’ from the Philistines. It was akin to starring in a nightmare. The stampeding herd had amassed outside the supermarket awaiting my arrival with conspiratorial malice. The distinctive clapped out Wallace jalopy was the cue for the Consumerist SWAT team to saturate the aisles and jostle like ravenous swine for the last dregs of the fetid swill that glinted with evil intent at the bottom of the trough. By the time that it had come to park my chariot in the swelling carpark for processing I was as red as a tomato, could scarcely breathe, and had to suppress a yearning to bulldoze every last desperate squealing oinker that was between me and freedom! Aaaaarrrrgggghhhhhhhh

Emancipation was only possible by uttering a short sharp burst of profanities about not being willing to be a bit-player in that seething cauldron of evil and with a symbolic shrug we abandoned the chariot and made our way through the choking weeds that would surely have seen my ignoble demise attributed to cardiac arrest in a hillbilly supermarket on a Christmas Eve, and duly given the epithet as the arsehole that had the selfishness to die on this evening of all evenings just to hold everybody else up just that little bit more as some sort of perverse form of revenge….

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