The lighter side of ADHD
I will be watching a three hour video essay, get distracted, read posts on Lemmy, then go back to my video 15 minutes later. I realize I have no idea what was said in the last 15 minutes so I have to back up to the last point I definitely know I wasn't distracted. It will take me ten hours to watch that video.
This is why I don't do podcasts in the background, I miss stuff and the whole thing becomes a confusing distraction.
What seems to work for me is something I have seen/heard a bunch of times in the background (Futurama, electronic music) which scratches that mind wandering itch without it dragging me away from what I want to be doing.
I have two types of podcasts: those I listen to when doing work that is pretty mindless so I can focus on the podcast, and those that are entertaining but not important enough that it matters if I miss something while reading directions or thinking through next steps on my project, etc.
Come to think of it, I have one other category, actually, which are podcasts that are interesting but get a big backlog because I'm not that excited about them. I use those to fall asleep.
I've probably listened to the entire MCU, in order, fifteen times over the past two years. I can ignore it and happily work or game, while it calms the tiny part of my brain that's registering it - and then I'll notice an especially good scene is coming up, so I pause whatever's currently on top and switch to the video for a scene or two... then back to work/play.
It took me four days to get through Ash (2019)
Amazing movie
I stayed up until 4AM each day
So peaceful. I need at least three screaming voices to avoid the Internal Carnival Music 🎪
Before i was got on meds, i constantly had music playing in my head along with all the other thoughts that were trying to be heard.
Okay get this - when I finally got on meds for the nth (and hopefully last) time, the voices in my head immediately changed from an incoherent chorus of self-hatred to "why is this song playing in my head?" and "It's kind of a bop, though."
The relief was incredible, if also a little weird.
I always say that my brain is a jukebox that never, EVER turns off. There is always music and it never stops.
Oh my, no. This is like a list of the worst things for me.
I can't concentrate on something if they're are voices in the background, my brain forces me to focus on the voices, I can't tune them out to focus on my main task.
So when I'm working, music helps me focus a little, but it MUST not have vocals. No-Vocals Vaporwave/Synthwave is my jam.
I could never watch two films at the same time, or have a podcast on while I'm trying to watch a film, etc, I hate distractions and background noises while I'm trying to focus on a film.
If I tried to watch two films at once... my brain would just be overwhelmed and I'd be able to watch neither.
I also hate noise in general and cherish blissful silence, so while I do run a fan when it gets very hot, I do my best to avoid it.
Quiet silence is best, the more things like noise assault my senses the more I feel oppressed in my own brain.
This. I got the "physically unable to multitask" ADHD instead of the "needs multiple sources of stimulation" ADHD.
I need exactly the right amount of stimulation or nothing is getting done. It is extremely variable.
I find loud, fast/rhythmic music works best for me. Anything with a d-beat is generally solid, so metal (osdm, trad/speed, thrash, black) and punk (hardcore, crust) make up a chunk of my focus music, definitely not in the multiple sources category either, more of the "drown out everything else so I can only think of one thing" sort.
Oh my gosh, same. If I’m trying to concentrate or focus on something there can be no words in music or better yet no music. The only exception to that is a task that is just movement and a playlist with songs I know all the words to. Then I’ll sing while I work. I like classical for the no words, even opera is ok because I don’t know what they are saying. I used to set my alarm in the morning to the French CBC. I don’t speak French so it was just melodic sounds instead of sounding like someone is yelling at me first thing.
I also don’t like watching movies/tv/youtube. I always feel like there’s something else I should be doing. I will watch a movie, but it takes a bit for me to settle and get my brain to realize that that’s what I’m doing. It feels so sedentary. Though I can game for hours haha. I’m doing something! There’s the added bonus that tv is like coffee for me, makes my brain WIRED, then I can’t sleep. Books for the win!
My hearing is quite bad now so that also adds to the feeling of a dull roar of confusion. Yay getting old.
*Edit to say hook me up with the synthwave playlists! Love that sound.
When the power goes out and that fan stops, it's the quietest thing you've ever imagined. It shouldn't even be possible. I hate it.
My mother used to simply turn my fan off to wake me up. I have slept through actually gunshots in the same room as me but my fan turning off was too much
Wh… who is shooting in your bedroom?
Lol my father used to take me hunting as a kid but hunting started before the sun came up and I was sleepy so I slept in the stand. Didn't even flinch he said
^eeeeeeee^
The fan thing really hit me. Ceiling fan, 7 years, only stopped it to dust.....when the power goes out
I'm sorry about the fan hitting you, you really have to make sure those things are mounted properly.
you cant stop me when im at my playing factorio while consuming live streams in the background at 1.5x speed, i am too powerful for you.
Where are the fidget toys, sound of TV in another room, and 6 open beverages scattered about? How is this person staying so focused despite being so dehydrated!?
I have a big fan in my room and when I get on calls with friends, they ask if I'm in the factory. Apparently the fan sounds like heavy machinery in the distance. Got a new AC and it only adds to the factory ambience lol. My friends aren't bothered by it, thankfully
If you have an nvidia graphics card in the RTX family you can use nvidia broadcast to filter out sounds like fans, vacuums, ac, loud typing, etc.
Super useful I use it all the time because I always have a fan or am AC
I assume it's windows-only?
It’s from Nvidya so yeah
This sub makes me think I have ADHD. Constant multitasking (audiobooks with whatever other brainless activity), or else so hyperfixated on a thing that I forget to eat, 4 empty cups of water at my desk, putting off responding to texts and then three days later realizing i never responded at all, forgetting about a problem I need to fix or errand I need to run until something reminds me of it.
Just juggling a bunch of interests because, with a day job, there's really no way to simply hold on to each one for very long.
Oh and then smoking marijuana.
Wait, is a constantly running fan and ADHD thing? Because I have like 4 going right now... And rarely are they turned off.
For me it helps filter out noises from outside and lets my brain relax a bit. Not sure if that's the ADHD or the hyper vigilace.
damn so that's what my whole deal is huh?
oh I can't do two movies at once. one of each thing. I have limits :)
I've gone through multiple fans already because of this...
I have several ceiling fans that only get cleaned when the power goes out...
My setup: dual screen, on one of them there's YouTube always on with some booktuber or d&d campaign, private and work chats, on the other screen browser and terminals. The fan that's sucking my vape fumes next to my desk has been running non stop for a couple of years. I sometimes turn it down to one, but it's always on. Sometimes the browser/terminal combo gets replaced by Project Zomboid. I'm in this chair 10-18h per day, almost every day. I'm okay. Everything's okay.
It may seem like chaos, but I don't know how to explain that it's relaxing.
Before I had to move my "office" to a smaller room, I had a 4-monitor setup. Usually one for a game, one playing music channels on youtube, one for discord, and one for browsing reddit or something. I want to go back...
You forget the random book/magazine that's read and the crosswords/doodling on paper.
Isn't this more of a normie thing? I can't split my attention like that; I have ADHD. One task at a time, and even that's a struggle. I find myself constantly rewinding what I'm watching over and over cause I keep missing a line of dialog. Couldn't even imagine having to do that with multiple pieces of media at once. I'd probably have a panic attack lol
Nah man, my normie wife cannot understand why I’ll have a podcast, audiobook, or TV show going while I play certain video games.
If there’s multiple stories happening it’s harder. I’ll miss stuff and have to rewind a lot. But if it’s like, Forza or Diablo or MSFS or something it works really well and keeps me engaged.
But I realize that’s probably not how everyone works.
Anecdotally, I'd say that this depiction is in line with how I feel my ADHD symptoms present themselves. Now, I don't typically have all of these things going at once, per se, but I will definitely queue up a series of attention sinks and bounce between them as soon as my brain loses interest in the topic being discussed. It's why the TikTok/YouTube Shorts format is so dangerous to my productivity, as it constantly delivers novel entertainment in bite size doses. If I'm medicated, and mindful of my behavior, I am able to shut out alternate attention sinks and focus on one at a time. I guess it's kind of like tunnel vision. That has a negative connotation, but it's super helpful to me since, left to my own devices, I have trouble regulating which stimuli to focus on.
Ymmv, of course.
The point isn't to focus on them all. It's just to be there so as to make maintaining focus easier. It's hard to explain why
Scientifically, no one can. They are just doing multiple things worse.
There are different types of ADHD.
Although I only go into theboffice twice a week, I have a little fan that has been running almost nonstop for 4+ years that helps with the offixe background noise.
I turned it off once for three minutes before turning it right back on again. During the winter I point it away from me.
I feel personally attacked by this.