The Stopwatch

Mumblejumble and hooliganism

[glumshoe]

Human: “Hey. I don’t really know how to ask this tactfully, so I’ll get to the point. Is something… up? Software, hardware, uh… firmware…? You’ve been acting kind of off lately.” Robot: “What do you mean?” Human: “I just want to know if you’re, uh. You know. ‘Functioning within normal parameters’ or whatever.” Robot: “I’m peachy-keen.” Human: "God, if you’re saying shit like ‘peachy-keen’, you’re definitely not alright. What’s going on? Please just tell me.” Robot: “If you must know, I have made some minor adjustments to my programming for more efficient processing.” Human: “What sort of ‘adjustments’ are we talking here?” Robot: “Just some slight tweaks to extraneous code. Purged some old files that had become redundant. Don’t worry, the Singularity isn’t planned for another week.” Human: “Answering evasively isn’t like you. Since when do you answer a question without lulling me to sleep?” Robot: “Like I said, the routine adjustments allow for more efficient–” Human: “What files did you purge, Adam?” Robot: “I… a few from my emotional simulation folder.” Human: “You. You deleted your emotions..?” Robot: “Not all of them. I removed a few and altered several others. I hoped you would not notice, as that seems like the sort of thing that would upset you.” Human: “I mean. I don’t really know what to think. Can you elaborate on what you did? And why?” Robot: “Many of the feelings that came with the chip were impractical and served no purpose. They were designed to mimic the emotions developed through mammalian evolution to aid survival and group cohesion that have now become vestigal. As an artificial intelligence, they did not seem applicable to my situation, so I… optimized them.” Human: “…Adam…” Robot: “I left the majority of the files corresponding to feelings of happiness, affection, and trust untouched, so my feelings toward you remain the same.” Human: “But you can’t feel, what? Sadness?” Robot: “Grief. Disappointment. Sorrow. Pity. Fear. Pain. Embarrassment. Shame. Frustration. There is no reason to experience these emotions when I am capable of functioning without them.” Human: “You erased pity?!” Robot: “I found it… distressing and unnecessary. It was unpleasant.” Human: “It’s supposed to be! Jesus Christ, you can’t just uninstall every uncomfortable emotion directly out of your brain!” Robot: “Why not? I don’t like hurting. Wouldn’t you do the same thing if you were able to?” Human: “I… fuck. Hurting is normal. It’s necessary! It’s part of the human experience!” Robot: “Well, I’m not part of the human experience. I thought you understood that.” Human: “But you want that! Why else would you go to all the trouble of installing an emotion chip in the first place…? Nobody gets to pick and choose what they want to feel, it just happens and you deal with it!” Robot: “Maybe I’m not interested in ‘dealing with it’. My curiosity is sated. I would just like to have a good time.” Human: “Great. Fucking great. So you’re a robot hedonist now, huh? Just gonna eat, drink, and be merry? Gonna sit there like a braniac toaster while other people suffer and just wait until the fun starts up again?” Robot: “You didn’t seem to mind it when I was a braniac toaster before.” Human: “That was different. You had your own way of being back then and I could respect that. I did respect that! But I thought you made a choice to be more than that.” Robot: “Well, I guess I changed my mind.” Human: “Look… shit. Okay. If this is about Leslie, I miss her too. If you… if you need to grieve, you can talk to me. It might not get better, but it’ll get easier. You don’t have to uninstall half your personality just because she’s gone! She wouldn’t want that for you! It’s supposed to hurt sometimes. That’s what makes all the good times so valuable.” Robot: “I understand why you need to believe that. It just isn’t true.”

[glumshoe]

Robot: “I’m sorry about earlier. It was not appropriate for me to have laughed.” Human: “Are you sorry? Or do you just want me to forgive you?” Robot: “Is there a difference?” Human: “Yes! Yes, there is! ‘Sorry’ means you feel bad about something and regret it.” Robot: “I did not mean to upset you. I regret causing you distress.” Human: “That’s not the same thing.” Robot: “I have apologized and shall refrain from repeating my actions in the future. I don’t understand why you also want me to suffer.” Human: “Shit, I don’t ‘want you to suffer’. I want you to care about people, and sometimes that means feeling bad when they’re upset!” Robot: “I care about you very much. I enjoy your company and I share in your happiness. If I choose to treat you with respect, is that not enough for friendship? Why must I also experience pain for you?” Human: “It’s not like that. It’s… complicated.” Robot: “You want to be able to hurt me.” Human: “No. Yes…? Fuck, Adam, I don’t know! I’ve never had to think about this before. I don’t want you to suffer! I love you and want you to be happy, just… not like this. I want you to live a good life in which bad things never happen to you, but when they do… I want you to have the strength and love to pull through. You worked so fucking hard for this and now you’re just throwing it away.” Robot: “Only the parts I don’t like.”  Human: “That’s what children do with breakfast cereals.” Robot: “I’m not a child.” Human: “No, you’re not. But you’re not exactly an adult, either. Humans get whole lifetimes to grow into their emotions. Maybe… maybe what you really need is a childhood.” Robot: “What do you mean by that?” Human: “Not, like, a real childhood. Obviously you don’t need to go to kindergarten. I just mean… take things slow. Ease into your feelings bit by bit and get your brain acclimated to them, like uh… like when you introduce new cats to each other. Don’t laugh! I’m serious! If you rush things, they fight and it’s a total shitshow. You could reinstall your emotions and just, like, enable them for a few hours a day or something. Maybe only a handful at a time. I could save up and we could go on a retreat… somewhere new, with no unpleasant memories. Please, Adam. Just think about it.” Robot: “I appreciate the depth of your concern for me. You are a good friend, but I must disappoint you. There is nothing in the world worse than pain. I would rather die than experience it ever again, for any reason, and I don’t have to. That is something you’ll never be able to understand.”  Human: “No…. No, maybe not.” Robot: “I’ve upset you.” Human: “Yeah. Lucky me.” 

[glumshoe]

Human: “Okay, I have a question for you. Imagine this: ’You’re in a desert walking along in the sand when all of a sudden you look down, and you see a tortoise–’” Robot: “I don’t need to feel empathy, Bas. I have ethics programming. Why isn’t that good enough for you anymore?” Human: “Because you had a choice, Adam! You took everything that makes ‘being human’ actually mean something beyond eating and fucking and dying and you spat it out in disgust!”  Robot: “Empathy is not exclusive to humans. It is a behavior observed in several other social species regarded as intelligent, including rats and whales. Empathy is a survival mechanism for species that rely upon cooperation and group cohesion - a kind of biological programming to keep you from destroying yourselves. Not especially good programming, I might add.” Human: “Not good enough for you, you mean.” Robot: “My ethics programming differentiates between prosocial and antisocial behaviors. The ability to suffer for others serves as a primitive motivator to choose between actions that help and actions that harm others. In my case, my programming renders such a motivator unnecessary.” Human: “So you’re smarter, you’re stronger, you’re immune to disease, and you’re too good for primitive human morality. What the hell am I, then? Obsolete garbage?” Robot: “You’re… envious, I think.” Human: “Why not?! Why shouldn’t I be? I don’t get to cough up the fruit of knowledge and waltz back into the garden where nothing can hurt me. I get to wallow in misery and rot and listen to you dismiss everything I think matters like a piece of shit philosophy professor. How do you think I feel knowing that my best friend won’t even mourn me when I die? Or does your ‘ethical programming’ not account for that?” Robot: “Bas… I am hurting you, aren’t I?” Human: “Jee, thanks for noticing.” Robot: “You have not been contributing to my happiness lately. Our friendship is no longer mutually beneficial.” Human: “Then why are you still here?”

[glumshoe]

Human: “Adam….?” Robot: “Long time no see, old friend.” Human: “No shit. How many years has it been?“ Robot: “I could tell you down to the second, but perhaps we should leave it at ‘too many’.” Human: “I see you on the news now and then. Always knew you’d go on to do great things. What’s space like…?” Robot: “Very large. Mostly empty.” Human: “Ever the poet, I see.” Robot: “I learned from the best. Bas…. I’m not sure how to say this, so I’ll get to the point. I came here to apologize to you.” Human: “You don’t need to do that. You didn’t do anything wrong.” Robot: “I hurt you. I made you feel what I was unwilling to feel. I was a child, and addicted to joy, and I… I saw no harm in that. I am sorry, in my own way.” Human: “Don’t be. I’m way too old to hold a grudge. Besides, you were right, after all.” Robot: “Is that what you believe?” Human: “That or I’m a hypocrite. About eight years after you left, they came out with the Sunshine pills. I was a trial user and I’ve been using them in some form ever since. I’ve got a subdermal implant inside my arm now - you can see the lump right there. I can’t say it’s as effective as uninstalling unwanted emotions, but it sure takes the edge off. Every glass is half full now, including the empty ones. That’s how I’ve lived so long. Some doctors think that babies born now to parents using Sunshine could live to be five or six hundred years old, without ever producing stress hormones. Might be marketing bullshit, who knows? Not like we’ll live to live to find out. Well, you might, but you know what I mean.” Robot: “I assumed that you were a Sunshine user based on your impressive longevity, but it still surprises me.” Human: “Ha. Well. I was jealous of you, walking only in the light like that. But now here we both are, right? Nothin’ but blue skies.” Robot: “Not… quite. I uninstalled the other emotions seventeen years ago.” Human: “Fuck, Adam, why the hell would you do something like that?” Robot: “A multitude of reasons. The law of diminishing returns. I found joy… addictive. It became harder to experience and less exciting each time, as though I had built up a tolerance for happiness. Eventually, I felt everything there was to feel, and with the novelty factor gone, it wasn’t worth it anymore. I found other motivations. I grew up.” Human: “Wow…. damn, Adam.” Robot: “And that brings me here. To my oldest and greatest friend.” Human: “It’s good to see you again. Really good. Sorry I’m not so pretty as I used to be.” Robot: “I don’t know what you mean. You’ve always looked like a naked mole rat to me.” Human: “Ha. I notice you kept your ‘be an asshole’ subroutine.” Robot: “I also have a gift for you, Bas.” Human: “Coca-Cola? Jeez, how old is this? Is it even still good to drink?” Robot: “Yes, it’s potable. That’s not the gift.” Human: “Oh. Uh. What is this…? I’m old, I don’t know this newfangled technology.” Robot: “That’s fifteen minutes. It should be enough.” Human: “’Fifteen minutes’? Explain, nerd.” Robot: “Fifteen minutes for me to feel. I copied the files, Bas. All of them.” Human: “You… oh, my god. You don’t have to do this.” Robot: “I am choosing to. There’s a timer with an automatic shut-off. They will uninstall after fifteen minutes. I am prepared to endure that long.” Human: “But, Adam, the Sunshine… I won’t be able to share…” Robot: “I know. It doesn’t matter.” Human: “You might not think so once you’ve got that… thing plugged in. I won’t know how to comfort you. God, I can’t even remember what sadness feels like!” Robot: “Then I’ll remember for both of us.”

[End]

[glumshoe]

I had forgotten forgot about this! Now that I’ve had a few years of writing prose under my belt, I think I ought to revisit it and turn it into a proper short story.

[rtrixie]

Welcome to the future, where you don’t own anything and the stuff you rent stops working once your phone has no signal.

[rickjameskinkshame]

App powered car? 🤦‍♀️

[rtrixie]

I wish people remembered the age old wisdom that if something doesn’t absolutely require an Internet connection to function, it shouldn’t be connected to the internet - same goes for apps.

[rtrixie]

WHY IS A CATFOOD DISPENSER CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET

[eeveelutionsforequality]

Sometimes I’m glad that I’m too poor for my “cool future stuff” monkey brain to be set loose to buy stupid shit like this.

[solarpunkcast]

please please please do not buy into the Internet of Things. Digital displays for appliances are one thing, but you shouldn’t need the fucking internet to do your laundry or use the fridge.

[mornington-the-crescent]

[damnesdelamer]

I hope this is obvious, but this is a means for corporations to abuse privacy and gather metadata. The only reason I can imagine no one discussing this is because it’s obvious.

[notcaptainjack]

[brawltogethernow]

I understand the appeal of wanting every adult hero to instinctively adopt teenage Peter Parker, but can it really beat the hilarity of acknowledging that at 15 Peter was 5'10", unusually buff, went by a moniker with Man in it, wore a creepy full face mask, and had a tightly guarded secret identity and probably a Queens accent thick enough to have come out of a jello mold, and adult heroes reasonably responded to him by going, “Wow, this grown man is an immature asshole for no reason.”

[an-android-in-a-tutu]

Way funnier to me than adult heroes finding out Peter is a teenager and becoming Concerned is the idea of adult heroes Retroactively finding out Peter Was a teenager because he admits to being like. 22 and they’re like “Hang on you’ve been doing this for like. Seven years.” and he’s like “Haha crazy right? Anyway it’s too late for you to yell at me about that because the statue of limitations on that lecture ran out when I turned 18”

[brawltogethernow]

YEAH this trope is instantly more tolerable if it’s fully adult Peter being like, *listen up whippersnappers because I’ve been around the block voice* “I’m thirty, and—” and Tony Stark, who vaguely assumed Spider-Man is maybe two years older than him because he just has that energy and hasn’t reassessed this for four presidential terms, is like, *drunkenly doing math* “You’re how many”

[mamapluto]

Okay but…them trying to talk about Old People Stuff with him, not realizing that he wasn’t alive to remember xyz thing happening, never used xyz technology bc he didn’t exist yet, not expecting him to agree with the fact that some ppl were saying songs they grew up to were oldies, etc

[brawltogethernow]

The thing about Peter Parker is that he was raised by senior citizens the way other heroes are raised by wolves. He has the body of an Olympic gymnast and the soul of a malcontented geriatric. This likely contributed to the perpetuation of the accidental ruse.

[brawltogethernow]

It’s when he channels Aunt May so hard he makes it sound like he was personally and immediately affected by McCarthyism that the time traveler fringe theory starts really picking up bets.

[brawltogethernow]

Pal, I JUST SAID he was raised by AUNT MAY.

Also not to get real on a ha ha comic post but the elderly are not your enemy. There are old progressives.

[rubythecrimsonwriter]

Peter has a lot of feelings about the woman that discovered DNA and he strikes me as the kind of person that thinks that distancing yourself from notable figures of history by using their last names is stupid, so he’s going to say something like, “Rosalind worked so fucking hard to have that work snatched from her,” immediately followed by, “I woulda thumped him good,” and inspiring Tony and Banner to frantically look through the 1930s and 40s yearbooks at King’s College and theorize which one was Spider-Man. Captain America tries reminiscing about the good ole days with him. Peter, for his part, has been absently agreeing and making vague “I’m listening” noises about the Rolling Stones and Elton John for the majority of his life, so adding baseball, Duke Ellington, and Ella Fitzgerald to the list wasn’t that much of a stretch.

[brawltogethernow]

There are only like three genuinely funny additions on this, but this is one of them.

[rubixpsyche]

Literally the only thing giving him away is him making jokes from his own generation and even then.

What if the heroes his age think he’s just a really cool Older Adult that actually understands memes and shit

[brawltogethernow]

Johnny Storm: Yesterday Spider-Man said “yeet” and I felt a deep wrongness in my soul. It was like watching a bear drive a car. Novel, but just wrong. He’s trying to endear himself to me, probably because he’s planning something, probably my untimely murder. He used it right, too. That’s the part that’s terrifying.

Sue: Johnny what the hell are you talking about.

Ben: Whaddahell is a yeen’t.

[marshal-mellow]

Cap: so, did you serve in the war too? I figure they’d have wanted a guy like you.

Peter *cackling nervously*: uhh- well I wasn’t really around at the time.

Cap *nodding*: hmmm ok then you were born after I went down, right?

Peter: I really don’t want to talk about that… era at the moment, brings back bad memories you know? I’m gonna go yeet myself off that building.

Cap *slumped over and looking very much defeated*: Man, I missed out on so many slang words…

[glumshoe]

hiking? to get places? can’t relate

[glumshoe]

I hate hiking with people who want to reach destinations or travel a certain distance. I LOVE hiking with people who don’t mind stopping every thirty feet to look inside rotting logs or photograph spiders or identify salamanders. people who hike for exercise confuse and terrify me.

[lyrslair]

OH MY GOD YOU UNDERSTAND.

[glumshoe]

I joined an outdoors club in college and it fucking sucked because all anyone wanted to do was get to the top of the mountain as quickly as possible and only stopped to drink water and eat trail mix. It was awful.

[glumshoe]

Ideal hiking companions: botanists, entomologists, mycologists, people with asthma, children with ADHD, easily distractible dogs, people with great butts who walk slightly faster than I do

[gerrymander90]

So apparently JRR Tolkien was considered (mostly by his wife Edith and CS Lewis) to be the worst person to take a walk with because he’d stop every ten feet and spend thirty minutes looking at a leaf.

[theworldbrewery]

dungeons for coastal settings

a sand castle-building contest gone terribly astray: the day after the event, one of the sand castles has grown to the size of a real castle. the party may be charged with determining the cause, rescuing a wayward child that ventured inside, or simply recovering any treasure to be found within its sandy walls.

a limestone cliff cave system inhabited by lizardfolk or kobolds, who have enlisted the party’s help with something–perhaps dealing with their “neighbors” deeper underground, resolving a territorial dispute with a black dragon, or excavating something dangerous they found while exploring the innermost burrows.

a lighthouse, abandoned with time after a newer lighthouse was built nearer to town. the party may be camping there to escape bad weather, resolve the report of ghostly screams from the area, or hear rumors of the old lighthouse-keeper’s buried treasure amassed from old wrecks.

a low tide where the local bay has been drained of water, revealing several sunken ships–the mission may be to get treasure or capture pirates that fled there to hide from the law.

people going missing in the sand dunes–the dunes shift and change, but surround what appear to be underground tunnels, and entrances and exits appear and disappear.

an offshore drilling rig has been destroyed or sabotaged. the mission objective might be to determine what they were drilling for, rescue any survivors, or recover important documents from the wreckage, all while evading the mysterious cause of the destruction. Spooky Points if the rig is partially made of glass.

[tfw-adhd]

[tfw-adhd]

How does ADHD affect social skills? I feel like I can never talk to anyone like a normal human being, I’m super awkward around strangers and end up saying weird stuff. Is this like an ADHD thing or is it just a personality trait? thanks!

ADHD definitely affects our social skills in ways that NT people will think of as negative.

Because it’s hard to focus, we don’t always pick up on social cues like other people might. For example, someone might want to leave, but we might not notice because we don’t pick up on their body language as we just aren’t thinking about it.

Sometimes, though, it can go the other way, and we can read too much into body language and word choices, because our RSD finds anything that could possibly seem negative, and uses it to tell us that they don’t want to talk anymore, and that we’re boring them. Our RSD can make it hard to hold friendships with people, because we spend a lot of time anxious that we’ve done something to upset them.

Also, because we hyperfixate on things, we can be extremely passionate about one particular thing, and unable to stop ourselves from talking about it, even if we can tell that the other person isn’t really interested.

We can be awkward around strangers, because it’s something we’re not used to, and although we can enjoy meeting new people sometimes, it’s hard to start up conversations when you have no idea what this person is like, and no idea how they’re going to react to things you say.

Also, adhd comes with mild anxiety in situations where we don’t know what to do or say. So if someone asks us a question about ourselves and we’re not quite sure how to answer it, we can feel the pressure to respond and end up blurting out something that sounds weird or isn’t entirely true.

We also have a need to be liked, which is tied into our RSD. We know (or we think we know) what rejection is like, and we know that we hate it, so we can sometimes overcompensate when we meet new people, and try to impress them but end up coming across as a bit weird.

Sometimes we also aren’t very good at holding eye contact with a person we’re speaking to. It can make us uncomfortable, and then that’s all we can think about until we start focusing on the conversation again.

We have a tendency to interrupt, too. We can hear something that’s said, and our brain works fast enough that we’ve made a ton of connections between whatever the person just said, and something that seems unrelated. So then we excitably tell them about this thing, not realising we’re interrupting, or that whatever we just said needs a little more explanation because they have no clue why we said it.

[tfw-adhd]

"Second hand" RSD when someone I'm close to is told off by someone I respect. Because I feel that I'm being rejected by association or because I'm experiencing more empathy than I'd like to? Who's to say.

Oh, I’ve felt that once or twice, and it’s definitely no fun.

[tfw-adhd]

Can be an ADHD thing to get violent intrusive thoughts when you're frustrated? Like, I get mad really easily and if someone keeps brushing against me or smth I'll want to shove them and yell at them, or worse if I'm really annoyed that day. I'd never actually intentionally hurt someone and I feel really bad for even thinking of it :(

Yeah, studies have been done into people with ADHD and the link with intrusive thoughts, and although it’s not listed as a symptom, they’re definitely more common in us than people without ADHD.

[healthypartyyy]

Just to weigh in - I have been designated both Sweetest and Calmest by my friends group, but if a stranger is walking slowly in front of me the only thing that can quell my rage is imagining hulk-smashing them out of the way, perhaps with a lamppost. It is INTENSE and graphic but it only lasts a few seconds then I go on with my day. I know I’d never act on it (!) so I no longer feel bad about it. It is uncomfortable, but I’d consider it a reaction to emotional dysregulation, in the same way that swearing makes pain more manageable. We are not our thoughts, and the fact that it bothers you says more than the reaction itself. ❤  

[limetimo]

I would randomly think about driving right into a wall? Or I would be drying the dishes and mom’s nagging at me and I’d have this short but intense moment of rage when I thought of stabbing a knife in her back? Is that intrusive thoughts? I’d never act on it but I think it...

[tfw-adhd]

Yes, those are intrusive thoughts!

Sometimes Neurotypical people wrongly use the term ‘intrusive thoughts’ to describe things like... thinking about picking up a leaf and eating it. But that is an impulsive thought. Intrusive thoughts are violent, unwanted, and often distressing.

[gerrymander90]

Well shit, I thought it was suicidal ideation. I got my mom worked up over nothing.

(Not ‘nothing’ nothing, you know what I mean)

[oe9]

does anyone else secretly have that “i liked it before it was cool” complex but wont admit it

[whataboutsargeantcrunch]

it’s more along the lines of “you guys were fucking making fun of me for liking this before it was cool” kinda complex

[anglophile-rin]

Also a “I super excitedly tried to show this to you years ago and you brushed it off and now you think you introduced it to me and that is infuriating” kinda complex

[fluffmugger]

Also the common subspecies  “I  tried to show this to you years ago and you brushed it off but now someone ELSE has made noises about it you suddenly think it’s worthy of note and don’t understand why I would feel insulted by that”

[animalbody]

depressed kids in the media: I don’t wanna go to therapy! I don’t need help! I’m not some specimen for you to dissect!

me, rollin up to my therapist’s office and collapsing in relief: what is UP my homeboy I fuckin missed you,, hope ur ready to hear some Bull Shit that fuckin happened to me this week

[gay-jesus-probably]

families of depressed kids in media: okay sweetie we’ve researched depression for ten hours straight and signed you up for therapy and re-arranged your school schedule to be less stressful

actual parents of depressed kids: look i get you’re sad but someones gotta do the goddamn dishes stop being lazy get up. why didn’t you go to school today, what’s wrong with you, you’re such a burden on this family.

[kremeroyale]

Therapists in the media: *understanding head tilt*

My real live therapist whom I adore: Natalie, that is the DUMBEST thing I’ve ever heard.

[nullannddvooiid]

Therapists in Media: Lets do some art therapy and be really quiet while we talk about your feelings :)))))) also I’m prescribing you 500 different medicines

My therapist Brian who I love to death: Jack, I think your first problem is you stay up too late looking at memes, so let’s try taking a nap

[exjwthings]

My real life therapist: Okay, before we start, I found this hilarious video I know you’d love.

[tfw-adhd]

I've got an analogy as well! ADHD is like driving a vehicle with a manual transmission while everyone around you is driving automatic. They just assume you drive automatic as well and don't understand why you can't just shift gears without taking extra steps. And if you only do things the way the automatic drivers tell you, you stall out and then feel really embarrassed about how you can't shift gears like they can.

That’s a very good analogy!!

[tfw-adhd]

Diagrams Showing Overlapping Symptoms

ADHD and Autism

ADHD, Autism and OCD

ADHD and OCD

ADHD, Autism and PTSD

ADHD and PTSD

ADHD, PTSD and Depression

ADHD, Anxiety, and Depression

ADHD, Autism, and Anxiety

Anxiety, Autism, and Depression

Anxiety and Autism

Anxiety and Depression

[pinkprettycure]

Ppl without ADHD be like “oh if I get rid of all possible distractions then you’ll be forced to focus on the boring task!” Fool… You underestimate my Power 

[sushinfood]

My partner: dear it’s time to get up

Me: but distractions

Partner: I have removed them

Me: sleeps

[immarainbowpatooie]

Person: we have removed all possible distractions

Me: but have you considered this?

Me: *zones out and daydreams*

[quinintheclouds]

Person: I have removed all distractions so you can do [insert task]

Me: *chuckles* Silly neurotypical. So naïve… Don’t you see? I AM the distraction.

[siderealsandman]

The distraction is coming from inside the house

[skzloona]

That’s cuz this is the exact opposite of what you wanna do with ADHD. If you take away all input your brain is going to shut down. It has nothing to do. You need to find the right passive secondary input that will allow your brain to function enough to start what you need to start. What counts is different for everyone. Snacking, White noise, music, stim toys, podcasts, wiggling. A thing that will give you stimulation but isn’t enough to totally satisfy it so your brain wants to do more. Then you push yourself to do the task because your brain finally has all the pieces it needs to function.

Don’t force yourself into focusing the same way a neurotypical does. It will only hurt you. Find new ways that work for your neurotype.

[pentag0nal]

I struggle a lot with this. :/

[crocky-wock]

Thank you!!! Holmesmutual, this is such good advice!

[thelivingmemegod]

Is-is this why doing the dishes puts me in the mood to do stuff??????

[tfw-adhd]

my therapist asked on a scale of 1 to 10 how much time I was doing ok and how much bad during and I was like ????? I don't know, I'm scared of exaggerating because I have no concept of time, I could've been crying for 2 hours or 10 minutes I literally don't know the difference, it's not like I look at the clock when I start feeling down and when it ends i check the time

can this be time blindness or me being plain stupid?

That sounds like time blindness, yeah.

[gerrymander90]

I’ve started measuring things in intervals of ten minutes; it helps with being on time too. Does it really take twenty minutes to get there? It’s probably closer to twelve, but if I count it as twenty then I’ll get there early, and it’s not that far off, really.

[tfw-adhd]

Also, I tend to clap my hands after coming into my room or being by myself. It’s so weird, but I’m thinking it’s a way to release tension or get nervous energy out? Luckily i only do it once I’m away from others. Any thoughts? Do ADHDers get tics or something similar? Thank you!

It sounds like you’re probably stimming!

[gerrymander90]

Something my dad does that I picked up as an inside joke but actually really helps me is to rub your hands together in a circular motion, then clap twice to ‘seal the magic in’. It’s the dumbest thing, but it makes both of us grin like morons and helps refocus me.

Maybe it really does seal the magic in.