Adhd Studyblr @neurodivergentstudyblr - Tumblr Blog

fidefortitude-deactivated202011

irresponsible adhd top tip #???

sleep with the curtains open because you can turn off six hundred alarms but you can't turn off the sun without effort

fidefortitude-deactivated202011

irresponsible adhd top tip #??? + 1

once, a guy in my dorms came back from a hazing for a sport that you wouldn't think is the kind to do hazing. he was bloodied, crying, throwing up, and he had to be carried by two older students.

the conceit of the hazing was― they got the freshers drunk, and told them all that the person who ran hardest at the wall would avoid the hazing.

staring at a task, willing yourself to do it, is like running at that wall as hard as you can. it is, by design, not going to work. you will get bodily fluids on your sheep onesie.

you have a mind that lends itself perfectly to switching between tasks. let it wander. let it return in time, fresh and ready. if you keep running at that wall, you will get nothing in return but guilt and a headache.

fidefortitude-deactivated202011

irresponsible adhd top tip #??? + 2

with adhd, the easiest way to make a goal feel impossible is telling yourself you will do x thing every day from now on no matter what.

good news: this also works for obsessive habits you want to break. nothing makes you want to procrastinate on using social media more than giving yourself a specific goal about how to use it.

you could tell yourself to post 10 times or like thirty posts or use x feature every day or something. maube set a timer, and force yourself to not leave the app until 20 minutes have passed. you will be desperate to do anything else after that.

the negative brain patterns you have programmed into the 'i must do this' categories in your life can be hacked into the things you want to stop doing. you have that power. you've learned the techniques already, now you can apply them to the things you want to use them on

fidefortitude-deactivated202011

irresponsible adhd top tip #??? + 3

sleep clothes aren't mandatory and getting changed in the morning can delay the day by hours. before you go to bed, just change into the clothes you would usually spend the day in. you can always change again once you're up and about and it feels less herculean a task.

fidefortitude-deactivated202011

irresponsible adhd tip #??? +4

you want to do a thing? you need to do a thing? reverse psychology yourself:

do it for exactly thirty seconds and then force yourself to walk away.

your brain won't like that very much.

whimsically-whimsical

OP why did you imply that with effort I CAN turn off the sun

fidefortitude-deactivated202011

We know where it is and we know what it's made of. Anyone who knows those things about me could kill me

kkaitstudies

how i use google drive for university - pt 1: digital notetaking by kkaitstudies

idk about you but i’ve tested a bunch of note taking methods. in my last few years of university, i was indeed lazy and rarely referred back to the professor’s slides in the course shell. i opted to read off the slides in lecture and take notes. while MS OneNote is great, i found myself enjoying Google Drive much more. so here is a quick overview of how i take notes using Google Docs.

folders are your friends

make separate folders for each of your courses. google drive even gives you the option to change the colours of the folders. in these folders, add any relevant coursework such as the syllabi, readings, and your notes document.

use one doc for notes per course

once you receive the syllabi, take some time to take note of required readings, and assignment deadlines. i have created a free template you can save to your own google drive that you can access here. fill out:

- course code & name - prof’s name, office hours, and email - date(s) for each week of class - weekly readings (tip: if you have online readings, you can link them in the doc!) - & open the document outline (view > show document outline)

you also don’t have to use all these features. T B H, i didn’t do weekly readings. a lot. oops. BUT i did always pay attention in lecture. i simply deleted the “reading notes” header every week i didn’t bother to read.

make use of early access to lecture slides, headers, etc.

some profs (bless their souls) post the slides sometime before the lecture. if you have the time, copy the lecture slides into your notes. and if they don’t…type real quick to get all the info as it’s happening (or go back to slides online after lecture to see what you missed out on). i separate lecture topics with headers, with the bullet points underneath (see above). if there is anything that the prof says during class that isn’t in the lecture slides, i will change the colour of the text to a different colour. any important concepts or testable material are highlighted.

…and that’s how i take notes! everyone is different. not all note-taking methods work for everyone. this is what worked for me in my last 2 years of uni. hopefully a similar structure works for some of y’all! also, let me know what you think and @ me if you end up using my template. have a great semester!

coming soon: [ part 2: grade tracker | part 3: gmail and gcal ]

its-captain-sir

I gotta ask, how do people, like, do stuff???

maulusque

here’s what i’ve figured out so far:

-gotta have eat first

-gotta sleep enough first

(seriously so many days i’m like “i have all afternoon I’ma Do a Thing” and then i just kinda buzz around and do Nothing and think “WHY” and then i’m like “oh yeah i’m really fuckening tired”)

-gotta be Excited About It (ADHD brain only does things if they’re Literally the Most Interesting Thing Happening Right Now) (so like, hype yourself up to work on a project, or think about how happy you’ll be with a cleaner room/all those chores done)

-gotta have small, doable first step (like, “get cloth from fabric drawer” or “open google docs”

-FUCK distractions (computer is in drawer, phone is Off)

-Engage the Senses (if task needs Brain, play vague background Music, if task needs No Brain, listen to audiobook/podcast)

-maybe set time limit so i don’t get lost??? e.g. i have a little egg timer that i use because the ticking isn’t distracting but is enough to remind me that Time is a Thing that is Passing Right Now

-gotta have Self Awareness and Thinky about the Moment (get into the habit of Consciously Noticing what you’re doing at the moment, so you’re more likely to go “wait, this isn’t what i wanted to be doing” and be able to redirect)

-be willing to redirect and try to do something else if whatever you want to do Just Isn’t Happening

-DON’T beat yourself up for only doing part of something, or failing entirely- all that does is make your brain associate “trying to do stuff” with “well that SUCKED”. Which means you don’t want to try again. Tell urself u did good for trying, and if it didn’t work, try again later, or figure out why it didn’t work and try a different way. Reward yourself for trying

this is what i’ve figured out about cajoling the Thinky No Worky Brain into Doing Stuff. it’s not 100% reliable, especially if I forget to do some of these things (like SLEEP), but it’s what i got, ya know??

its-captain-sir

I wasn’t actually expecting any answers when I made that post but damn this is really helpful, thank you <3

macrolit

I’ve spent years maximizing the space on my bookshelves, and now I’m doing it with my kid’s t-shirt drawer. If you fold your shirts like this, you can “stack” them in a way that allows you to see all the shirts (without digging under piles) and use the full height of the drawer. There are over 40 shirts here.

macrolit

Okay, so some of you asked how the shirts are folded. That’s a good point. They will only fit perfectly in the drawer like this if they are all folded to exactly the same size. The photos below show you how to fold the shirts. In the second pic, you’ll see that I’m folding vertically down from the edge of the collar, and I’ll do that on both sides. This is what keeps all the shirts the same size in the drawer. Get it?

flikkerij

forever torn between “if this object isnt always in the same spot i’ll never remember it” and “if this object stays in the same place for more than 24 hours it’ll just become background and i’ll never remember it”

awheckery

Okay, but.

Have you considered: if it’s an important object, making its home Aesthetique™?

I’m living that ADHD life, and yeah, visual exhaustion is absolutely a thing. I can’t tell you how much time I spend every week looking for stuff that’s right in front of me or even in my hand (and I legit can’t tell you, once it’s north of an hour time ceases to exist for me), except!

I’ve figured out that I’m more likely to be able to find something if the place it’s supposed to live is something I like looking at. I have a little key hanger by my door with birds on it. It’s visually interesting, it pleases me to look at it, and I can see in a moment if my keys aren’t there before it becomes mission critical to have my keys.

(image of a brown metal key-hanger with three hooks in the shape of small stylized birds, and keys on each hook)

It’s tiny shit like this that can dramatically improve your life. I also do a lot of crafts, and because I am a self-aware trainwreck and a super visual person, I know that I need to have my materials where I can see them all the time. I also figure, if they’re gonna be constantly visible, I maybe oughtta make ‘em Aesthetique™, because I don’t want someone to stage a hoarding intervention.

(image of cube shelves with fabric stored in small bolts and scrolls, sorted in color wheel order)

This has the added bonus of curtailing my occasionally out-of-control shopping problem, because it feels like shopping through the stash I already have whenever I start something new.

Did it take a while to organize my fabric like that? HELL YES IT DID, but when I started I had maybe half as much material to organize, and I asked for help doing it. (Never be afraid to ask for help, my friends!) And seriously, since I like looking at my stash, since it makes me happy, since I’m proud of the work I did to make it look like that, I’m way more likely to keep it that way.

I actually took my closet doors a coupla days ago, so I can accomplish something similar with my wardrobe. I’ve got clothes I like and never wear because I forget they’re there, so I’m gonna make my closet Aesthetique™ and actually frickin’ use it.

tl;dr acknowledge how your brain works and work with your brain, fuck minimalism, be visual

sevdrag

FUCK

dnd-apothecary

………….oh

clowniconography

i am a:

⚪️ man

⚪️ woman

🔘 person with adhd

and i am seeking:

⚪️ men

⚪️ women

🔘 meals that can be prepared in under 5 minutes

john-marshall

Here’s a low spoons meal plan that I made as an autistic, mentally ill person, mostly made for a good friend with ADHD and chronic pain.

All of the recipes don’t require any more cooking than a microwave or toaster, and don’t require any utensils other than a fork or spoon. I tried to make as many ingredients as possible shelf stable so that you can pick and choose as needed. It’s made to minimize dishes, time, and gross motor skills required.

popsunner

Was just informed by my mom that I do in fact have ADHD and the reason I thought I didn’t was because ever since I was seven whenever I got super energetic my mom would have me go chop wood so now when I’m feeling The ADHD I go chop wood and I thought it was just some sort of routine I started when I was little and wanted to blow off steam

popsunner

I’d also like to point out that my sister has a really hard time staying present (I can’t remember the term because we’ve always called it Tethered at my house) and whenever she’s feeling Untethered my mom has her knead bread and make syrup because they’re repetitive and easy things to do that ground her

popsunner

Now that I’m thinking about it- my brother has days where he doesn’t talk and doesn’t eat unless he’s prompted, and on those days my mom sits him down in the fish pond in the backyard and plays Mozart and because he’s so used to that being his wake up he always comes back in after like an hour rambling about random things

popsunner

Oh yeah and when it rains my mom has a required hour where we all have to go outside and run around and whoever finds the most worms for the garden wins and then we go inside and my mom makes us tea and we watch Studio Ghibli movies

popsunner

Wait!!! When one of us has a bad day at school we make a fire in the backyard and roast homemade sausages and my mom tells us stories until we laugh and then she tucks is in bed like we’re five again and sings us songs

popsunner

Uh.... wait guys is my mom a witch raising a bunch of fae kids hold on-

saint-batrick

your mom is very definitely a witch raising a bunch of fae kids, please tell her i love her in the abstract way one can love a complete stranger.

iminthearmsofmorpheus

Me: *is in a hurry for an important work appointment*

Also me: *searches car keys at the exact place where I put it five seconds ago*

The place:

apollodraconis

Lmfao I’ve literally gone into a store for a while hour and got back to my car only to realize that I didn’t have my car keys. Do you known where they were? On the driver’s seat. So I’ll locked out of my car with cold groceries. I had to call my mom to bring me the spare key.

Guess what happened a second time? Except I came prepared. I had the spare key in my wallet and now I’ll never be stuck without a key 😎

iminthearmsofmorpheus

What I like so much about that reblog is that it reminds me of an important idea: We need to find (sometimes unusual) ways to cope with our symptoms rather than just letting them control us. :)

inkblue-computerhead

some things i’ve learned while studying in quarantine

drink more water instead of more coffee.

weekly goals are bullshit. set yourself 3-day goals. you’ll be less laid-back.

don’t just mindlessly stare at words. before you start studying, know your approach to it. have a plan.

summarizing the concept in your own words is the key part of taking notes. don’t just copy things down, convert them into your own way of talking, your own vocabulary, no matter how dumb and unprofessional it sounds.

don’t let the “studyblr aesthetic” fool you. studying doesn’t have to be pretty. summaries and notes can be messy as long as they’re comprehensible. you can always rewrite and reorganize them later. (honestly, you better do. and you better keep them.)

don’t throw away the papers you’ve solved your problems in. staple them to the fucking textbook. you need to see them constantly. cause you’ll need reminders of how far you’ve came, when you’re feeling discouraged.

don’t be an armchair analyst for your issues. if you have an idea then act on it.

remember: the exact point where it becomes difficult, is where your growth begins. take a deep breath, and try to focus on the paragraph in front of you.

get off your high horse and understand that if you’re a zero, you won’t go to 100 in a couple of days. first, you’ll need to reach 30, then from 30 to 60, and then from 60 to 90. nobody is 100 everyday. that happens very rarely.

you need to have fun everyday. you need to have peaceful time every single day. even on exam night. especially on exam night, actually. so make sure you’ve studied enough so you can have some time to yourself.

once you’re on a roll and in need of some challenge to stay on track, start writing down your studying hours. tell yourself you’re not allowed to do less than 80% of what you did yesterday. whatever the hell it was, even just one hour. so if yesterday you really studied for like, say 8 hours, today your goal is to study for at least 6 and a half hours. if you can’t keep up with that, make it 70%, or 60%.

be forgiving of yourself. be kind to yourself. even if you bounced back and lost your streak. start again. as slowly as you did before. take your time. it’s okay, you were there once you can get there again.

autismandstuff

A cool technique for time management.

cosmicastrogazer

This is handy, and VERY well shot; I followed it with no problems even with no sound. In fact I don’t even know if there is sound, because I’m in a doctor’s office and I forgot my headphones.

quousque

oh SHIT gonna have to give this a shot

its-captain-sir

I gotta ask, how do people, like, do stuff???

maulusque

here’s what i’ve figured out so far:

-gotta have eat first

-gotta sleep enough first

-gotta have small, doable first step (like, “get cloth from fabric drawer” or “open google docs”

-FUCK distractions (computer is in drawer, phone is Off)

-Engage the Senses (if task needs Brain, play vague background Music, if task needs No Brain, listen to audiobook/podcast)

-be willing to redirect and try to do something else if whatever you want to do Just Isn’t Happening

its-captain-sir

I wasn’t actually expecting any answers when I made that post but damn this is really helpful, thank you <3

midsummernight98

my #1 piece of advice for anyone who is not used being stuck in their homes is to remember, every day, to do things that ground you.

playing on the computer, watching movies and tvs, even reading books - these are all great ways to make time pass quickly BUT they are not grounding activities, they are activities that instead make you more prone to getting lost in your head a bit - you look up and it’s 2 in the morning and you don’t know where the day went.

so alternate any activity that involves escapism (text messaging, movies, video games, ect.) with a grounding activity. otherwise, if you’re like me, you’ll start to feel all weird and floaty and nothing matters and what is time and when was the last time i ate.

obviously, work with what resources you have and keep in mind any issues, physical or otherwise, that might make these suggestions not right for you.

also, i like to do all of these with my preschooler and toddler, because they benefit from the shared activity and from the grounding themselves as well. i’m not a board-game mom or a mom that likes to coordinate cute art projects or activities - i just don’t have the focus for that (adhd). instead i prefer to just share activities with my kids as described below.

suggested grounding activities:

* cooking a meal. not microwaving something, preparing a meal that involves chopping vegetables, requires you to stand over a steaming pan stirring constantly. bake a boxed cake for no reason other than you need a grounding activity. chop an onion. make ants-on-a-log. look at the weird leftover stuff in the pantry and make something equally weird with it. (my husband likes to do this.)

* walking (my favorite). if you can, go outside to walk, if not, even walking around the rooms in your house will help. take your kids on a walk. raining? go for a (brief) walk anyway. my kids LOVE a rainy day walk because they get to splash in muddy puddles.

* loud, cheerful music that you sing along to. this is not the time for wistful, angsty breakup music. you want abba. you want cyndi lauper. you want “you can call me al.” PLEASE dance along. PLEASE sing as loud as you can. kids will love having a dance party.

* making art. glue popsickle sticks, paint with watercolors, anything messy or tactile is A+++. everyone has 500 rolls of toilet paper, use those empty rolls for art projects. playdoh. molding clay. my kids’ favorite activity is stringing beads on pipe cleaners.

* heavy work. if you have the resources and a backyard, a good thing to do is to go outside and start moving heavy things. clear out a spot for a garden. move bricks. clean up trash. if you don’t have outside space, move your furniture around the room. push and pull and lift, if you can. alphabetize your book collection, moving your hardbacks from shelf to shelf.

* picking a small area or room and cleaning it. what i mean is: washing a window, wiping a baseboard, scrubbing a tub. doesn’t have to be the whole room. just one thing. what i am NOT suggesting: organizing closets and shelves. organizing requires making decisions. you are probably not in the right headspace for descision-making right now. please chose MINDLESS physical grounding activities. as an added bonus, cleaning makes you feel productive AND soothes your anxiety over germs. for example, my kids LOVE to mop. they beg for that priviledge. let them mop! make a big wet mess on the floor and then dry it up with towels.

* play with toys. i am literally suggesting pulling out a box of blocks and sitting on the floor with your kids, if you have them, or with your pets, if you don’t. blocks are great for grounding me (and my kids). build towers, roads, cities, ect. it’s tactile, mindless and meditative, and it’s probably something you don’t usually do every day, so it’s novel. other suggestions: barbies. matchbox cars. nothing that requires batteries or makes noise. no lego sets - an open-ended activity. don’t try to follow directions. just get a bunch of foam blocks and make a tower.

* paint your nails. paint your kids’ nails. both my son and daughter love having their nails painted. it’s tactile, it’s good physical contact, it tickles a little, it’s mindless.

* play with a pet. order a laser pointer for your kitty or get a squeaky ball for the dog. get on the floor.

these are some suggestions off the top of my head, please feel free to add more

bimbocracy

hey! Obvi you don't have to answer this if you don't want to but my roommate has ADHD and chore incompletence sounds a lot like what she has going on - she often means to do her dishes, clean the bathroom, ect., but has trouble getting started or finishing up. However, she often feels really bad when she sees me finish those for her. Bc she's kinda sensitive to this I'm hesitant to bring it up without things I can propose to help. What do you find supports you most when you're struggling w that?

i am so so glad you asked me this, i feel for your roommate (and for you) a lottttt. one thing that might help if it works for you, is whenever you plan on doing the chores, you ask her if she can help you/if y’all can do them together. i don’t just mean when you finish up her chores cause that will get old for you, but when you are about to do yours you could suggest she do hers alongside you. it’s often way way easier to stay on task when you’re doing something alongside someone else, and easier to get started in the first place too. esp something like cleaning the bathroom, which is both your responsibility (as opposed to one person’s dishes or smth), it could make it a lot less unpleasant to do it together!

beyond that, it’s mostly about finding things that work for her, which is smth that falls to her. as someone who’s fully been there, i can say the most important thing you can do for her is make sure she knows you don’t think she’s just lazy and selfish, and you’re on her side when it comes to solving this problem. it prob won’t be a comfortable convo for her but if you’re kind about it, she kind of has to be able to deal with it, even though she’s sensitive, bc your quality of life is just as important as hers. if she can’t find her way to doing the dishes in a timely manner (which, been there) you can suggest to her that she use paper plates. little things that solve issues like that will be the key to getting shit running smoothly.

i can’t speak for anyone else w adhd, but personally, i *deeply* appreciate reminders (as long as they’re like, kind). i try my best to remember shit on my own but realistically i know a lot of shit is going to be forgotten, and someone gently reminding me “hey girl you have to ___” is a godsend. think of it like the voice in your brain that reminds you to do things is just not present in hers. so whenever you get that voice (like oh the bathroom needs cleaning) you can say it out loud.

if you put in all this effort to work with her and find solutions and she’s still not improving (maybe not immediately perfect but *improving*) then the problem is not just her adhd and she could actually just be trying harder. by improving i mean like, the situation is improving and you personally are happier because you’ve found workarounds that make things go more smoothly. i don’t mean she becomes more capable of eg remembering shit cause that is just not on the table for a lot of us unfortunately.

and i hope that the effort you show her in this area is effort that she returns to you in another area! she can’t help her adhd but knowing that someone close to you is doing their best to help you out in this way means you should be trying to do something for them too, in whatever way you can (maybe she’s great emotional support etc etc).

bimbocracy

oh and one last note (it seems like you know this already and are actually very sensitive to her particular weaknesses and to her feelings so this is more for anyone else reading) but one thing that will definitely not help is just silently doing everything by yourself and getting quietly frustrated at her. the most that will achieve is when she sees something has been cleaned without her she’ll feel acute guilt and anxiety which will just create more negative associations w chores and put more roadblocks between her and domestic functionality.

it is always, always better to say it out loud, ask her for help directly, and do it before you get frustrated so you can be genuinely kind abt it.

bimbocracy

Hopefully this can be a short term help while I gather up the energy to answer the one u sent me 😪💓

solitarelee

Considering how commonplace the advice of “just LET your children TALK TO YOU about their INTERESTS” is on Tumblr, it’s astonishing to me how few people seem to realize/accept that that’s a two-way street, especially as adults.

I’m not telling you how to relate to parents who were shitty/abusive to you, obviously, but given a relatively healthy relationship or the ATTEMPT to build one as adults, you’ve genuinely got to let your older relatives talk to you in their own way about the things they’re interested in. Yes, sometimes it is painfully boring, yes, sometimes they do it in a slow or round-about manner or tell you way too much, but sometimes it’s boring listening to a twelve year old talk about fortnite. I still do it, because people, adult or child, need and want people to talk to about their interests.

My dad is into the cringiest possible anime. I am halfway to dissociation every time he spends 30-60 minutes walking me through the entire plot of an anime, one episode at a time. One time we had an eight hour car ride and that was the ENTIRE trip and by the end I wanted to DIE. But I still let him do it! Because he needs someone to talk to his passions about, and I care about him and know that being that person for him makes him happy and improves our relationship. Because of that, we spent the SECOND eight hour car ride talking about the history of unions, something I spent 27 years not even knowing my father had an interest in!

Let your parents talk to you about the dumb facebook videos they saw or the funny ancient wine mom memes they like or that time they went to korea and over-reacted to kimchi. Kids aren’t the only ones who just want their family to be interested in what they have to say.

naamahdarling

this is such a good take.

concerningwolves

This is something that’s difficult to learn when you’re a child, but I think it’s also particularly difficult for neurodivergent people of all ages to learn and remember. One way that I’ve conceptualised it to help me remember is this: communication is a two-way street, and if you go barrelling down the street at full speed, other people will need to move out of your way. Remembering to slow down is difficult, but it’s worth it in the long run.

fagderolo

when yr adhd does the intense Anger thing n u gotta remind yr brain that u dont wanna throw yr phone full force at a wall

val-ritz

gentle reminder to myself and those it may concern that “obsess over it silently, completely frozen while you just fume for six hours” is also not a healthy solution

andthentheywilleatthestars

what do I do then?

val-ritz

in the words of one JJ Bittenbinder, throw yourself off your rhythm!

anxiety and anger are extremely persistent in ADHD because we fixate on that input and devote all our runtime to trying to “fix” it when in reality the only way to fix it is to leave it alone. considering we are diagnosed with Chronic Cannot Leave It Alone Disease, that is Difficult.

when you’re outside one of these loops, take inventory of all the things you do that suck you into devoting all your attention to them. when i was a kid, the way i avoided asthma attacks was i played video games while taking my meds, so i wouldn’t be fixating on the anxiety and making the asthma worse. nowadays, i avoid anger spirals by also playing video games (in my experience turn-based strategy is a hyperfocus superhighway so i use those) so i’m forced to divert resources to do this other thing.

joke’s on you, impotent fury, you can’t kidnap my brain if my brain is somewhere else entirely

STREET SMARTS

surlydruid

Me, at my brain trying to suck me into a spiral of self destructive rage:

frogs-smoking-cigarettes

No im not doing it i dont care

actslikeacat

Can anyone explain why this sucks so much. Like I thought I would love it because I don’t like social interaction and like being able to work in a way that actually helps me (ex: being able to listen to music) but it’s the worst thing so far and I’m not getting anything done.

ashbur-deactivated20250915

@actslikeacat Most people with ADHD thrive on structure and compartmentalization, and with distance learning, that isn’t a thing. We’re in the same place for every class AND extracurricular, and there’s no physical transition to help our brains shift from one thing to the next. Basically, we’ve lost our anchor points and we can’t slow ourselves down or steer our brains in the directions we want them to go. Distance learning has introduced a legitimate accessibility barrier for a SIGNIFICANT portion of the population.

pathsofpassion

It's not just structure - it's EXTERNALLY IMPOSED structure. Trying to give ourselves structure is like trying to bail out the Titanic with a bucket. All the advice for studying/working from home right now is like 'make sure you give yourself a schedule and stick to it', and for a lot of us that is just not something we can *do*.

All the adderall in the world won't help us stick to an internally motivated structure.

ginathethundergoddess

I'm not even in school anymore and this is a fucking mood. It's just as hard to deal with as an adult and if anyone has any advice we'd really appreciate it.

npcdeath

fyi to yall in quarantine whos grasp on reality is getting a little slippery: isolation, intense boredom, stress and lack of positive routine are absolutely contributing factors to exacerbating psychosis and psychosis-adjacent disorders, even latent ones. im not saying this to fearmonger im saying it so u can recognise it and take steps to handle it especially if it induces your first ever episode.

some warning signs can include

starting to believe unusual things that you previously did not believe (e.g. living in a simulation / you or others around you not being real / secretly being in hell or dead / otherworldly beings communicating with you somehow / government conspiracies / everyone around you is out to get you and harboring ill intent)

seeing things youre pretty sure arent there (e.g. shadow people, floating lights, stationary objects moving on their own, animals in a house that doesnt have pets)

hearing things (e.g. murmured voices, occasional clear and loud voices, faint music, scratching sounds, any without a source)

feeling a sense of dread or generalised paranoia, a sense that you are being watched or that something terrible is looming on the horizon but you dont know what

having extra trouble putting your thoughts in order and speaking coherently, cannot concentrate, space out to the point of feeling slightly catatonic

those most at risk are anyone with a family history of this vein of mental illness as well as those using certain drugs to get through the tedium of quarantine - if this is you, its best to research whether the substances youre using have documented links to triggering episodes of psychosis in users. weed is included in this, not just psychoactive drugs.

here are some steps you can take to get a handle on the situation if your grasp on reality is slipping like this and you cant access irl mental health resources.

have a routine. this is vitally important - you need structure. set an alarm for a specific time every day, even though you have nowhere to be. give yourself a bedtime. eat 2 meals a day, at least, at regular times.

leave the house. no, i dont mean Go Out, just be outside for a while every day or two. go for a walk if you can. stand outside your house for 15 minutes paying attention to the cars and the birds and the breeze and the clouds if you cant. really observe your surroundings. get sunlight.

on that note - let as much natural light into your house as possible during waking hours. your circadian rhythm needs it.

take up some form of hobby that requires physical engagement - whether thats journaling, drawing, making origami, gardening, cooking. the point of this is to ground yourself in your body and the world around you, have an affect on your surroundings, and stimulate your brain.

dont dwell on your delusions, hallucinations or distressing trains of thought if you can help it. that isnt to say "snap out of it and just dont have symptoms", but rather accept them without either judging them or overindulging in them. observe them as they happen, accept that they happen, and let it go, if you can. you may not be able to control the experiences, but you can control how you react to them, and the best case scenario is not allowing them to overwhelm your thoughts and your days. this is much easier said than done, especially if the experiences are distressing in nature, but the aim is to sever the feedback loop that causes further stress and thus further bad extrasensory experiences.

this is honestly just a basic surface scratch of advice though bc im by no means an expert, just someone w latent psychosis who used to work in the field for a while. there are tons of resources online by others who have experienced psychosis that can be a huge help if u think you might be at risk due to the stress, boredom and uncertainty of quarantine

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