When I was little, my parents would tell me I had two dinosaurs in my tummy (I had a massive dinosaur phase), a T-Rex and a brachiosaurus (or whatever my current favorite herbivore was). If I didn't eat enough meat or veggies, they would tell me one of the dinos was starving. My husband and I were just brainstorming other food dinos. We have decided that ankylosauruses eat carbs like bread because they're omnivores (just roll with it) and candy and ice cream go to the rabid pack of compies. You cannot over feed the compsognathuses, else they will rapidly reproduce, get greedy, and eat you instead. What are the other food dinos?
Five is a nice, round, attainable number. Your room won’t be fully clean, but you’ll have Improved the Space, even if only slightly, and it helps combat the “oh no I haven’t done anything today this space is getting gradually messier” feeling.
It also helps me when I’m having a REALLY hard time getting out of the “oh gosh where do I start there’s just so much” overwhelm because I don’t have to deal with ALL of it. Just the five easiest out-of-place objects. A pair of socks can count as two things if you’re having a bad day.
For example; I’m finally getting up to pee after willing myself to do so for like an hour. Already on my feet, so might as well put Shoes in the shoe spot, laundry in the basket, mug in the sink - that’s three things already! Toss a couple pieces of trash, and you’ve done it!! Every tiny bit helps!
For extra Modivational Juice, try to do this in a short time period, like while your water boils or you’re heating something in the microwave. The false sense of urgency gives me the Speed to get the five things done Fast!
Dear ADHD friends, especially my newly diagnosed ones/ those who are just starting out on medications,
I am not a doctor. But I feel that every ADHDer taking medications should know,
Your ADHD medicine may stop working over time. This is called tolerance. It is normal and even to be expected.
Try not to immediately let your doctor up your dosage... and possibly make you feel the need to abuse.
Please, CONSIDER ASKING YOUR DOCTOR ABOUT TOLERATION BREAKS FIRST.
(Toleration breaks without guidance can lead to withdrawal, please be very careful and research the medication you are taking.)
And if you must increase dosage to the max and find yourself growing tolerant,
REMEMBER THAT THERE ARE MANY OPTIONS OUT THERE. YOU DO NOT NEED TO RESORT TO ABUSE.
Drug abuse, in general, is a stigmatized topic, and toleration for prescribed stimulants is something that I believe doesn't get talked about enough.
Your health is far more important than your grades, your work, and anything else your ADHD medicine may assist you with.
Toleration is your brain's response to the effects of stimulants over time. While some people experience it faster than others and it varies from person to person, there's a good chance that everyone taking stimulants will come across it at one point.
But once it happens, it's not the end of the world.
I'm recovering from stimulant abuse, and I NEED you to know, my friend:
The capitalist mindset may make you feel like you need to prioritize your ability to keep up with a neurotypical society over all else, but trust me. Your health comes first. No matter how demanding the world can be for us, you should NEVER risk hurting your body just to satisfy the increasingly harsh expectations of those around you.
Doctors will often immediately resort to upping your dosage in response to toleration. Once you've found your ideal dosage, avoid this unless absolutely necessary. Discuss toleration breaks with your doctor first.
It's a capitalist tactic to up your dosage when it's possibly not necessary with a little bit of breaks and listening to your brain.
By going off your medicine for a certain amount of time, the lack of stimulus may help your brain reduce that tolerance.
I didn't know this because toleration breaks don't get talked about enough.
This is what led me to stimulant abuse.
I kept growing tolerant to my medicines in a couple of weeks. Every time, my psychiatrist upped my dosage.
Eventually, I was at the max dosage. But I grew tolerant yet again.
I felt that I needed to risk my health in order to stay on top of school. So, instead of trying to take a break or getting help from my parents/doctor, I began to combine my medication with heavy energy drinks. Even if it worked, I felt sick. I was nauseous. I was shaky. I vomited. I couldn't eat. I struggled to breathe.
But I continued, and eventually started double dosing.
I became violently angry to the point I lost multiple friends. My stress was at an all-time high to the point where I couldn't sleep at night. I began to lose weight because I couldn't eat due to both loss of appetite and a sudden fear of gaining weight. My physical health got worse and worse. My goal was to get my grades up, but my grades also suffered.
Not long after, my body finally had enough, and I almost had a heart attack.
My parents finally saw through my masking and realized that something was wrong. I was taken to therapy where I got the help I needed.
I was taken off the medications for some time... and yes, I struggled with school. However, with the help of therapy, my parents, and teachers, I was able to make it through.
By the time I took my medicine again at a lower dose, it worked just like it used to. As I continue to heal, toleration breaks help me in ways that I cannot express in words. I've gotten much better thanks to it.
I learned it the hard way.
Stimulant abuse is never the answer. It's not worth it.
Some time without your medicine may be difficult, but trust me. It's far more worth it than risking your health and even life only for it to make everything worse. I'm BLESSED that my situation wasn't worse.
Keep your head high. Know that you are not a working machine, and you are a strong, beautiful human being that can get through this. You may feel belittled by the neurotypical "standards" that our society unfortunately has, but you're worth way beyond that. It's up to you to put your foot forward and have a say in your treatment.
And if you are currently going through stimulant abuse, know that you've got this. It's not your fault. You're completely valid. There is plenty of hope. Seeking help can save your life. Reach out to parents, doctors, school counselors, teachers, family members... ANYONE.
If you don't have anyone you feel you can safely speak to, here are some resources:
US:
The following are valuable external resources that can be used by anyone struggling directly or indirectly with addiction or mental…
UK:
Find a list of organisations and services who can help if you are experiencing addiction or dependency, such as to drugs, alcohol, sex, smok
FIND HOTLINE FOR YOUR COUNTRY:
Do you need to speak to someone right now? HelpGuide's directory of hotlines around the world can provide you with help.
I stumbled upon this video on the last long weekend and watched it while I was getting a room ready to renovate and paint.
There were some handy and affirming tips that helped me keep going while watching in parallel to decide what to move and clean first. It was nice to hear some words of care and compassion too.
Mornings with ADHD are none other than, an adventure. For women especially, mornings can feel like a battle between what you planned to do and what your brain actually decides to do. It’s not laziness—it’s a whirlwind of distractions, time blindness, and decision fatigue before the day even starts.
Let’s break down what mornings look like for ADHD women, and then I’ll share some tips that have helped me (on my good days). And stick around—there’s a little letter full of love waiting for you at the end.
The ADHD Woman’s Morning Struggle
1. The Snooze Button Olympics
The alarm goes off, but getting out of bed feels like climbing Mount Everest. Your brain tells you, Five more minutes won’t hurt. (Spoiler: it’s never just five minutes.)
2. Decision Paralysis: What Comes First?
Should you shower first? Make coffee? Check emails? You bounce between tasks, starting one and then abandoning it halfway through because, suddenly, your brain remembers you need to reorganize the junk drawer.
3. The Distraction Spiral
You’re brushing your teeth when you notice a smudge on the mirror. You clean it, which leads to wiping the sink, which leads to rearranging your skincare products. Oh, and now you’re late.
4. Time Blindness
You thought you had an hour to get ready, but somehow it’s been 40 minutes, and you haven’t even picked an outfit. Cue the last-minute scramble.
Tackling the ADHD Morning Chaos
Here’s the truth: ADHD mornings will never be perfect, but there are ways to make them less chaotic.
1. Prep the Night Before
I know, I know. It’s hard to think ahead when you’re exhausted at night, but even small things—like laying out clothes or packing your bag—can make mornings less overwhelming.
2. Use Alarms Strategically
Set multiple alarms for different tasks, like “Time to shower” or “Leave the house.” Bonus tip: Label them with funny, motivating messages like “You Got This, Babe!”
3. Simplify Your Choices
Fewer decisions = less stress. Create a “go-to” breakfast, keep a capsule wardrobe of easy outfits, and use the same morning routine checklist every day.
4. Create a Morning Playlist
Weather Music or religious songs or even recitation of your Holy Book played in your favourite app can help keep you on track and make mundane tasks more enjoyable.
Bonus: Use time-based playlists (e.g., “Three tracks to get dressed”).
5. Let Go of Perfection
Your morning doesn’t have to look like a Pinterest board. If you can get out the door fed, dressed, and on time, that’s a win.
A Letter to ADHD Women
Dear You,
I know mornings are hard. They’re loud, messy, and full of a hundred tiny battles your brain doesn’t feel ready to fight. You beat yourself up because it seems like everyone else has their morning routine figured out, while yours feels like controlled chaos at best.
But here’s the thing: Your mornings don’t define you. The way you tackle your day isn’t a reflection of how strong, smart, or capable you are. It’s just a reflection of how beautifully unique your brain is.
Yes, you take the long way sometimes. Yes, your coffee gets cold while you get distracted cleaning a drawer. But you also have this amazing ability to make life interesting, to find joy in the small, random things that others overlook.
So, here’s my wish for you: On the mornings when everything goes wrong, I hope you give yourself grace. On the mornings when you hit snooze too many times or forget to pack lunch, I hope you laugh it off. And on the mornings when you do manage to follow your plan, I hope you celebrate like it’s a victory—because it is.
Your mornings might not be perfect, but neither is life. And in the imperfection, there’s magic.
yknow, i dont see this talked about a lot within the tism community
if someone youre with stims, whether youre neurotypical or not, at least for me, dont point it out.
i grew up in a world where those sudden bursts of movements, those little actions, the stimming, the anything, gets you strange looks. thinking outside of the box gets you punished. i have learned to be ashamed, and have learned its against public norms (which if you violate those, from what ive been taught, youre a freak)!
im trying to break free from the mindset of “stimming is abnormal and you shouldnt do it in public” (only applied towards myself), and frankly its hard!
so even when a fellow autistic person or maybe a neurotypical points out “hey wow, youre stimming!” “hey you seem awfully happy!” “youre talking a lot today!” “you seem really fidgety!” i immediately get this horrible and burning sense of shame, even if it was meant positively!
i feel like its important to talk about not only normalizing things like these, but talking about the effects this culture has had on neurodivergent people! i feel like we need to hear from people who are still actively struggling to re-learn that its okay to be their own normal, even if it isnt societies normal.
not to trauma dump, but everything i mostly described up there was things that happened to me in the 7th grade! im a freshman in college currently, and frankly ive made very little progress in healing, which is okay! but people should learn and understand that simple things like those effect people for a LIFETIME.
you don’t automatically gotta learn to accept yourself, and that its okay to be ‘weird’ in public! it takes time and a lot of hard work, especially if its been chiseled into the deepest parts of your brain. dont bash yourself for being too shy to stim or too embarrassed in public by it, take it bit by bit!
this isnt really a complaint post because i love seeing all the positivity in these communities as of lately! but do try and be considerate of people who are still fighting their way out of that mindset! maybe take a little second to ask yourself if pointing out someones ND behavior is needed! theres still a lot of shame in a lot of people, including me, and thats an okay thing to have.
be aware of others shame and help them realize its normal to do all those things by not pointing it out! the less you point it out, at least for me, the more normal it makes it
Hello! I've been trying to learn to code for a long time now, but like many things in my life, it's been very difficult to Actually Do The Thing due to my mental health and life circumstances. I was actually prescribed a medication that helped immensely with my ADHD, but I temporarily cannot get it and that has tanked my ability to focus my brain.
Enter: this blog! I'm going to try to code at least a little bit every day! I will not be perfect and I will not beat myself up about that, but I will also encourage myself to be better. I am going to try to post every time I code and sometimes show what I am working on. I think I want to theme my projects to make them more fun. I will mainly be using freeCodeCamp to learn.
If you are in a similar situation, want inspiration, or are just interested in watching my journey, please give me a follow! I would also be extremely happy to get any feedback, advice, or tips. Thanks so much for reading :)
