#kodemunkey

[tfw-adhd]

Hello, I was diagnosed in April of this year with Innatentive ADHD and have been on meds since May, I kinda feel like someone owes me the past 20 years of my life back. I'm 37

I’m so sorry! But I’m glad that you have finally managed to get a diagnosis!

[pens-swords-stuff]

Hi there, i saw your post about writing and i have a question. In 2011 I started writing what was going to be a science fiction novel. In 2012 I put it aside to study photography at university. I feel like being at university and having to write for deadlines and reading a lot killed my interest in both. I graduated in 2014 and I honestly miss reading and writing things. How can i get into both again?

My advice to you is to start small, and set zero expectations for yourself.

For reading, you pick a book that sounds pretty interesting. All you need to do is have that book nearby — just carry it around with you. You don’t have to read it, all you need to do is have it close no matter where you are. Maybe you’ll read it when you have a bit of downtime, maybe you won’t. Both are okay. But if you do want to give it a shot, it’s right there.

Maybe you pick up the book, read the first page or so and put it down. That’s okay too. Maybe you don’t pick it up for several weeks after — that’s fine! Just be sure to have it nearby. It took me a month to get past the first few pages of a book after my reading drought, and I had to reread the first few pages several times over. But eventually something clicked, and I finished that book in one night. Until you get to the point where you’re reading voraciously again, all you need to do is have it nearby, pick it up when you feel like it, and put it down when you’re done for the moment. That’s all you need to do.

Don’t feel ashamed or frustrated when you can’t go on — forcing it isn’t going to make reading fun. Your only task is to keep it nearby. 

The same goes for writing as well. 

Open up a document, and write down a sentence — just a single, simple sentence. Maybe that sentence will become two sentences if you feel like it, maybe it won’t. Both are fine. Right now, your task is to just write one sentence. If you go above and beyond, great! If you don’t, you already completed your task.

Once you get the hang of writing down sentences and you feel like writing more, your next goal is one paragraph. Just one paragraph — a short three sentence paragraph is fine. Maybe you keep going, maybe you don’t, both are okay.

Right now, your goal is to just write a tiny bit. Don’t push yourself too hard, we’re just taking baby steps at the moment. Just get into the habit of writing one sentence every so often. Keep going if you have more to say, stop if you’re struggling.

Once you start reading again, writing will become easier as well because you might get inspired and get an idea. If reading is still slow-going, watch some TV shows or a movie, play a video game, listen to some podcasts. Open yourself up to inspiration without expecting anything — you might be surprised at what ideas you come up with.

And when you get an idea, don’t focus on writing it out just yet. Just jot down a note so you won’t forget it (bullet points are fine), and write a single sentence about it. 

Eventually, reading one page will become reading two pages, a chapter, an entire book. Writing down one sentence will become a paragraph, a scene, a chapter. Maybe not now, but you’re preparing yourself to go there. 

For now, just dip your toes back into the water, and let them adjust to the temperature. When you’re used to it, you can go a little bit deeper. When you go to the gym for the first time in years, you don’t immediately pick up the 100lb weight; you start with something much lighter and work your way up. It’s the same thing here.

Take it slow and don’t push yourself. You’re probably very rusty and it’s okay! Take it easy and go a little bit by little bit until it’s fun again. Be kind, forgive yourself for not being able to do more, and do what you can, when you can. Good luck!

I now have an updated FAQ and Ask Guidelines for Writing Advice, please check those out first if you have a question about writing or Writeblr!

Ask Guidelines | FAQ | Advice Masterlist

[kodemunkey]

ADHD and Me

I’m a British guy,  37 years old and I found out in April that I have innatentive adhd. I also have dyslexia, dyspraxia and suspected high functioning autism. I’ve seen a lot of things over the years about how people with adhd are always hyperactive and can never sit still. I’m neither of those things, I was always the “quiet, smart kid with his head in a book” It was only in October last year that it dawned on me that after years of struggling with my grades (always “acceptably bad” just enough to scrape by in school, college and later university, where they thought “Oh maybe he has dyslexia, let’s get him tested” I was seen and tested by one of the leading experts in the country to get my statement organised, and I utterly baffled them, as one of my test results came back as the highest test score she had ever seen, and this was a woman who had been doing this for close to fourty years solid at this point. So, I had my dyslexia statement and everything was figured out and I was pigeon holed quite nicely, next person please. I had gone to university, primarily to spite my school teachers (aside from one, who passed away a few years after i finished primary school and had always tried to find ways to help me, I miss her even now) My attempt at a foundation degree was, to be frank quite bad, as the college it was run through was labled as an  “Arts College” But was anything but that, they would give you 6 weeks to do a project, where everything was to be done in a set way, you were expected to spend two and a half weeks researching and exhaustively analysing your research before going out to shoot and comng back and doing the same to your work and going out again to do more. I would go out and shoot for four weeks and come back with two weeks to spare to work on my analysis and just about made the cut for submissions. It wasn’t until four years on various courses with the same tutor that he thought I was “different” They spoke to the other tutors and staff, who knew me quite well at this point and decided I was an “intuative photographer” which I guess helped a little, but i still struggled. I somehow managed to scrape enough brainpower and grades together to go to the University For The Creative Arts (UCA) at Rochester in Kent. The difference in education styles was, to be frank, shocking and alarming. I didn’t have to produce a lick of written analysis or a single contact sheet and I had up to three months to produce a project! The quality of my work improved immensely, as did my grades when it came to my written work, I was a C average student, which is far more than I ever thought possible. I graduated with a third class honours degree in 2014. It’s now 2020 and I still can’t read or write for pleasure like I used to pre university. As for the employment situation, it’s been pretty bad for me, the Job Centre don’t know what to do with me, I’ve been on every single scheme they can get money to send me to, and i’m still no better off. I even tried to go self employed through a scheme they put me on, I chose to be a pet photographer after a lot of market research. The scheme provider and HMRC give you two years to turn a profit before they make you shut down if you’ve not earned anything. The Job Centre demanded I pull the plug after six months. I’m still continuing my photography, at present it’s a “profesional hobby” and i’m  starting to alright with it. Fast forward to this year when I was diagnosed in April via a Zoom call (god how I loathe and hate video conferencing) by a wonderful consultant named Marco Cattani, who I believe is one of the leading ADHD experts. He told me after a conference between me and my older brother who had arranged everything that he suspects i have innatentive ADHD and possibly high functioning autism. I was in a daze for about two weeks after that, though i do remember at a followup conversation we spoke about medication, he told me all the options available to me and I asked to be prescribed medication from the weak side of the scale, my older brother also has ADHD and is on amphetamine based medication and it has benefited him immensely. He runs a web design agency in brighton with a sizeable staff and has a small art gallery too. Even before his diagnosis, he was, in any conventional sense successful, his agency has won numerous awards, he (pre covid) went on holiday a couple of times a year, owns his own house and has a flat he rents out in Brighton, he’s also married to his long term girlfriend and has a chubby ginger cat who adopted him out of the blue one day. Marco (the adhd consultant) prescribed me Concerta XL at 18 mg dose to start with, I now take 36mg once a day) What follows next is what taking Concerta XL was like (and still is) for me. Day 1, i take the tablet early in the day as I was told to, so that it would have time to kick in, which takes about 30 minutes to absorb it. 30 minutes later, my heart starts to race (which is something I was told would happen) I had to leave the house right there and then and I went for an extremely long walk (this was also during the opening stages of the Covid-19 pandemic here) Three hours later, I come back home and was still pretty wired from the tablet, so I spent the rest of the day alone in my room, not wanting to inflict myself on anyone. The next day, I felt utterly sick to my stomach and had a headache, I tried to actually be sick in the bathroom, but where i hadn’t eaten the previous day, there was nothing to get rid of. I sat dazed and under three huge blankets in the middle of an early summer, feeling like crap. My brother checked in on my later that day, having been told by my parents (who I live with) what had happened. He told me: “Oh, I should have warned you about that, I forgot”. That’s great, thanks for that. Over the next month, the palpitations gradualy subside as the tablets start to work. An “added bonus” is appetite control, pre meds, i was almost 22 stone as I would be eating and snacking all day long to try and control my anxieties (food and social mainly) These days, I don’t actually want to eat unless i’m going out on a (socially distanced) photoshoot. My weight has dropped off slowly since then and is almost stable, which has pretty much never happened before in my life. The most difficult thing I’m dealing with is that the meds are making me re-examine large parts of my life, to the point where I tell people that I feel like i’m owed the past 20 years of my life back. To me i’m somewhere between serious and it being a bit of a dark joke, to anyone on the outside they either don’t respond or say “well, we all wish that” It has also lead to me questioning my gender identity, which until this hit me in the face like a ton of bricks I didn’t know was even possible. I can’t talk to my family about this as they’re somewhat “traditional” and won’t understand, with the exception of my sister, who I belive identifies as asexual. I have a long way to go before I figure out the “normal” for me, which I guess is true for a lot of people during the current pandemic. I myself used to believe the adhd stereotypes before I found out i have it and am now on medication, now though I see things very differently. While the tablets do help me to focus on things (such as this) It’s taken me about 4 hours to type out and I feel like this is the most useful thing I can do today, even though I have photoshoots to organise for the next month. Medication is extremely useful, but it’s also life changing, It’s basically like having your brain removed, spun around, put back in and then rewired on the fly. I’ll have to stay on these things for the rest of my life, which is fine. Thank you for reading.

[joliebean]

Hi there. I don't suppose you know of any mods that stop sims from dropping dead or staging fight clubs while my shop is open?

Hi! Lol, have never seen this in my game, but I’ve never had a shop in ts4 lol Though there was no fight in a vet clinic. I guess you can check @littlemssam, maybe they have some mod that can help you, or this site, which has a lot of small mod fixes as well.

[sokea-cc]

Now I've calmed down a bit, I'll explain. One od my sim families have a small shop. On opening day, an elderly paparazzi photographer chose my shop to die in, my sim convinced the grim reaper to let the guy live. Since then, whenever my shop is open, there's at least one or two customer fights in the shop.

oh god THE SIMS!!! 😂 sorry I instantly thought this was some irl thing and I was really confused!

But I’m really sorry hun, I don’t even remember the last time I played the game and I’ve certainly never played with owning/running a business so I have absolutely no clue! I only ever make cc 😅

Does anyone know any fixes for this issue?

[blahberry-pancake]

Hi there, I just discovered your CC. I love your accessories

Aww thank you so much! So sweet! <3 I’m always glad to deliver haha. 

[tfw-adhd]

I'm 37 and was diagnosed with innatentive adhd in April. I've been on Concerta XL since May and I feel like someone owes me at least the last 20 years of my life back

I’m so sorry, that’s terrible! But I’m glad you’re getting help now <3

[sokea-cc]

Hello, do you know how to stop customers from holding fight clubs in my shop when it's open?

HUH