If your distractions are all in the browser, Leechblock is pretty good. It can specify a time when to block a list of sites or URL patterns, or limit time per session and refresh every X hours. It can “soft-block” by making it black&white, or hard-block.

Is it like the “Prison Break” show, where each book he somehow gets trapped on an island AGAIN?

Nobody:

Robinson Crusoe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-Wc8vluyp0

Me neither, but I love it - like an old Amish grandma watching American Wrestling.

Thanks! I realise just now how utterly hopeless it would have been without meds to get things done. Never stood a chance back then. Back in the day, I would have tried to wing it without list, and thought like: “Nice, all week off. Just these two letters and the email and the obvious stuff.”

Then I would have procrastinated on that, and all the forgotten extra things would have hit me randomly like a micro adrenaline shocks.

Yes, how much is for the kid? I’d say about 80%, including most of the household.

Child-related tasks marked:

Let’s hope. The original freemind that I use does not work with current JRE versions, needed to get an old one just for that. Not sure why things are incompatible, maybe for really old stuff where programmers felt like they needed to use the internal com.sun packages?

Seems like there are already containerised builds of freemind bundled with JRE, lol.

wow didn’t know it, thanks!

Trying meds upon alarm again might be one of the most promising tips, thanks.

Got to take a rain check on part II, but you keep up the good work for the both of us until then!

Sir, this is a Wendy’s.

Surprising - coffee is something I quickly adjust to, and after a couple of weeks, it’s just what I need to reach normal. Guarana works more even, but I keep reverting to 0 caffeine every 1 - 3 years, lol. The endless circle …

I once had a special alarm clock: It was a red punching ball that would blink and go off like a siren. Hanging from the ceiling. To snooze, it had to be punched. But every time, it pulled itself closer to the ceiling, so I had to get up more and more to hit it.

Crazy times, but I managed to switch to softer methods. Your idea is still the way I go for the “last resort” alarm, #3.

A start is a start, and these can be the first steps into a better life.

That being said, you are not where you want to be yet, and you need to keep going in the right direction. Don’t worry about how fast you do that, but keep going. Many people are disappointed at how little they can change within a month, but astonished how much they can do in a year when they stick to it. Would be too bad if you only ever experience the former.

What is missing? I can think of two things:

1. More methods. What are you doing already? Do you have ideas how you could do a little more while the meds are peaking? E. g. set a 30 minute timer after taking them, then set another 20 minute timer during which you work on the thing that would improve your life, just as a random example. Or cut out a thing that holds you back, such as doomscrolling during peak, or other vices.
2. Change in treatment or additional diagnostic. Different meds working better, therapist, exercise and diet? Additional co-morbidity, such as depression or a physical condition making you tired?

And definitely no baby now. Nope, nope, nope. Recipe for disaster.

1.5 years into treatment, I am both astonished at how much I improved as well as how much there still is to do.

It’s crucial; you’ll have a short boost and then crash, otherwise. Personally, I also have to track the calories, because if I’d eat intuitively, it’d be nothing for 6 hours, then crash & crave fast food & sugar.

Edit: Same for rest, by the way. Can’t just rest when I feel like it, I have to time it. For household chores, I can either do 3 hours non-stop and crash, or I can alternate 20 minutes work, 10 minutes lying down, but then for pretty much the whole day.

Yes, it’s infuriating. Here in Germany, I have to pay ~EUR 1.1k per month, and it covers immediately life-threatening diseases completely and well, but a missed diagnosis can lead to a lot of suffering. A completely different life. Had to pay out-of-pocket eventually. Now that the diagnosis is there, there is a theoretical path to have meds covered, but it’s not worth the hassle to make it a priority.

I noticed that the way to go is always meds plus methods. Constantly checking out new methods and improving on making better use of them.

Can’t he hook you up with a non-stim?

Wish I had the diagnosis for my marriage. Would have been a real chance. So much pointless suffering everywhere due to missed ADHS/depression/trauma/autism/… All while the health systems cost a fortune.

surprisingly good advice

Good doc. Problem is that I overcompensate for things, so others perceive them as a strength.

For example, appointments. There are so many things in place to show up on time, and it involves panic, thresholds, time triggers etc.The “most relaxed” method is: Casually start to get ready early by putting required things in front of the door, so it would not open without taking them. Then, at a certain time, “panic mode” is triggered; at that point, I treat it like a building-on-fire kind of situation. But the thought that “panic mode” would still fix any slack in the preparation is what avoids panic for most of the process. Panic includes flashing images of ridiculous, unrealistic escalations and consequences of what could happen from being late.

What people see: He’s always on time.

Or to still get things done. I need a list of ridiculous granularity, like point 1: “create this list”. Check. Then use tricks, such as “just do ONE thing from the list now”, to bypass executive dysfunction.

Emotional regulation is something that my kid’s occupational therapist is totally aware of and working on. It would be really surprising if a child psychiatrist or child therapist were as “baffled” by it as the article seems to suggest.

But it’s an important topic, especially in his case, and I learned a lot from the article.

I completely disagree with the replies. Doctors DO tend to prescribe an insane starting dose!

At least with stims, start very low to check for intolerance. If it’s lisdexamfetamine, 5 mg is very safe, but that’d typically be 1/4 of the minimum 20.

It’s one of the few instances where I’d even say: Don’t listen to your doctor. Stims on someone with ADHD are a wildcard. Might have a calming effect, or might feel like way too strong coffee. My doctor agreed to doing it this way, though.

Did the psychologist provide an official diagnosis that a doctor is allowed to fully rely on? Is the appointment with a psychiatrist?

Tricks to keep a long duration are definitely a thing, and I want to find them all. One of the most important for me is to eat and rest as if I did NOT take meds, even though they suppress fatigue and hunger.

I can do a 3 hour cleaning spree and then collapse, or force regular rests even when I feel “full power”, just because the clock says so, and then keep doing 30 hour intervals all day long.