Topics from ADDerWorld —- ADD Tip o the Day 291

ADDerWorld is a great website – clik here-for us with ADD or ADHD. Three current topics caught my eye – addiction to games, can’t clean room, and self flogging.

I was addicted to computer games, war games, loved them. Fun, challenging, sense of mastery, doesn’t really matter if you don’t do well, escape from real life. Problem was I was out of control, wasting too many hours, not getting work done, preoccupied with them when I wasn’t playing – “What if I try this next time; bet I’ll score higher.”

Tried all kinds of good strategies to deal with this; none of them worked. Finally I applied The Grand Strategy, The Drastic Strategy- erased all the games from my computer and threw away the disks. Heartbreaking, but it worked.

confession – I occasionally play freecell on my wifes computer, but can quit after one game, and can go days without it. I used to play online poker, but only on vacations. And I have a gameboy with chess, but only for vacations also. So far, not a problem, but needs watching.

doug

Anahi Ortiz MD on medications clik here

puryear on Ritalin clik here

puryear on drugs ( a biased rant) clik here

About doug with ADHD

I am a psychiatric physician. I learned I have ADHD at age 64, and then wrote two ADHD books for adults, focusing on strategies for making your life better. I just published my first novel, Alma Means Soul. Your Life Can Be Better; strategies for adults with ADD/ADHD available at amazon.com, or smashwords.com (for e books) Living Daily With Adult ADD or ADHD: 365 Tips O the Day ( e-book). This is one tip at a time, one page at a time, at your own pace. It's meant to last a year. As a child, I was a bully. Then there was a transformation. Now I am committed to helping people instead abusing them. The Bully was published in January, 2016. It's in print or e book, on Amazon.

View all posts by doug with ADHD →

7 Responses to Topics from ADDerWorld —- ADD Tip o the Day 291

Pingback: Time wasters and addictions – – – ADD Tip O the Day 549 | ADDadultstrategies
addadultstrategies says:

July 30, 2012 at 10:27 am

glad the book has been helpful. the envelope is a great idea! the beginning enthusiasm and fast burn out is a huge problem for us. one strategy is being aware of that as a problem and questioning any project before we start, then if go ahead, make a committment (upcoming blog), and not invest too much money at first. then use strategies to keep interest going.
structure is a good general strategy, for ex, maybe make a schedule of the day and/or for the week. Orlov has a great book.
as always, thank you very much for commenting.
doug

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- Scott Marckx says:
  
  July 30, 2012 at 3:31 pm
  
  Thank you Doug,
  Just seeing the concept that I self medicate with getting excited about projects has been a huge help. I’m also seeing that I can get interested in just about anything if I approach it from the right perspective. Also, getting started–showing up–is one of the big issues for me. That is where it seems the structure will help the most, showing up for the important things and not just flitting from one thing to another in a chaotic way. I’m hoping mindfulness work (meditation, etc.) will help as well. Again, the strategies in your book have been very helpful! Thank you!
  
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  - addadultstrategies says:
    
    July 31, 2012 at 8:24 pm
    
    thank you! and thank you for commenting. approaching from the right perspective sounds like good strategies. would you like to elaborate? maybe i can use it on the blog? and i may add more about structure.
    thanks
    doug
    
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    - Scott Marckx says:
      
      August 1, 2012 at 11:38 pm
      
      Hi Doug,
      Approaching from a different perspective could be as simple as seeing the situation from another person’s point of view. “Even though I’m bored with this right now, I get to do this and there was a time when I didn’t have a clue how to do it and there are other people who would love to get to do this. ” It could be changing a detail to make it more interesting like “What would happen if I layered these colors as separate coats instead of mixing them together, what about the yellow on the bottom and the red on top, or vice versa?” Another example is the neighbor who runs the outboard to clean it out at 10:00 p.m. What in one perspective is a nuisance could become a life saver if it happens when you’re house is being prowled. Just thinking of that possibility and perspective can change your reaction to the nuisance even though your house is not being prowled. Something I read in an ADD book talked about us as visual thinkers and being able to see things from different perspectives. Maybe we can monopolize on that ability.
      Thank you again for your book and your work!
      Scott
      
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      - addadultstrategies says:
        
        August 2, 2012 at 1:07 pm
        
        good tips- think of it from another persons part of view, and changing the way we do something so we don’t lose interest (maybe use my left hand in painting?). as always, thank you for commenting
        doug
        
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Scott Marckx says:

July 29, 2012 at 10:19 pm

I got hooked on making musical instruments at a young age and the “what if I try this next time” thing has kept me going for a long time. (It has been fairly annoying to my wife though when she got tired of hearing about the latest idea or project.) Lately I’ve been getting more and more side tracked into so many other things and my shop is a mess. (Not to mention the house and garden!) I noticed that a lot of the piles in my shop (and the house) are projects I got all excited about and then jumped to something else and just dropped them. Reading Melissa Orlov’s book “The ADHD Effect on Marriage” p 36-37 I realized I use that intense focus as self medication. It really clicked for me. This has caused a lot of chaos in my life but I hope to find a way to use it to straighten out my life. I’m hoping to figure out enough structure to keep me coming back to specific projects in a way that keeps me excited enough about them so I get that focus energy. We’ll see… The ideas in your book have been helpful. The cards are working when I look at them regularly and I made a little envelope for them that has some quotes and short, medium, and long term goals on it to remind me. I think it might be time to read it again and get some more ideas. Thank you for writing it!

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