Coming to terms with the fact that my brain works differently from others has been a huge struggle for me. This comes up especially in relationships/ friendships. I get so easily overwhelmed and shut down HARD. Any suggestions to help me stay engaged in things even when it feels overwhelming?
If I’m stuck in a lock and can’t find the motivation, I watch how to adhd’s “wall of awful” and “motivation bridge”. Highly recommend. Also recently I found an app called Deepstash that has cards with summarized ideas from books and podcasts. Super helpful to read the idea or listen to it in 5 mins instead of the weeks I’d spend not reading the whole book, but the ideas are so helpful and inspiring. Just doom scroll the right stuff and surround yourself with content that has the message you want to embody or that is about the thing you need to do and hope your brain eventually does the thing and gets distracted but on the right thing. For real, I’ve actually had a lot of success just straight gaslighting/koolaiding myself by making all my apps and feeds and socials positive, inspiring, motivational, productivity hacks, and/or a straight pipeline of funny or interesting content about whatever subject I’m supposed to be learning (like subscribing only to r/mathmemes and other math subreddits and watching 3blue1brown). If you can isolate your trigger for what sets off the state of overwhelm and try to predict what led there and then try to stave that off somehow, youll experience them less often and less intensely, but to be real I feel the best managed I’ve ever been in my life and it still happens all the time. But usually now only once every few months for a week or two at most, instead of before which was basically twice a year for 4 months a time lol
Best I’ve gotten over time was choosing people that know you and will let you off the hook if you’re in that deep. And avoiding doing that like the plague by saying “ooo that sounds really cool, and I know I’m never going to do it, but I’d love to help brainstorm and do stuff at the start”. That’s me anyways, but basically communicate boundaries and limits open and frequently and have a plan with whoever for when you do go over. I just like to be left alone and I super appreciate my partner taking care of the chores and feeding me so I have the energy to engage elsewhere (if I have that). Usually for me it’s like a pile of stuff and a bucket that feels infinite, but it’s not, and once I cross that limit things start to spill out and multiply because all the things in my bucket grew an extra “procrastination/late penalty/anxiety” thing and now it’s just chaos like popcorn. So I surround myself with people that will take stuff off until I can calm down enough to take care of the popcorn, and when I’m better I take things back and try to learn a lesson and have a lot of gratitude for the people in my life.
Hi...I'm watching this post!
I take lots of breaks. I go to the bathroom or my car and just close my eyes and empty out for a second. The re-set I find to be really helpful. And, as much as I can, I try to communicate with my close relationships that I struggle with overwhelm and shutdown so that we have common language and they have more of an understanding of my unorthodox behavior and needs. Also, nervous system regulation - doing things like rubbing my arms or tapping my chest or doing a breathing technique help keep my nervous system regulated when I’m in an overwhelming situation.
Breaks +1. And sometimes I just put my earphones, play some music I love and put my head to the desk, table, whatever I have... Then I close my eyes... This also helps me to recharge a little.
Watching. I am struggling with the same thing.
