The thing with ADHD is that transitioning, that is; switching tasks, locations or topics quickly after hyperfocusing/perseverating is painfully difficult. I'm not even hyperbolizing. My brain feels weird, I feel unsettled and my nerves are jangly. There is a very real physical response to switching gears, and it's icky.
What helps me (when I remember) is writing down my thoughts. Beyond the webz and my innumerable blogs I have a moleskine journal. My diagnosis diary! When I'm unable to use my diary (exams, w/e) I've been known to write down my twisty tangled thoughts on any available scrap of paper because the process of transitioning makes my head a hurricane of half-formed thoughts and to-do lists. Writing down these thoughts, concerns and lists brings order back to my scrambled brain. I also find it to be a type of meditation.
The act of writing, with a pen and piece of paper, is hypnotic. This thread of suspended pigment flows out of this nub in my hand onto this semi-absorbent sheet of cellulose and some how, through the magic of human ingenuity, it represents my thoughts and feelings. The dual act of physically ordering my thoughts and marveling over the process of writing eventually leaves my brain quiet. I can almost hear "Om" at the end of a particularly satisfying scribble session.
Why yes, I have already written in my journal. And then I meta'd the fuck out of it by writing about writing in my journal in another journal.
Also: compartmentalizing. Compartmentalizing helps ADHDers a lot. Even if it doesn't make sense to neurotypicals, if how you personally organize your thoughts and stories makes sense to you, GO FOR IT. It's your damn physical representation of your brainspace. Do what you want with it.
Monday, November 12, 2012
Transitioning and how I cope with it
Labels:
adhd,
coping strategies,
mental health,
neuroatypical,
neurotypical,
transitioning,
writing
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