ADHD

12388 readers

110 users here now

A casual community for people with ADHD

Values:

Acceptance, Openness, Understanding, Equality, Reciprocity.

Rules:

No abusive, derogatory, or offensive post/comments.
No porn, gore, spam, or advertisements allowed.
Do not request for donations.
Do not link to other social media or paywalled content.
Do not gatekeep or diagnose.
Mark NSFW content accordingly.
No racism, homophobia, sexism, ableism, or ageism.
Respectful venting, including dealing with oppressive neurotypical culture, is okay.
Discussing other neurological problems like autism, anxiety, ptsd, and brain injury are allowed.
Discussions regarding medication are allowed as long as you are describing your own situation and not telling others what to do (only qualified medical practitioners can prescribe medication).

Encouraged:

Funny memes.
Welcoming and accepting attitudes.
Questions on confusing situations.
Seeking and sharing support.
Engagement in our values.

Relevant Lemmy communities:

Neurodivergent Life Hacks

lemmy.world/c/adhd will happily promote other ND communities as long as said communities demonstrate that they share our values.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

MrPoopyButthole@lemmy.world

MrPoopyButthole@lemmy.dbzer0.com

Is it okay for a therapist to tell me to just accept this trait? (lemmy.zip)

submitted 1 month ago by aavied@lemmy.zip to c/adhd@lemmy.world

29 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I have ADHD, and my therapist has confirmed it, just like the results of ADHD tests. He isn't bad, he greatly helps me with my depression. However, he doesn't provide an official diagnosis nor prescribe pills.

He says it's my trait and that I should learn to live with it. Like, take more breaks, find a motivation. Easy to say, hard to do. I can't keep up with the strategies he suggests, and I feel like I'm not trying hard enough.

The world doesn't wait for me. This trait is ruining my work and my routine, and it's stealing my money and my time. I can't start tasks, I can't concentrate, and I can't do anything boring or unpleasant.

For example, I can stare at a wall in the middle of a work task, with my hand over the keyboard, and lose myself in thoughts about my hobby. And I don't give a damn at this moment about all my reminders, the absence of irritants, and so on.

Of course, sometimes I can force myself "just to do it", but it costs a ton of energy (btw, because of my depression, I have a tiny amount of energy). It often requires a ton of luck, too.

Is this normal? Am I just complaining?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] autriyo@feddit.org 2 points 1 month ago

It is a trait of you, but the way you describe it you are not able to deal with said trait. I do like the idea of learning to live with it, doesn't work all the time though.

All the strategies in the world won't help if you can't reliably adhere to them. For example, allocating time in the future to do a task, doesn't work if you can't rely on actually starting and finishing that task. It's a really powerful strategy when it works, but for me it only works since I've gotten medicated.

Unless your surroundings can accommodate such situations, meaning someone else picks up what you couldn't finish for example, learning to deal with the trait probably won't work in the long run.