I've been trying to make tsumego a habit and I keep switching between two approaches: a few problems every day (5 to 10 minutes) or one longer session on the weekend.
Short daily sets are easier to keep up, but I'm not sure I'm reading deep enough. Longer sessions feel more serious, but I skip them more often.
What works for you? Do you read each problem all the way before checking the answer, or do you give yourself a time limit?
So I am almost 40... I haven't worked out in years for the age old excuses of work/family/etc..
I used to be really into fitness but I'd say the past 5 years I have had no motivation and it feels like a chore (never thought I'd say that)...
So now, and I know this isn't some earth shattering feat, i am doing pushups daily. It's actually a nice break in between calls to go see how many i can do. plus it keeps track so i can see what i've been up to.
These pushups have led to jogging twice a week. no more alcohol. and cutting out ice cream. and for the first time in a long time I feel like I can really get back into shape. scratch that, i actually feel some kind of hope / desire to improve. And it is such a wonderful feeling.
The moral of this story isn't find an app... You just got to find something to spark the desire again. I know for a while this felt impossible but don't give up!
For months now, I’ve been struggling with executive dysfunction worse than I ever have in my life.
I started Adderall about a year and a half ago, and for a while I was also taking Strattera. Toward the end of last year, I stopped taking the Strattera because I kept missing doses and honestly thought it wasn’t doing anything for me.
Looking back now, I think I was very wrong.
Within about a month of stopping it, I started having serious problems getting out of bed. I missed a shift at work as a no-call/no-show because I literally did not get up. I couldn’t get myself moving. Over the next few months, it started happening more and more often.
For the last six months especially, it has gotten so bad that I’ve felt like I don’t have control over myself sometimes. There have been days where I was physically sick, but other times it was just executive dysfunction so severe that I could not make myself move. I’ve never experienced anything like this before.
Adderall definitely helps me once I’m already awake and moving. It helps me focus, work, and actually get things done during the day. But it never really fixed the “getting started” problem, especially getting out of bed in the morning. It feels like it treats one half of my ADHD really well while leaving the other half completely untouched.
I also tried Qelbree at one point, and it actually helped a lot with getting me out of bed and giving me motivation. I had quite a few side effects, although I was managing them, but then my insurance wouldn’t cover it and the trial packs ran out. That was when my doctor switched me to Adderall.
The Adderall has helped a lot, but lately I started thinking back and realizing something: when I was taking Strattera, even though I didn’t think it was helping, I could get out of bed.
My doctor put me back on Strattera, and I started taking it again yesterday.
And tonight I did the fucking dishes.
That probably sounds like nothing, but these dishes have literally been sitting there for months. For the last six months I’ve basically been washing one dish at a time whenever I absolutely needed something to eat or cook with. I think I’ve fully washed all my dishes maybe twice in six months.
Tonight I actually stood there and did them.
I also went through everything and downsized again. Since it’s just me, I kept one spoon, one fork, one knife, fewer plates and bowls, and fewer cooking utensils. I had something like six spatulas for absolutely no reason. 😂 I put the extras somewhere inconvenient so if I need something, I have to wash what I already used instead of letting another mountain build up.
But the dishes themselves aren’t really the point.
The point is that for months I have had almost no ability to make myself do anything outside of whatever emergency was directly in front of me. The problems getting out of bed have affected jobs, work, money, and basically every part of my life. I’ve been drowning financially partly because there have been times where I simply could not get myself up to go to work.
Sometimes it isn’t even that I consciously decide not to go. I just don’t fully wake up and get up. It feels like my brain makes the decision for me before I’m even conscious enough to fight it.
So tonight, having the energy and actual desire to do the dishes felt HUGE.
I know one productive night doesn’t prove the Strattera is magically fixing everything, especially after only restarting it yesterday. But I’m really hoping that getting back on it helps me regain whatever ability I seemed to have before to actually initiate things and get myself moving.
Has anyone else experienced something similar with Strattera, where you didn’t realize how much it was helping until you stopped taking it?
And for anyone who has dealt with executive dysfunction this severe, especially the “I physically cannot make myself get out of bed” kind, what helped you?