1d ago

Not sure how to feel anymore

25 comments

I must have a different kind of ADHD because I need to be an hour or two early for my appointments, or I’m constantly stressed I’ll forget them.
- Ah yes, the oven mitts
- This is me. :( I am so panicked by that 1100 hours appointment that I can't do anything for the entire morning, and ABSOLUTELY MUST leave with time to spare for traffic, getting pulled over, and maybe an unfortunate incident with the neighbor's cat, just in case!
  I'm bad with the 'routine' stuff, where I once had to call in sick to work because I couldn't find my keys, or I am on the computer, typing a reply on lemmy, when I have five minutes until I need to leave for work... speaking of... glances at clock
  
  hey, that's me too! the same with losing the entire morning for stuff in the afternoon, being overly on time for first time appointments, but once it becomes routine, i am so late, including the "i post 5 mins before i have to go, and i'm not even dressed or showered yet".
  The comment i made before this one was one of those comments. Glad to be home again.
  I really should get diagnosed (in my 40s) and medicated if possible, but i've got so much medical stuff going on already, i really don't want to add to it.
- Is there a kind of adhd for precisely calculating exactly how long it will take to get ready and travel to wherever and staying in bed until the last minute, only to realize you've misplaced your wallet and keys and end up 20 minutes late anyway?
  
  No idea if it will help, as I am going to try it too, but we may need to put our keys and wallet in the good place before going to sleep when we have important things the next day. The only way I ever get to the airport on time is to:
  Pack early (try...)
  Put all electronics in a pile on or near luggage/backpack, charging
  Put all the other extremely important shit on top as well. Keys, wallet, etc.
  Lay out my clothes for tomorrow, so I just have to wake up and put them on.
  Stress about missing my flight and sleep like shit.
  The only other thing that helps me is Tile, so I can at least narrow down which room my keys or wallet is in. The little speaker can get kind of damaged on the wallet one, but the BT is fine.
  
  Sometimes I do toss my wallet and keys right next to each other on the stairs and that helps. The issue is when I grab something from my car and absentmindedly set them somewhere else and don't realize until I need them again. Tile might be life changing for me lol.
  
  I learned at a young age to get a small bowl or drawer or box for my desk and always always always put the pocket things in that same bowl/drawer/box forever
  
  I dunno, but there's certainly one for going, everything's ready but I don't need to leave for 20min, hmm, 20min, I'll just do something, ohnoohnoohno I'm late!
  
  I think once my doctor started charging me money for being late or missing the appointment entirely, the consequences were enough to overcome. The number of times though for this exact scenario... Yeah, been there, done that. Timers, timers, and more timers.
  
  The folly of trying to minimax your life.
- Same kind of ADHD, different coping mechanism, I think.
  
  Yeah, I'm also more on the time blindness overcompensation club.
  If I have no time fixed, minutes stretch into hours.
  If I have some fixed time scheduled, I live by the clock and will rather be way too early than a little to late.
  I have to trick my non ADHD wife to be on time, because if there's a schedule, I'm the master time keeper.
  Being late is just way more stressful and I hate rushing and the anxiety of being too late to the train or some doctor or whatever.
  My coping mechanism is to have the anxiety way earlier than other people. Everyone believes I'm amazingly organized.
  
  I'm this way for my scheduled appointments. For the store I'll just get an idea in my head that I need groceries and I'll just get up and go to the store wandering around looking at stuff and building meals off of whatever I grab. But then I get to work almost an hour early and just play on my phone for 45 minutes.

25 comments