Adhd bored with life
How I Beat Back Boredom—and the Blues
People with ADHD often experience depression after success. This usually occurs when the clarity of hyperfocus passes after completing a project. The noise and mental muddle returns, and, on their coattails, depression. For me, with a comorbid condition of depression alongside my ADHD, the “depression after success” syndrome triggers a major depressive episode if I don’t prepare for it.
What about girls with ADHD, who tend to be more inattentive than hyper? Findings show that women in the general population are more prone to low self-esteem, depression, and anxiety than men. Their ADHD counterparts are even more so. Boredom, in these cases, is a mental muddle that can trigger a funk similar to depression after success.
The instant I am bored my mind leaps in a more interesting direction. However, since boredom often got me into trouble (changing projects midstream, not finishing what I started, and so on), I developed coping strategies to prevent myself from leaping into the oncoming traffic of life.
I modified these strategies to help my daughter.
[Self-Test: Could You Have Depression?]
1. Decide to avoid boredom. When I gave my daughter this first step, she looked at me and said sarcastically, “Gee, thanks, Dad.” But then I explained that she needed to avoid boredom like she avoids doing the chores. Since she tended to slump into depression when she became bored, she needed to change how she looked at boredom. It’s like black ice you need to walk around. Only by avoiding boredom can she hope to prevent slipping into depression.
2. Choose three things to engage you when you are bored. You can’t decide not to do boring things. Life has lots of boring responsibilities we cannot avoid. You may not be able to make boring tasks un-boring, but the good news is that you can find things to help keep you focused. I told my daughter to take notes at school in different colored inks. If she couldn’t get up to move around, she could tap a pen on her knee or discretely jiggle her legs.
Simple things like these keep the ADHD mind active and prevent the melancholy of boredom from settling in. For her, the multicolored Bic pen was a big success. I suspect scented pens might also be effective for her.
3. Keep several entertaining activities on hand. When I am trapped in a waiting room, I have writing and drawing journals, an iPad, and an iPhone to keep me occupied. Other people knit, do crossword puzzles, solve Sudoku, or read a book. If one thing doesn’t work, have something else on hand to engage your mind. Keep it in a bag by the door to bring with you everywhere you go. Downtime doesn’t have to be dull.
The trick is to look at depression due to boredom as if you were drowning. Just as you would struggle to stay afloat, use mental activities like the ones I listed above to keep your mind engaged and not distracted. With practice, you’ll see the warning signs of an attention slump and avoid it with greater ease.
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How to Avoid Boredom in ADHD
ADHD boredom intolerance can cause you to act out in order to stimulate your brain.
Here are strategies that can help.
If you have ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), your brain consistently seeks stimulation and you likely crave mental and physical tasks that hold your interest.
When you get bored, you might suddenly zone out on the task at hand, fidget, or seek interest elsewhere. You may act out in a way to avoid boredom and stimulate the reward center in your brain. This is referred to as boredom intolerance.
But you aren’t doomed to struggle through boring tasks, trying to stay focused and not disruptive. There are strategies that can help you stop feeling bored and start staying focused.
If you have ADHD, your brain may have lower levels of the chemical dopamine that operates as a chemical messenger in the brain, communicating reward and regulating focus. This can affect your level of interest in things and the amount of stimulation you need and can handle.
You can quickly lose focus in areas of your life that you don’t enjoy, like homework or work.
By comparison, a person who doesn’t have ADHD often finds it easier to get through boring tasks in their day.
According to the organization Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (CHADD), neurotypical folks can often focus on future rewards, such as getting a good grade or a promotion at work, to help them pay attention.
But a person with ADHD has a harder time being motivated by future rewards. An ADHD brain wants boredom relief and it wants it now.
Research has shown that high rates or intensity of boredom is a core symptom of people with ADHD.
Feeling bored can lead to poor academic performance as well problems with relationships and attention.
The desire to avoid boredom can lead you to engage in activities that could be problematic, such as calling out in class or joining in on conversations that don’t involve you.
These behaviors may frustrate you and the people around you, leading to feelings of rejection and increased isolation.
In her book “The Elephant in the ADHD Room: Beating Boredom as the Secret to Managing ADHD,” Letitia Sweitzer argues that both boredom and boredom avoidance actually drive the clinical diagnostic types of ADHD, including:
- inattention
- impulsivity
- hyperactivity
Sweitzer offers several pieces of advice on how you can manage boredom and engage better. The following suggestions may help you to stop feeling bored and manage your less interesting tasks.
Figure out your elements of interest
One of the first things you can try is to figure out what activities, work, assignments, and outlets of expression are interesting to you.
If you don’t know, taking some self-discovery time may help to find activities that will allow you to avoid boredom.
When you find what you prefer, you can spend some time each day focusing on that activity to help stimulate you and prevent boredom from setting in.
Pen down your top joys
Boredom can become overwhelming at times, which is why writing down your top joys and interests may help during periods where boredom sets in.
If you have written down some interests, you can then select one of them when you are feeling bored or as a break to help prevent boredom.
The Attention Deficit Disorder Association (ADDA) recommends using other organizational tools, such as index cards, if you’re not a list person. If you use index cards, you can pull one out when bored and do the activity on the card.
Remix boring tasks
A problem you have likely run into is that you can’t always do things you love all day, every day. At some point, you’re going to have to do homework or go to work.
Just because you have to do something, doesn’t mean you can’t incorporate a stimulating task into a boring task.
Doing this will look different for everyone, but some ways to remix a boring task include:
- walking while making a work call
- adding a music playlist complimentary to ADHD to your activity
- using task-specific accessories that make you chuckle, such as a funny pen to write with or novelty toilet scrubber
- setting a timer to take a break
- working outside or in a preferred environment
- creating small rewards for yourself that you can enjoy once the task is complete
Of course, you need to follow the rules of your school and employer when modifying tasks, but sometimes a simple change that fits your interests can help keep you more engaged.
Stimulating activities for ADHD adults, teens, and kids
- handling fidget toys
- listening to short story audiobooks or podcasts
- playing games with yourself to motivate you to get through a tedious or boring task, such as competitions to see how much you can do in an hour
- trying evidence-based exercises good for ADHD, such as running, skiing, or dancing — anything that keeps you interested!
- learning a new skill such as a new language, programming, or cooking
- practicing mindfulness and giving yourself breaks
- working on quick puzzles or brain games
- taking a creative course such as painting, drawing, or pottery
ADHD boredom intolerance can cause you to seek stimulation when faced with boring activities. You may find yourself acting out, drifting off in your thoughts, or getting bored much more quickly than your peers.
And when you get bored, you may have more trouble stimulating your brain and getting motivated again.
To avoid boredom, you can take steps such as identifying things that bring you happiness and help stimulate your mind. You can also set time limits and spice up the less interesting responsibilities with other sensory stimuli while you focus.
Elizaveta Vlasova about the work of the information center – News – Media School – National Research University Higher School of Economics
Mass media that help intra-HSE clubs and organizations in promotion, and also do their own business or freelancing. Elizaveta Vlasova, a 2nd year student of the EP "Sociology and Social Informatics", the head of SDS: By Students For Students, shared her impressions. nine0003 Hello Lisa!
We know you were part of the May Conference Information Center team. Tell us a little more about what you did? What were your duties as a correspondent?
I took notes of the meetings, wrote down vivid quotes from the speakers and the course of the conversation in general.
This was necessary both for individual posts with their important and clever words, and for independent writing of articles about a particular meeting: who said what, in which direction the discussion was moving, and so on. Also, I took a lot of photos and videos, on the first day even too much. I was the person who uploaded my materials in 15.9 minutes0003
Did you manage any social networks? If yes, please tell us what exactly did you do?
We all made content for both the VKontakte group and Instagram. I seem to have had about the same number of posts for both sites. For the group, I wrote big press releases - it's a bit like a summary of the meeting, in my opinion. For Instagram, I wrote short and catchy texts, in which it was simply clear who and what was saying now, what happened at all, but without much detail. Also, I filmed stories, both for my personal account with conference marks, and for herself. nine0003
Please tell us how important it is to try yourself in such projects during your studies? Has this project somehow influenced you and your plans for the future?
I thought, I think and will continue to think that you need to try yourself in everything you can.
This is not only a great chance to additionally acquire useful skills and experience, but also a constant acquaintance with interesting people with whom you could just have an interesting conversation and break up, or then even get some help in return. As for this project, yes, it influenced my plans for the future. I finally realized that being a field correspondent was not for me. At least not all the time. It turned out to be a difficult task, and I realized that I was still strong in a slightly different kind of content creation. nine0003
Which event did you like the most? Was there such a thing that was told so cool that you even forgot to take notes of the event?
I didn't forget to take notes of the lesson, after all, it was my main task, but there were a lot of interesting things! Most of all I was hooked by the round table about environmental design, art in the urban environment. All the speakers had very interesting, versatile reports on a topic that was quite close to me, so I didn't get bored.
nine0003
Did you manage to participate in everything?
I was at the conference all three days, but, of course, not at all meetings, it is impossible to break into several parts, although I would very much like to. Initially, the leaders slandered us where we would like to go. Then, based on our preferences, we tried to make a convenient and interesting schedule for everyone. Personally, I got almost everything I wanted, for which I thank them very much.
What are your impressions of working as a correspondent at an international conference? nine0007
Difficult, scary, exciting, new, useful and cool! This is my first experience of this format and scale, so there are quite a lot of impressions and learned knowledge and skills left. I would like to say a big thank you to the organizers of the conference, the Media School, and all the guys with whom we worked during these incredible three days. I definitely advise everyone who is at least somehow interested in media, SMM, PR to come and try yourself here - new experience, new acquaintances and just a cool atmosphere are provided.
nine0003
#hse #high school #Russian students #rosmolodezh #higher school of economics #resourcecenter #Rosmolodezh #VKMP #rosmolgrant #RussiaCountry of Opportunities
Detention of SDS Holding President Mikhail Fedyaev December 15, 2021 | ngs42.ru
Mikhail Fedyaev (pictured to the right of Sergei Tsivilev) at the opening of the Kuzbass Ice Palace in Kemerovo
Photo: Maxim Serkov / NGS42.RU
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company "SDS" ("Siberian Business Union") Mikhail Fedyaev. Recall that this holding includes SDS-Coal, which, in turn, includes the Listvyazhnaya mine, where an accident occurred recently and 51 people died. nine0003
Also in the media there was information about the detention of several employees of "SDS-Coal". There is no official confirmation of this information at the moment: the press service of the Kuzbass IC told NGS42.RU that they could not comment, since the central office of the IC is investigating the criminal case that was initiated after the accident.
To clarify the situation, we turned to the SDS press service for a comment.
- If you need official information, contact the Investigative Committee. As soon as we have any comment, we will distribute it to the media,” Tatyana Dumenko, head of the public relations department of the SDS holding company, told NGS42.RU. nine0006
We add that in the Central District Court of Kemerovo, where they chose a measure of restraint for the first defendants in the case of the accident at the mine, NGS42.RU reported that they had not yet received materials on Fedyaev.
It should be noted that Alexander Bastrykin, head of the Investigative Committee of Russia, arrived in Kuzbass on a working visit the day before. He held a meeting with relatives of the dead and injured at the Listvyazhnaya mine. As reported in the press service of the department, Alexander Bastrykin pointed out the need to establish the role of the owners of the mine in the tragedy that occurred, the Russian Investigative Committee notes.
nine0003
Let us remind you that the explosion at the Listvyazhnaya Belovo mine took place on 25 November. As a result of the accident, 51 people died, including rescuers. The authorities have named the names of all the dead.
In the afternoon of November 27, the director of the mine, his deputy, the head of the site and two inspectors of the Siberian department of Rostekhnadzor were charged and a measure of restraint was chosen. All the accused were sent to a pre-trial detention center until January 25, 2022.
Recall that during a meeting on December 2 with President Vladimir Putin about the situation at the Listvyazhnaya mine, the president of the SDS holding, Mikhail Fedyaev, and the head of SDS-Coal, Gennady Alekseev, said they were ready to be punished for what had happened. When asked by Putin about whether the board of directors monitors security or only counts money, Fedyaev said he did not know about the violations at Listvyazhnaya. nine0006
Also during the meeting, Putin instructed to ensure the safety of miners' work and change the pay for miners so that it does not depend on output.
After the accident at Listvyazhnaya, we studied whether there were any violations at other SDS enterprises — the flagships of Kuzbass coal mining and chemistry. According to the information provided to us by Rostekhnadzor, many violations were identified in 2020 and 2021.
We collect all the news on the topic in a special story "Emergency at the Listvyazhnaya Mine". nine0006
On the topic
-
March 18, 2022, 17:32
SDS President Mikhail Fedyaev appealed against the arrest in the Listvyazhnoy case: what the court decided -
December 27, 2021, 10:35 Fedyaeva will retain Kuzbass awards for the time being
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December 16, 2021, 01:13
The President of the “SDS” was sent to a pre-trial detention center: photo report from the courtroom -
December 16, 2021, 00:35
explosion at Listvyazhnaya -
December 15, 2021, 21:45
The Investigative Committee published a video of the detention of Fedyaev and other defendants in the Listvyazhnaya explosion case.
They pleaded not guilty -
December 15, 2021, 20:16
“I don’t consider myself guilty”: the court sent Mikhail Fedyaev to a pre-trial detention center for two months -
December 15, 2021, 14:39
Forbes list of Mikhail Fedyaev -
December 15, 2021, 12:08
SDS reported changes after the arrest of President Mikhail Fedyaev -
December 15, 2021, 11:36
The Russian Investigative Committee confirmed the detention of a millionaire from the Forbes list Mikhail Fedyaev -
December 15, 2021, 10:38
December 15, 2021, 10:13
The media reported on the arrest of the head of the SDS holding, Mikhail Fedyaev, after the accident at Listvyazhnaya -
December 15, 2021, 09:41
The head of the Russian Investigative Committee instructed to restore the entire chain of events at the Kuzbass mine " Listvyaznaya -
December 14, 2021, 16:09
The head of the Investigative Committee of Russia arrived in Kuzbass -
December 13, 2021, 07:50
Happiness in ignorance: why SDS enterprises are considered the best against the backdrop of thousands of violations and deaths
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