I’ve learnt some “hacks” from How to ADHD (both the YouTube channel and the book).

Something that works for me is “bribing” myself. Either with a planner you enjoy filling, a calendar with stickers, or a reward like TV time or music (not food), give yourself a reason to do your activities beyond the activities themselves.

Another one that’s not always possible for me, but works, is getting non-negative external pressure. Deadlines often get people to start, but that’s too much stress, and we don’t want that stress. A similar thing to a deadline without the anxiety is body doubling. It consists of doing your activity while other person or people do theirs, and you can report back in the middle or only at the end. The idea is that you feel like you need to do it because people are counting on it, without it being super stressful. You might feel watched, you might feel their expectatives on you, you might simply want to exchange your results at the end. However it goes, it might work for you. A variant of this is telling your plans to someone important and then you’ll feel like you need to do it so you can tell them how it went.

My emergency remedy (only when I’m unmedicated for ADHD, because I wouldn’t mix it with my medication): caffeine. Caffeine is a stimulant, so it has interesting effects on people with ADHD. Depending on age, metabolism, and quantity, it can be relaxing or “quieting”; it can also help with focus; and it can give a boost to productivity. A cup of good coffee and I do the laundry, cook, write back to people, etc. Now, be careful because a) you can become hooked to caffeine and become one of those people that cannot function without it, b) even without an addiction, if you use it too much, your body will get resistant for a time and it will lose its effectivity, c) some cannot tolerate caffeine well, for example, people with cardiopathies or bipolar disorder. I cannot drink it for long without causing havoc in my sleep and mood. Be careful with caffeine.

And those are the strongest for me. I do recommend getting the How to ADHD book, even if you’re not dealing with ADHD but a mood disorder, a difficult time in your life, etc. The tips are helpful nonetheless.

My first Nicole message was today. You’ll join the club eventually.

“Bites” is so cool…

I love it, but the test would need to ask our preferences about federation and if that’s a priority. In my case, I’m in this instance because it lets me read a lot of other instances (even the infamous triad). I don’t know if we have a certain personality; I just like to lurk diverse communities.

Oh! The first part can be about suicide, you’re right. The second part reminds me of antinatalism, and I think it makes sense for breaking the cycle described.

More like: “It is a bad neverending cycle. Break it”.

I am not a better human being, but I’m combating my irritability one cause at a time. Firstly, treating physical conditions that cause irritability (as much as money has let me): hormonal issues, sleeping issues, etc. Secondly, addressing psychological and psychiatric problems (I had to learn a lot of these topics because I wasn’t able to afford specialists all the time and it was an interest of mine anyway). Finally, fixing external or environmental causes, e.g. working on changing toxic relationships.

It is still a work in progress, but my life is getting calmer and calmer as I am ticking the boxes in that list. At some point, you get to a place where you can search for your own answers, existentially speaking, and that also helps. Here I mean exploring philosophy and your own ideas; your feelings, your passions, etc.

Be patient. Be compassionate with yourself (and others).

Philosophy and some sciences, but I’m not very knowledgeable. I know people say you don’t need to be an expert in order to enjoy things, and I agree, but then those aren’t special interests either, right? I love my music, but I know few bands. I love singing, but I lack technique. I like horror stuff, but I’m pretty picky. I’d like to be fit and practice sports, but my health is an issue. I like some beauty topics, but I’m not interested in applying them. I enjoy eating, simple food though. Some games are fun, but I mostly repeat the same ones. I like mountains and forests, but just for a day or two. I’d like to read more…

I’m really a master of none.

Instagram reels.

Exactly, these users want a relatively efficient app with an algorithm that shows interesting content without the effort of looking for it.

I personally love the things TikTok puts on my feed (philosophy, science, arts, political opinions, medical advice…). I don’t think I would have been able to find a lot of those things on my own. For instance, it’s been amazing to understand some of my health conditions: a video about a random symptom (and how to address it) sometimes shows on my feed and it’s like: “Wow! I didn’t know that! Thank you”.

So… it’s not just laziness, not in my case. I hate that algorithms have been radicalizing my parents politically. I love that my algorithm helps me with advice (for me, my cat, my home…) and it connects me with similar people. It’s a bittersweet technology, I guess. Anyway, without it, Loops might not be a solid alternative.

Honestly? I don’t think it’s ready for the migration that’s going to take place in January (supposedly, January). The USA will ban TikTok and people still debate in the comments what should be the new short videos platform. I really want to spread the message about Loops, but I was unable to create an account just a few days ago. It won’t work for thousands and thousands of people that want something efficient and do not appreciate the Fediverse effort as we do.

Mastodon itself couldn’t compete against BlueSky. I think Loops has a month to be a real TikTok alternative or it faces the same destiny as Mastodon (or Lemmy).

Aliens are here to unite us (/s).

Yes, “Hispanic (any race)”. And, as I said, it’s irrelevant statically as Hispanics do not share enough characteristics to be a homogenous group. Then you have “non-Hispanic” groups and “including Hispanic” races, which is nuts if you consider what I said.

Imagine you had a “Catholics (any race)” and then “Non-Catholic Whites”, “Whites (including Catholics)”, etc. That would be bordering discrimination because why are Catholics being segregated when other religions aren’t?

(I know why: because these “Catholics” are differentiated and not particularly well received in the United States due to illegal immigration).

If race was important, they’d understand “Hispanic” is not a race.

Hispanic only means you speak Spanish natively. There are many white, indigenous, and black Hispanics, as well as Hispanics of East Asian descent, Middle Eastern descent, and more. Anya Taylor-Joy, Lupita Nyong’o, and Yalitza Aparicio have very different illnesses predispositions.

Hispanic people have also different socioeconomical levels, so it’s also absurd to throw people that are literally traveling to another country to be treated in reputated cities (e.g. Houston), who are not only capable of paying that but minimally bilingual, with people that crossed borders illegally, who often are illiterate or only got the opportunity to attend elementary school, and are doing a very dangerous journey with the idea that things will be easier in the United States. Two different worlds, two different health profiles. But no, “Hispanic”.

So… This is stalkerish, but I was curious about your dark/gothic interests and I read some of your comments and you seem like an interesting person. I’d be grateful if you could share your poetry (a link to your accounts or whatever medium). 😳 Sorry; thank you.

I honestly haven’t used it enough to know how well it works, but their advertisement has the cooldown thing mentioned. I hope it works for you.

Buzzkill Notification Manager can do that.

Even Hexbear has interesting content sometimes. Also, they have great stickers.

I don’t get this animosity between instances. That’s why I’m on lemm.ee: it feels like the capibara instance.

I can think of two scenarios. The first one is you do that and everyone, including you, feels it and perceives it in a good way. Which I guess could end up in weird situations. Geeky example, but do you know Magic the Gathering? There’s a faction there called “The Rakdos Cult” with a demon and a lot of deranged characters that simply enjoy the bad things. The Rakdos cards often portray a little gorey scenes with people enjoying it, so I guess we could become kind of that but without victims, only enjoyers.

But the other scenario is that we wouldn’t have a need to prove or try such things because we often do it out of negative feelings such as emptiness, pride, competitiveness, etc. We wouldn’t feel those things so we wouldn’t behave as erratically as we do now.

That if we exist at all, though… Maybe existence as we know it is incompatible with my first comment.

No suffering, no dis-pleasurable state, no undesirable reality exists. Everything that is, is deemed good by all beings that can judge it (if any). This has, as a consequence, no moral dilemmas, no conflict of wills and interests, no tragedies, etc.

I suggest arrows to navigate main comments (I think they also call them “parent comments” or something). As an example, Sync for Lemmy and Now for Reddit have them.