ADHD Game Plan

My subconscious was ablaze last night.  I woke up this morning to long and twisted dreams where I had been hired by Elon Musk to work at one of his companies.  I didn't know what the job entailed or even were my office was located so naturally I felt like an imposter.     That anxious feeling stuck with me through the day.   I noticed it peak during a meeting that wasn't particularly relevant to me, so I was aware of how unproductive I was being.  Not a great way to get back into work after a few days off, but I'm not expecting quick solutions at this point, so I'm simply documenting what happened.

Being at the start of this process, I have a lot of ground work to do.  In the interest of that, I have sketched out the following game plan: 

  1. Develop a self-talk routine.  This is just good basic cognitive therapy.    For a lot of problems, this is the start and finish of treatment, so I should at least begin working on what I am thinking.   This will be in the form of meditations and realistic appraisals that I can do each day. 
  2. Declutter.   Both mental and physical declutter aggravate ADHD issues.  I started today with my todo lists and I already feel a little better.    I also started pruning my feeds on YouTube and google news to trim out political news. 
  3. Adjust medication.   I've taken Adderall for about ten years now and that has been a powerful help for focus.  My dosage has been very low- usually just 10-15mg per day where a typical prescription is 20-40mg.   I noticed this weekend that my focus was all over the place, and though that might be because of general anxiety and stress, I am still noticing some improvement if I at least start the day with 10mg, so that's how I'll start my days for the next while. 
  4. Find a therapist.   This is the part I like the least.   It's hard for me to take my inner thoughts and bring them out and to do this with a stranger feels excruciating.   To warm up to this idea, I did some research over the weekend and found about four names of therapists with the right experience and a number of positive reviews under their belt.   Psychology Today has a great tool for finding therapists by their specialties, however I had to go on google to find reviews, and there aren't many of those.   I'm specifically looking for a therapist who knows ADHD and self-esteem treatments for adults.   Lots of tech companies out here where I live, so plenty of people to choose from!

I'll write more about these as I make progress.

 

 

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