this post was submitted on 10 Sep 2023
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ADHD meds and therapy. I tried a ton of different methods, but ultimately I was procrastinating for two reasons. 1) my brain finds the things I need to do under stimulating, which feels like pulling teeth, so it looks for stimulation elsewhere and draws me to a different task. ADHD meds give my brain the proper amount of stimulation/reward for doing things that need to be done. 2) for a variety of reasons, I had an underlying current of anxiety around the possibility of failure. Much easier to avoid failure if you avoid ever doing the task. Therapy helps me reason through the anxiety, and realize that I am essentially already failing by not trying, so trying involves a risk of success rather than a risk of failure.
Edit: I still procrastinate plenty, but significantly less than I used to. It no longer reaches a point of nearly ruining my life, now it is just an average level of procrastination compared to my peers. Instead of avoiding tasks for weeks, months, or years on end, I avoid them for a few hours, maybe days at most (if I have the luxury).
Same here.
Research suggests the combination of ADHD and anxiety leads to the worst type of procrastination.
ADHD meds and therapy allowed me to break the cycle and learn new habits.
Now I'm mostly off the meds and the habits I learned on the meds still help me a lot.
Likewise. Meds help me ...but so did therapy. I still have to have the mindset right. If I do and I'm on meds then it actually works.
I totally believe (without any evidence but my own experience) that procrastination for me with ADHD is at least partly a response to prior unhappy experiences.
Now that I recognize some of the emotional components involved I can work through those directly and have a much better chance of getting motivated .
And also I still procrastinate plenty and I have come to avoid self judgement. Because beating myself up doesn't help me get motivated. It does the opposite. I accept that this is a tendency but one that I continue to improve upon.