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AnyaThePickleInAPickle
1,188 M Little Steps 3
PathStep 133 Compassion hearts65 Forum posts31 Forum upvotes44 Current upvotes44 Age GroupAdult Last activeApril, 2024 Member sinceFebruary 22, 2016
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How Do You Avoid Instant Gratification?
ADHD Support / by AnyaThePickleInAPickle
Last post
 November 28th, 2023
...See more The allure of Instant Gratification is SO TEMPTING as a student!! 😫 All the easy access to quick boosts of dopamine provided by my technology is just too much for me. I don't know how I'm gonna finish my career as a student this way... I know cognitively that I need to get my work done, but my ADHD brain is always starving for dopamine! My ADHD brain always wants to take the most straightforward path to dopamine, the path of least resistance. This usually comes in the form of instant gratification; social media, doomscrolling, funny videos, memes, etc. I know cognitively that these things won't provide long-term fulfillment, but they are the easiest way to get happy chemicals. In the past, my solution to this was: Turn homework INTO the path of least resistance! In other words, make it so that all the other dopamine-producing activities are too hard to get or too far out of reach. Make it so that the easiest thing you can do to stimulate your brain is your work. When I was in highschool, I would go into my room and sit at my desk. I would leave NOTHING within reach except my textbook and my paper assignment; No phone, no computer, no video games, no tv. The easiest way my ADHD brain could sate itself was by reading my textbook. Nowadays though, it's completely different. As the years progress, (and especially since the pandemic made online-schooling a necessity) more and more classwork is being done online. My textbooks, homework, and lectures are all accessible through my laptop or smartphone. My old strategies aren't working :'( I can lock myself in a quiet, unstimulating library room, leave my sketchbook at home, and turn my phone off. But so long as I have access to my laptop, there will always be instantly gratifying distractions within my reach. I've tried blocking distracting websites with a browser extension, even turning off the wifi on my laptop so all I can work on is Word documents... I still give in to the allure of something more instantly gratifying to do than my classwork. TL;DR I'm in a constant battle to use my super stimulating, distracting, fun devices for very unstimulating, slow-paced work. I might as well try to read a book in a movie theater or work in a cubicle in a circus tent. I am losing this battle badly 😅 How do you guys put Instant gratification out of your minds when you NEED to do assignments? How do you ignore it when it's just within your reach and your ADHD is starving for stimulation?
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