4 ms·

Idk my experience is much different. On the weekend, I would have a list of games I really wanted to play. Boot one up, play for a few minutes, feel like I shou

Idk my experience is much different. On the weekend, I would have a list of games I really wanted to play. Boot one up, play for a few minutes, feel like I should be playing a different one, switch and repeat. Or I would have hobbies or activities I would want to do. But would end up in the same cycle. Then at the end of my weekend I would feel down because I spent the entire past two days constantly task switching with zero enjoyment. But on Adderall I am able to sit down and enjoy the first game / hobby I pick.

herdyderdy 4y ago
Has this helped long term and repeatedly? I have that same struggle of switching between things all my life even if I enjoy one activity a lot. Very occasionally I do find something I can sit and enjoy for hours but it is rare.
giraffe_lady 4y ago
Yes willpower is too simple and too tied up with connotations of hardworkingness and virtue to adequately explain it. It's more like "don't have control over where attention is focused." Wanting to do it may make it more likely but there are other factors, and I can also easily get caught up in a task that is actively unpleasant. Unmedicated the focus goes where it wants to go, not where I want it to go; but not necessarily nowhere either. And ADHD people in my experience aren't worse at activities that do require what I would call simple willpower. Things like race cycling or endurance running, where persisting through discomfort and even pain are necessary.
Yiin 4y ago
In my experience, simply being "not boring" is not enough. Usually for me it needs to have at least three qualities of the following four: pressure, interest, competition, and novelty. If a game is interesting but lacks competition or novelty, I may start playing it, but it's unlikely I'll continue for more than 15 minutes.
- alwillis 4y ago
  Same. Novelty (or something "innovative") and competition are huge drivers for me to focus on something.
brazzledazzle 4y ago
That sounds somewhat like depression/anxiety paired along with ADHD. In adult ADHD they can often be very intertwined because by the time you've reached adulthood you have a history of impulsive decisions or bad time management to regret. Or perhaps it's just a symptom of ADHD combined with aging. I don't know about you but "hyperfocus" seemed to come much easier when I was younger which I associate with being less aware of my shortcomings.
- wincy 4y ago
  I am not depressed and experience the exact same weekend malaise of the person you’re responding to described. I found an exceptional game last weekend that I played through. I laughed, I cried, it was fantastic. I spent a lot of my free time on it, and beat it. This weekend I was just a little disappointed I couldn’t wipe my brain and play that game again. I don’t think that’s depression, it’s just being unwilling to put up with a game or activity being boring.
  - brazzledazzle 4y ago
    Yeah for sure, I wouldn't ever say anything is truly universal. Just a trend I've noticed with my own ability to focus on even things I do enjoy and in my own experience it can be difficult to untangle things when you have a comorbidity of depression, ADHD and anxiety which is pretty common in adults.
  - cableshaft 4y ago
    Do you like digital card games at all? Try Inscryption, it's fantastic (as far as I've gotten anyway, it's also quite difficult). I like it better than Slay the Spire personally, which it definitely took inspiration from, and ran with it. It's also a game you probably should go into not knowing hardly anything about it ahead of time. I've already accidentally spoiled myself on a few things looking for help getting past a couple parts that I wish I didn't know about ahead of time. What's the game you played that you wish you could wipe your memory of and play it again?
    - 4y ago

herdyderdy 4y ago

Has this helped long term and repeatedly? I have that same struggle of switching between things all my life even if I enjoy one activity a lot. Very occasionally I do find something I can sit and enjoy for hours but it is rare.

giraffe_lady 4y ago

Yes willpower is too simple and too tied up with connotations of hardworkingness and virtue to adequately explain it. It's more like "don't have control over where attention is focused." Wanting to do it may make it more likely but there are other factors, and I can also easily get caught up in a task that is actively unpleasant. Unmedicated the focus goes where it wants to go, not where I want it to go; but not necessarily nowhere either. And ADHD people in my experience aren't worse at activities that do require what I would call simple willpower. Things like race cycling or endurance running, where persisting through discomfort and even pain are necessary.

Yiin 4y ago

In my experience, simply being "not boring" is not enough. Usually for me it needs to have at least three qualities of the following four: pressure, interest, competition, and novelty. If a game is interesting but lacks competition or novelty, I may start playing it, but it's unlikely I'll continue for more than 15 minutes.

alwillis 4y ago
Same. Novelty (or something "innovative") and competition are huge drivers for me to focus on something.

brazzledazzle 4y ago

That sounds somewhat like depression/anxiety paired along with ADHD. In adult ADHD they can often be very intertwined because by the time you've reached adulthood you have a history of impulsive decisions or bad time management to regret. Or perhaps it's just a symptom of ADHD combined with aging. I don't know about you but "hyperfocus" seemed to come much easier when I was younger which I associate with being less aware of my shortcomings.

wincy 4y ago
I am not depressed and experience the exact same weekend malaise of the person you’re responding to described. I found an exceptional game last weekend that I played through. I laughed, I cried, it was fantastic. I spent a lot of my free time on it, and beat it. This weekend I was just a little disappointed I couldn’t wipe my brain and play that game again. I don’t think that’s depression, it’s just being unwilling to put up with a game or activity being boring.
- brazzledazzle 4y ago
  Yeah for sure, I wouldn't ever say anything is truly universal. Just a trend I've noticed with my own ability to focus on even things I do enjoy and in my own experience it can be difficult to untangle things when you have a comorbidity of depression, ADHD and anxiety which is pretty common in adults.
- cableshaft 4y ago
  Do you like digital card games at all? Try Inscryption, it's fantastic (as far as I've gotten anyway, it's also quite difficult). I like it better than Slay the Spire personally, which it definitely took inspiration from, and ran with it. It's also a game you probably should go into not knowing hardly anything about it ahead of time. I've already accidentally spoiled myself on a few things looking for help getting past a couple parts that I wish I didn't know about ahead of time. What's the game you played that you wish you could wipe your memory of and play it again?
  - 4y ago