Artists with ADD/ADHD Discussion

[Anonymous No.3236637]

I recently found out that I have AD/HD (the inattentive kind). I never got diagnosed as a kid because my parents basically didn't give a fuck about things like this. To all the anons that are suffering from this, how have you been coping with this disorder during your artistic journey and what systems have you created/discovered that helped you to minimize its effects on your studies and your art.

[Anonymous No.3236648]

>>3236637
Wew, join the club. I really don't have any ways of dealing with it when it comes to art other than brute force, but that usually involves me dawdling until the "hyperfocus" kicks in.

[Anonymous No.3236655]

>>3236648
For me it's

>sit down try force myself to draw something
>spend 20 minutes trying to find music
>Dredge through intrusive thoughts while trying to remember what I wanted to draw/study
>finally get myself to draw and ease into a comfortable state of mind
>I come back to my senses and it's been 5 hours and I wonder wtf just happened.

Rinse and repeat

[Anonymous No.3236672]

>>3236655
Yep, would be great to just get into the mindset right away haha.

[Anonymous No.3236678]

Good thread-interested to read more anecdotes. Over 5 years I haven't made much progress and it's killing me. I just have so many gains-killing retarded compulsions (refreshing this shit board constantly being one of them).

[Anonymous No.3236681]

>>3236678
Its okay anon, we're here for each other

[Anonymous No.3236743]

I watch youtube videos, listen to lectures, podcasts, etc.. etc.. - keeps a part of my mind occupied and engaged while the other part focuses on making shit. Works just fine. Do the same for learnin'. Either paint and listen or walk and listen. Auditory learning is where my mind naturally tries to go.

[Anonymous No.3236744]

>>3236743
post your work

[Anonymous No.3236827]

I have to listen to a cacophony of sounds music that is like a mix between background static and something grating to keep my mind busy, I also just tire myself out first it's never a fight if I just take my meds but I hate doing that and I hate seeing doctors

[Anonymous No.3237120]

>>3236637
I took meds for years since I was a teen for this condition. I quit them this year and have been building my daily life habits for success without them. I'm of the belief that the condition arises from certain kinds of trauma in childhood. A part of the journey for me has been recognizing that trauma and letting it go little by little by choosing each day to not give up my power by living in the shadow of my painful past. That said, there are daily habits that help me focus on my healing, my art, and my progress. I take a multivitamin and natural supplements to help me overcome the attention deficit issues. I found alpha brain to be very helpful in particular. DMAE has also worked for me. You can do your own research on natural supplements that might work for you. I try to get enough sleep in that I know how many hours I need to dedicate to sleeping and I do so. I dream and the dreams help me fuel my creativity and understand my psyche through looking up dream symbols in online dream dictionaries. I take time out of my day to clean my place up a bit. I make my bed each day, no excuses. Paying active attention to my living environment each day helps me build the brain muscles I need to pay attention to other important daily life things. I remember that cleaning and hygiene is an aspect of self-care. If I ever fall off the proverbial wagon and relapse into a bad habit, I don't waste time getting too caught up in guilt, I get back on the wagon asap by examining it and learning from it. Throughout my day I listen to podcasts which uplift and challenge me to accomplish and be tougher mentally. I like the Adam Carolla podcast(s) in particular the Dr. Drew and Adam Carolla podcast. I have recently made a habit of going to /ic/ instead of escaping by playing video games because it's more fulfilling and very helpful towards my daily life goals. On that note, thank you /ic/.

[Anonymous No.3237141]

>>3237120
Fuck dude, I appreciate the effort you put into that post but the fact that it's so wordy is just ironic.

[Anonymous No.3237153]

>>3236637
ADHD is another one of the fake "illnesses" invented by Jewish psychologists to help people rationalize their own failure in the increasingly alienated and hedonistic culture of modernity.

Quit being a pussy, take responsibility for yourself, stop making excuses, rediscover your social bonds with your community.

[Anonymous No.3237378]

>>3237153
Oh please
Get your head out of your ass and go back to /pol fagget

[Anonymous No.3239066]

How do you guys deal with keeping up art as an interest? I go through times where I just get extremely bored of it and jump to a different thing even though it's definitely a passion of mine.

[Anonymous No.3239144]

>>3239066
Its the only thing that can get me to focus for long periods of time, the only other thing I do is gym ratting.

[Anonymous No.3239154]

>>3239144
I meant in the broader scope of things. I can maintain interest in art for months but then there's something else that comes up that's suddenly more alluring, and then I completely ditch art for months, rinse and repeat.

Maybe it's more of a personal issue I dunno.

[Anonymous No.3239155]

>>3239066
I really don't have a choice, I don't have anything else
I'm gonna have to make it work at some point or another

[Anonymous No.3239167]

Adderall

[Anonymous No.3239172]

>>3237153
please go back to /pol/ and kys
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6f/NewADHDpic.gif

>>3236637
I've hears ADHD has benefits in improving creativity, which is difficult to prove on a personal level since I wouldn't know what the difference is, but I find it's hard for me to stick to finishing pieces while I lose a sense of time entirely while drawing so what feels like 40 minutes to me was actually a few hours. I have no problem with studying but it's difficult to even think about art while studying mechanical engineering for me.

[Anonymous No.3239215]

>>3239172
OP here. I started realizing that having ADD makes it hard to get started, but once i'm in the groove it feels like I'm in a reverse hyperbolic time chamber. And also It makes it harder for me to remember what comes next after certain steps I think that's why my line work is so shit is because I can't focus on the smaller details and forget about what to do next I kinda meander until I fuck everything up. I shit you not.

[Anonymous No.3239221]

>>3237153
ADHD is so 1990s

Today’s fake illness is gender identity - get with the program grandpa

[Anonymous No.3239666]

I just pop some adderall, for a couple hours i get enough focus to stay on one piece

[Anonymous No.3240028]

Eat meds, try to draw, meds supress brain making it a shitshow.
Alternatively
Don't eat meds, try to draw, get distracted every two seconds and can't finish a single piece ever.

gotta jon lovitz my dude

[Anonymous No.3240498]

>>3236637
Will Terry talks about this, look up his youtube channel

[Anonymous No.3240555]

>>3236655
HAHAHAA FAGgboi
>mfw that's me my whole life
>add domestic violence and existential dread along with existential crisis brought on by the conflicting religions in my family.
Well you got yourself one very confused angry person.

[Anonymous No.3240611]

I have ADHD (medicated) and it has been affecting a big portion of my 16 years of life. I do most of my art at school. I doodle/scribble over everything, I got to move my hands. I fidget like crazy and I honestly feel as if everyone sees me as that one confused retarded kid in most of my classes. After school, I get extremely tired, which makes it harder for me to work at home. But recently I have been developing my art into this very movement based style. The end result looks very weird and messy, almost as if I scribbled everywhere, but I love it.
I think one of the key factors to keep concentrated on your work is to have fun making it. Ask yourself what your hands want to make. I wish you guys good luck with your art careers.

[Anonymous No.3240617]

>>3240611
good luck anon-san

[Anonymous No.3240619]

>>3240555
good for you?

[Anonymous No.3241834]

>>3237141
lol I agree hard to parse through

[Anonymous No.3242016]

>>3236637
I love how far you guys will go in order to make excuses for yourself as to why you suck at art. Just fuckin draw you lazy and spoiled piece of shit.

[Anonymous No.3242029]

>>3239154
You're not alone, that's been happening to me for the past several years.

[Anonymous No.3242143]

>>3236637
>I recently found out that I have AD/HD

If you only recently fund out that you suffer from AD/HD then you likely do not suffer from AD/HD. If you are from the US then it's even more likely as diagnosing people with all sorts of mental illnesses have become a lot more common just to sell drugs.

[Anonymous No.3242595]

>try to work
>after 10 minutes mounting anxiety and pressure builds in my head
>becomes extremely stressful like a pressure cooker about to explode until I do something else, ANYTHING, even if it's tabbing into 4chan for a few minutes or pacing around the room for 20
Normies can't relate so of course they offer shitty bee yourself mantras. 'Like just draw lmao'.

There's something physiologically fucked with us in the brain, we're just not wired the same. And when you can't sit down for an hour and just be in the zone, you'll never achieve the flowstate that people with more nubile brains and discipline do. Not saying we can't achieve, it just takes us a lot longer with much more agony along the way.

[Anonymous No.3242596]

>>3242143
Hey, if the drugs they're giving me are making me more efficient, then I really don't care about the validity of ADHD.

>>3242595
Fuck man, I know exactly where you're coming from. The meds definitely help but it still comes up every now and then.

[Anonymous No.3242609]

>>3237120
Getting off the meds for the attention disorder is one of the worst decisions you can make. I tried that and ended up failing school.

Now, yes, you can make your brain healthier. There are books that talk about strategies you can do to not only purposely increase the amount of brain matter that you have, but to strengthen the connections and speed at which your brain learns. But I can't tell you if those would improve your attention to where you don't need the meds.

This belief you have about what the condition is caused by with this whole trauma thing, is not backed up by any education in this sort of thing whatsoever. It's probably 100% wrong. This alpha brain thing you're reading is also really bad. The whole alpha/beta theme is like practically a bad meme at this point. Don't listen to those guys. This idea about understanding yourself through dream symbols is also not true at all. You're learning nothing by doing this.

The podcasts on improving and being tougher are fine as long as they're not retarded. I haven't watched to know for sure though

Get educational material about improving and living with your condition from actual doctors. Material you find easier to absorb and retain than by other methods. Don't try to just solve this on your own. You won't.

[Anonymous No.3242632]

>all these brain damaged old losers
lol, feels good being young and healthy, feels good knowing you retards are my competition

[Anonymous No.3242648]

>>3242632

[Anonymous No.3243376]

>>3236637
>ad/hd
more like failed parenting most of the cases
most times not being able to control yourself is not an illness just a lack of willpower in my opinion.

[Anonymous No.3243445]

I have a really important question for you all.
When you take the Myers Briggs (Mbti) personality test, which result did you get?

For the longest time I thought I had ADD or ADHD, and others told me they thought I did as well. Recently, I took the MBTI test and found out I'm an ENFP which charactersitics sound a lot like someone with ADHD. Let me explain.

E- Extraverted, not introverted. I can't work around people because I become too excited. When you are extraverted you become excited about being outside and around others. So, when people accuse me of having ADHD because I am hyper, I am actually just extremely energized because I am around a person.
N- Intuitive instead of Sensing- not related to ADHD, but being Intuitive is good for art, it makes your creative
F- Feeling instead of thinking - I can be very impulsive because I am going off of feelings instead of what is logical
P- This is the biggest one, especially when combined with the Extraversion. Being 'Prospecting/Precieving' instead of "Judging". Prospectors 'go with the flow', are 'multitaskers', and are great at starting new challenges. They are however, not good at keeping commitments. They procrastiante a lot because they're obsessed with gaining information in order to find the best route possible instead of continually going down the first route they decided on.

Recognizing this has really helped me embrace my personality and work with it and things have been going so much better. Its affirmed that I am meant to do freelance illustration and that I can handle better than most people. Let your weaknesses be your strengths. I'd be happy to go into this more if anyones interested.

I would love to hear your results.

[Anonymous No.3243449]

>>3243445
Literal astrology. And not even the good kind. At least use big 5/OCEAN.

[Anonymous No.3243459]

>>3243449
There's hardly any research for that one and its way too vague. MBTI is not astrology, its sterotypes based on how people function. Basically, the test asks you questions that YOU answer and it just re-iterates them to you in a way you can better understand. Its just a mirror, its not giving you any information that you didn't actually tell it.

[Anonymous No.3243466]

>>3236744
k

[Anonymous No.3243468]

>>3243459
>hardly any research
Big 5 is the standard, heavily researched, came out of other data, and other measures of personality tend to regress to the mean of one of the aspects. You are a retard.

>MBTI is not astrology
It's astrology. Like the shitty newspaper kind and not the 3 grand for a chart kind. Mostly because you don't even know what the fuck you're talking about, don't know what a functional stack is, or know what introversion and extroversion mean in the context of Jung's Personality Types. Also the validity is shit and you'd get a better measure asking 3 friends to fill it out because self report is garbage and none of the test questions were designed for self report because it wasn't made by people who care about things like validity. Not to mention your lower functions probably haven't even formed yet because you aren't 35. And the creator even called it bullshit and disavowed it. You are a retard.

[Anonymous No.3243472]

>>3243468
This, MBTI is just newage astrology. Retards love to read shit about themselves, taking tests to find out what Frozen character they are, what star signs say about them, and more recently (since we're too secular and educated for hocus pocus like astrology) MBTI.

[Anonymous No.3243484]

>>3243472
Not gonna lie, after reading 400 pages of swiss mysticism on the subject, there is some truth hiding in there. But it is so alien to the vernacular understanding of things that it isn't worth discussing online. The proposal of a bipolar valence of cognitive processes making up functions within apperception alone is pretty heavy. It doesn't really match up with current research, but is an interesting position gained from introspection. Anything the plebs touch is pure bullshit by simple minds, though.

[Anonymous No.3243492]

>>3243459
Big 5 must be less vague because it uses more factors, no? It also has *more* scientific research backing it, actually.

Neither are really as stupid as astrology, because the types actually do reflect, at least, who you *think* you are and are differentiated from one another, have highly specific characteristics.

MBTI is pseudoscience, and Big 5 is slightly more scientific pseudoscience.

[Anonymous No.3243504]

>>3243445
diagnosed with adhd, INTP.

[Anonymous No.3243563]

>tfw too ADHD to even read this thread

[Anonymous No.3243623]

>>3242595
This is EXACTLY how I feel.

I am also constantly torn between what to do. I have like 10 different things I want to learn and I don't know what to start with. And then when I start with something I can't focus on it and start thinking about something else. I also feel the rush to get good quickly at anything I do because I am at an age where I should already have some skills and I feel embarassed without any.

But I ultimately try to surpress these negative feelings by browsing the internet. But I don't even enjoy it because I recognize it's all shallow entertainment and conversation. I know you need to put in effort over a long time into something for it to pay off but I just feel so inept. These people who manage to grind fundamentals for like 8 hours a day every day for years until they can draw photorealistically just seem superhuman to me.

[Anonymous No.3244129]

Hey guys I know this might not get a reply for a while but lately my symptoms have been getting worse like when I was a teenager. I thought I was managing it or getting used to it but the last time I fell into a spiral like this I started using drugs and almost died. I should probably try to get help before it gets worse right or do you sometimes have like off months and control it better later?

[Anonymous No.3244137]

>>3244129
what symptoms retard? did the drugs fry your brain? how can people accurately respond to what you're saying when you start as if you're continuing a previous conversation?

[Anonymous No.3244144]

>>3244137
My adhd symptoms.

[Anonymous No.3244157]

>>3244144
how are they getting worse? how bad was it before vs now?

[Anonymous No.3244827]

>>3242609
anon was talking about the supplement called alpha brain, not the stupid PUA philosophy

[Anonymous No.3245464]

>>3236637

Habits, mindfulness, PE help.

[Anonymous No.3245557]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVtMfqwxPhQ

shit like this, where they put in meticulous detail out of compulsion based enjoyment

[Anonymous No.3245559]

>>3236637
How did you find out that you have it?

[Anonymous No.3245585]

>>3245559
For me, my therapist pointed out that there's a good chance that I had it. Did some research, had some testing done (wanted to be 100% sure), and was on my way.

[Anonymous No.3247637]

I'm reading this thread and now I'm thinking it I actually have adhd. I can relate to your posts senpai. I don't really want to go to a doctor

[Anonymous No.3247987]

>>3242632
>old
i just turned 18 this year