I got it done, so here is the best advice I can give:

• You may think it’s this one-time task, and then it’ll never get back to that state. Is that really realistic? Might be for some. But more common is that it’s deeply ingrained in the personality. A “decision” to be someone different will not work in that case. Might be subtle and thus undiagnosed mental problems, such as ADHD or trauma, or just habits, “lazyness” etc. Get on that, learn about yourself. Then you can make SLOW progress.
• Hands-on garbage: Don’t fiddle with little bags that you get one by one. Get a bunch of huge garbage bags ready and fill them. No recycling / separation (at least for now; feel free to sort through the bags later, like that’ll happen), just stuff in what is garbage. When something costs less than you make in 10 minutes and is not needed in the next 4 weeks, it’s garbage. Emotional value? Then not; that’s okay to keep in storage boxes somewhere for peace of mind. Instead of getting overwhelmed by the view, just think: I’ll fill this bag now.
• Hands-on boxing: Get several big boxes ready, don’t pick them up one by one. Fill with everything that you want to keep (for good reasons), but don’t need in the next 14 days. E. g. hair clipper, waffle maker, paperwork. Don’t get too caught up on sorting. Sometimes, it’s best to just fill the boxes. Tax forms from 2023 along with the waffle maker and birth certificate etc. Possibly label by “finding location”, which is fast and surprisingly helpful! But if it’s no hold-up, better to sort a little bit, e. g. boxes of “anything paper”, “electronics, cables and devices” etc.
• Hands-on means: Don’t pick up a box, realise that it has two home-baked cookies from Christmas in it and then wuss around with it through the apartment. Grab and stash.
• When the task is overwhelming, do something, and never underestimate the value of doing a little. For example, you are tired and didn’t get as much done as you wanted. It’s tempting to put it off until tomorrow. But instead, get a bag and fill it with garbage, then sleep with a clean conscience.

If only there were a way to keep a song “fresh” forever, while also listen to it all the time!

I’d live in a state of eternal bliss. I’d take brain surgery for this. Or some kind of selective amnesia drug, which still allows to form the memory of the blissful state without the changes in the brain that we know as over-listening.

More realistically, maybe an AI that finds a song that is like that for me? Current algorithms really don’t help much at all, even for finding “ok” songs. It must be a complex, individual thing, based on unique events and emotions and their associations. Sometimes it appears to be a song I heard before, and it didn’t invoke anything back then, often decades ago, but the brain somehow built something around that impression that lit up like a Christmas tree when it played again.

I also wonder if I’ll keep finding songs like this, or if one of them will be the last.

Opioids, and Kratom, as it’s similar, work great against a variety of mental problems for a short time. I believe some opioids and tianeptine, which is not that different, are even prescribed against depression occasionally. The “sweet spot” is not the big high, but an ever so mildly euphoric state, as from “softer” opioid painkillers.

Regarding painkiller opioids at moderate medical doses, I found the time for which it works to be about 6 months. Then, you’d really have to up the dose significantly or stop immediately.

Even if you do stop then, it’s the “small hell” of withdrawal already, it can take weeks and months to be your former self with all the same problems again, and having to take it medically will be an issue for years to come.

The system really needs to get it together, diagnose and treat people. Self medication doesn’t work out that well.

Implementation intention can also be a good thing, though.

Starting at 6:00 is better than trying to force it “right now”, failing, and doing nothing. Or exerting more willpower and pain than necessary.

Occasionally I have that friend, yes, but I think most of them just endure my autistic unload, be it out of politeness, to unload theirs, or because they just don’t mind that much.

In my current phase in life, it’s too much for everybody :-)

It’s like this little devil on my shoulders, repeating the same lies over and over again, and odd enough, it works quite often:

• I can’t possibly do the whole cleaning before sleep.
• Sure, I could take the garbage out or clean only the sink, but that’s so little that it won’t help anyway. Better do nothing.
• It’s just these two important things on the weekend; I don’t need a list for that. (Narrator: It’s never only two things.)

Many have been there: How much damage in life is happening between suspecting it’s ADHD and receiving treatment.

What I found most effective is Modafinil, if you happen to live in a place where it’s considered a lower schedule prescription drug and is easily accessible. It’s less safe, so follow doctor’s orders and instructions carefully. Use 1/8th of a pill to check tolerance on day 1.

If you have not built tolerance to caffeine, that is effective for a couple of months as well. Consider guaraná or black tea if you need a lasting effect for many hours.

Another option is if you ever got a prescription of an anti-depressant that works off-label for ADHD as well and have some left over. Many of them take a month to work, but sometimes, the ADHD effect is immediate.

Of course, when you get your real prescription, check if you need to stop the temporary one first! In case of some anti depressants, that can be several days.

I always underestimate how much there is to do. “Oh just laundry and that form basically, two things. Picking up the package should be clear. No list needed, easy day!”

Then, when I really don’t make a list, I don’t even do these three things. When I do make a list, it’s many, many more things, but a higher chance to do several of those.

And yes, when I don’t check it off from the list, and be it by adding just to check it off, it feels like I did nothing.

Yes, but they are starting to improve on that. 2 years ago, you could have a lot of fun with prompts like “draw a room with absolutely no elephants in it”.

Definitely know that problem. Sometimes, I use just one term in lack of a better one that I’m not entirely happy with, and the LLM completely pinpoints on that and never lets go.

I call the problem “tuskification”. Because that one time, I discussed walrusses. And later in the same conversation, I had some other things drawn, entirely unrelated, many exchanges later. And somehow, it influenced all of that. E. g. there was a hamster in a cage as a small part of the drawing, and it had tusks. Or a thirsty lost person in a desert, you guessed it: Has tusks.

Got me to be like: Nonono, just draw completely normal people, who have absolutely no tusks! You wouldn’t believe the nightmare it drew after that. Apparently it interpreted it as: Humanoids whose faces resemble proboscidae from a time before they developed a full trunk and tusks.

Even more absurd when they reach this sad state: Too dirty to wear, not dirty enough to wash.

Similar to old-ish things in the fridge that are not completely spoiled, so I can’t throw them out, but they are already too unappetising to be eaten right now.

omg, what an absurd use of this meme …

Effect can vary a lot. I did a tolerance test with 5 mg, and even that was mind blowing. Effect was short, but my executive dysfunction was completely fixed. I cleaned, worked out, did calls and wrote letters I had been putting off for weeks. It felt like a fantastic dopamine shower.

Then, for a long time, I went with 10 - 15 mg. Slowly working up to 50 over 6 months.

The “mind blowing” effect is really fading hard one year later, though. I’m pretty sure that it’s not really what the doctors want. They want regulation of dopamine and noradrenaline in the prefrontal cortex, which is a benefit that does not diminish over time. What gives the amazing feeling is excess dopamine in other regions of the brain, like a recreational drug, and that fades.

Interesting. I absolutely need the list. If I get into the unfortunate situation to start a day without having the list already, I have to use 100 % of my willpower to just make a list. I have to tell myself: “You can eat a whole cake and watch videos for 2 hours if you just MAKE the list. Don’t actually have to do anything on it.”

Surveys too! I feel like if I tried to answer it literally, it’d be interpreted as something I don’t mean at all.

Tell me how it went. I’m curious if it’s the best of all methods, or just what works for me.

For me it works with these two tweaks:

1. the list is written, never just in my head
2. I go through the items one by one and “simulate” them briefly in my head. Then do what feels right, no pressure, also fine to do nothing. Only the “simulation” is mandatory

That is the real miracle method I’ve been chasing all my life.

omg, one of the best

Had lists for 25 years, and they did help to a good degree, but still: Same.

But about 2 weeks ago, I think I really cracked the case! In those situations when it is “too much” to do an item from the list, I ALLOW myself to not do an item from the list, guilt-free, but I HAVE TO “simulate” the items briefly in my head.

More than 50 % of the time, that’ll lead to the realisation that I’m totally up for doing one of those. Still not everything done, but jumped from maybe 3 out of 10 to 6 out of 10 for a typical weekend. And if I don’t feel like it, I can enjoy my shows and other shenanigans guilt-free.

Wrote more about it here: https://lemmy.ml/post/36147982

Does it work? Do you actually do the things on the list?

For me, it works best to have the list on the day before. Otherwise, MAKING the list is what I procrastinate on.