Darwin’s Journal

[Griffin]

Hey. I can't really give you a recipe for handling weak attention and cognitive issues but I can give you my personal experience. Paradoxically whilst I am diagnosed with (inattentive) ADHD/ADD and i use that term i don't necessarily believe in it as i think ADD has been more a function of poor routine combined with lacking the emotional underpinning to support a good one.

There are a few things which i think support good cognitive function and attention (really nothing to be surprised about in these but here it is as it is requested).
- Good sleep
- Relaxation, and by this i mean real relaxation where you're able to go offline/let go of everything
- Regular exercise
- Clean diet; no processed food whatsoever, no sugar
- Self appreciation/love/validation

Things which kill attention/cognitive function for me are the opposite of the above, with the addition of PMO and alcohol/drugs which turn me into a spaz so i stay away. The unfortunate thing about these is that all feed into each other in a kind of feedback loop and so it's easy to spiral downward.

An example for me in the past would be; I would blank out/look stupid in a meeting or in performing a task. I'd be driven by shame and anger to push through work harder and burn myself out. Working late i'd start smoking to 'calm myself down' and take a break, drink coffee to keep me going, sleep less because of stress and often eat quick high carb food (typically late at night). These resulted in further burn out, more shame, and more of the same until I'd basically hang it all up and go lie on a beach for a week, being miserable.

LTU and having a solid girlfriend helped a lot simply because it would interrupt this pattern at the shame stage. So instead of reacting with upset, I could be more self supportive, i'd be able to say 'i need to take action to support myself because this isn't working'. On LTU, shame, and self hatred gets shot down, in fact the more you self loathe, the more you give yourself permission to be good to yourself!

From there i could go home, do some meditation or yoga, head to the gym, enjoy laughing with my gf/friends, avoid coffee knowing i want to sleep on time that evening, get a good nights sleep and actually go for work the next day and smash it!. From there i could spiral up, more gym, more good sleep and relaxation, healthy food, and once again SMASH IT. I got a little lazy toward the end with LTU and it was less good gym and healthy food and more relaxation and fun but you get the idea.

So if i could recommend anything i would say having the right emotional foundation is the most important and that will come (in my opinion) from subs like EHPRA LTU and AM6 (though AM6 was too dark for me to have the sort of positive self image that would support better attention, but that is just me).

I don't know about DMSI so i can't comment on how it affects you emotionally - it sounds like it has a certain amount of emotional healing in it, one of the other guys will comment better on this.

I've not read many of your posts but from one other post i've read of yours, you sound pretty hard on yourself, as often happens with things like weaker cognition/attention (i may be wrong, i'm just going on one post). If you are then i get it, and outside of subs, I would practice some form of relaxation technique to start with. Again this is just my own experience talking, what may work for you might be something different. You can look into different methods, but i've found yoga and meditation to be of great benefit in this regard. I think MHS will help with brain function, i'm not sure how it will deal with what i believe is the core driver of ADD which is anxiety and shame driven poor routines.

If you want i can PM you some relaxation techniques i've found useful.

thanks for your post man!

im doing all the things you mentioned already except the regular exercise, i do it very irregularly right now because of poor planning.
i am however starting a new schedule which should work better.
by actively working on my ADD i mean that i have become more aware of my symptoms and habits since starting subs last year, i have run ASC, EPHRA 2, all the healing DMSI and now MHS.
with all the healing subs i now accept fully that i have ADD but want to heal this problem area in my life.

also your theory on the core driver of ADD, i thought that too for a long time but i saw some now research lately about the physical difference in the brain.
http://thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/art...4/fulltext
but i also think that for some people it might also be just anxious and have fear based and shame-driven poor routine.
i had a lot of this before subs, and my ADD is definitely better but just the planning and procrastination are a problem now.
but im working trying hard right now to beat these.

i don't know what post you read, but you made me curious which one.
but i don't consider myself being hard on myself, i love life at the moment and enjoy almost every moment.

thanks for your insight! i don't know a lot of people with ADD especially