Ice Phisherman posted:

I've been taking walks recently and it's really boosted my mood.

Like I had a bad(ish) night a couple days ago where I had anxiety and it kept me up. So I got five hours of some pretty rough sleep. Then I wake up, shave, shower and decide to take a walk. I come back feeling energized like I haven't been in a while.

I wish I could walk more but it's kind of cold outside and my feet can't really take walking every day like I used to. But I can do about two to four miles every other day.

I've been recently diagnosed with ADHD. I've been wondering how to handle it now that I know what my problem is. And exercise really seems to help because I feel like my executive function is up with exercise. So I'm going to try and keep going with it.

a strange fowl posted:

redacted

Consummate Professional posted:

is there a term or something for when things seem to be going well and you’re just waiting for everything to explode?

it’s like I’m getting stressed out that asking for help, doing the lovely stuff, doing different things is actually working

StashAugustine posted:

the good news is I've been feeling a lot better this week! The bad news is that actually having nonzero energy in the evenings means I'm not getting to bed when I'd like to

Witeldram posted:

That's great! It feels good finally having the energy to do stuff and have pleasure in things again.

Holy crap, there's been a bit of a fallout in the university I work at regarding a racial incident that happened last year. Apparently someone called the campus police on a Latino student last year because he wasn't wearing a mask. The university tried to cover up the incident (I myself didn't know about it until yesterday) but it was brought to light again last week, and since then there's been 10+ PhD students speaking up about the toxic climate of the school, speaking about how inauthentic it is regarding racial justice, the hypocrisy of a lot of the faculty/staff, etc. There's still a lot to take in still but it kinda made me realize that I'm not so alone in my reservations regarding the workplace. There's a lot of times I feel uncomfortable here with how the university approaches diversity and equity (I felt like it had an issue with performative activism), but I always assumed it was just my anxiety exaggerating things.

Consummate Professional posted:

I do have a therapist and psych who are really good, I am seeing them next week. definitely something to bring up because by all measurable accounts I’m doing pretty good

Jorge Bell posted:

Skooma it sounds like you're in kind of a bind but if it were me I wouldn't let myself feel beholden to be my parents' caretaker. It just isn't your job to be available for them in that way, and is an inversion of the kinds of support that they're supposed to be giving you.

Cuttlefush posted:

this is every university, especially at the graduate/working level. except for a few rare departments/people. hell, the general university diversity/equity or whatever department or groups could be fine but they will usually not be able to do poo poo about the actual departments and advisors who actually determine what happens to the graduate students. most phd programs are pure old timey apprenticeships and there's only so much a well-meaning beaurocracy could do to intervene if your advisor turns out to be a bastard. you can probably trust your gut on things (and talk to those phd students if you have any doubts).

Witeldram posted:

Exactly.

I've heard horror stories about academia as an undergrad, but it feels surreal witnessing it in-person.

To be honest, I'm afraid of speaking up myself. I'm not even a PhD student, just an administrative assistant for the professors so I'm at the very bottom of the totem pole. I've always felt an unhealthy power dynamic between the professors and me. So far, the only people who have spoken up are the grad students, but if some of the other staff members take action I might do it as well. But I'm definitely going to consider talking to the PhD students because this whole incident has made me realize that I'm not alone.

Witeldram posted:

Exactly.

I've heard horror stories about academia as an undergrad, but it feels surreal witnessing it in-person.

To be honest, I'm afraid of speaking up myself. I'm not even a PhD student, just an administrative assistant for the professors so I'm at the very bottom of the totem pole. I've always felt an unhealthy power dynamic between the professors and me. So far, the only people who have spoken up are the grad students, but if some of the other staff members take action I might do it as well. But I'm definitely going to consider talking to the PhD students because this whole incident has made me realize that I'm not alone.

StashAugustine posted:

Hey you can talk to us and we can tell you everything is hosed and it's capital's fault

(Good luck tho!)

Lurking Loach posted:

Crippling social anxiety checking in

I've been reading these forums for years but never made an account because see above. It's taken a long time to get to this point, and yet I'm on my fifteenth minute writing this because I have to keep going back over what I wrote to make sure it's "acceptable". I couldn't tell you what I'm even afraid of, but it's definitely out there and I'll definitely die if whatever it is happens. Haha very helpful thank you brain

On the bright side, I was diagnosed with ADHD last year and the meds have helped with my terrible focus and motivation problems, so that's a plus!

StashAugustine posted:

look have you seen the kinda posting that goes on around here? at least you're not accusing a C-tier youtuber of being on the wrong side of the split of the Second International

(more seriously good for you, and I hope the social anxiety improves- I've been talking through it with a therapist and it's been helpful)

Lurking Loach posted:

Crippling social anxiety checking in

I've been reading these forums for years but never made an account because see above. It's taken a long time to get to this point, and yet I'm on my fifteenth minute writing this because I have to keep going back over what I wrote to make sure it's "acceptable". I couldn't tell you what I'm even afraid of, but it's definitely out there and I'll definitely die if whatever it is happens. Haha very helpful thank you brain

On the bright side, I was diagnosed with ADHD last year and the meds have helped with my terrible focus and motivation problems, so that's a plus!

Jorge Bell posted:

Witeldram posted:

I find it helpful that this thread is generally so much more chill and friendly compared to the rest of the site lol.

Witeldram posted:

I find it helpful that this thread is generally so much more chill and friendly compared to the rest of the site lol.

MMania posted:

Nice user name, LL! I also spent 15 minutes responding to your post thank to my crippling social anxiety, just throwing it out there that the worst thing that can happen if you make a dumb post is that some person who you will never meet in the real world calls it dumb. Making good posts here is a skill (that I absolutely don't have) and the only way to learn it is by failing at it a bunch and then learning from those failure. Do you want to learn that skill?

Witeldram posted:

I find it helpful that this thread is generally so much more chill and friendly compared to the rest of the site lol.

Consummate Professional posted:

my awesome psych quit today I don’t blame him, the VA must suck rear end to work for

America Inc. posted:

Is ADHD actually a disorder, or is it an evolutionary adaptation to living in a world where we are constantly inundated with irrelevant information?

E: Or perhaps where it's not obvious what object of attention or objective is most valuable to pay attention to.

Witeldram posted:

I find it helpful that this thread is generally so much more chill and friendly compared to the rest of the site lol.

Lurking Loach posted:

I'm sorry to hear about your psych, hopefully you find someone new that you click with.

On ADHD, that's exactly how it manifests for me as well. I have always struggled to concentrate on things that I already have to force myself to do -- even simple things like tidying and cooking for myself -- and often fail to make any noticeable progress. I thought I was just lazy. By chance, a friend of mine pointed out my weird cycle of obsessive hobbies and interests: over and over I'd come to him with a new thing, infodump excessively about how cool the new thing was, all the stuff I had bought/was preparing to do, and all the extensive research I'd done...then a few weeks later I'd be on to an entirely different new thing. That obversation started me down the road to being diagnosed and now with medication I find it significantly easier to handle "tedious" but basic tasks. It hasn't fundamentally altered the way I deal with other things, of course, but at least now I'm aware of my tendencies.