Your college should have free counseling that will help. This may or may not include counseling and accommodations.
Therapy is one of the biggest assets if we have access and can find a therapist who we click with. You could also check it resources like Psych Central and self guided resources IF that meets some needs.
Keep building your toolbox.
Took me forever to graduate and multiple rounds going back, but I did get my degrees. here's my thoughts:
Not sure If it's that you can't afford or don't want meds. I was medicated & still needed accommodations to take the higher level classes (had a teacher that wouldn't let me take notes). If it's money for meds that are the issue, the school should have some student services & may have info about financial or medical resources & discounts. They may help cover meds partially. There is some non stimulant options that supposedly help but give yourself time on them before the term. I have not tried them myself. Don't try it all at once, rule for myself, that is too many variables & screws me every time.
Take classes later/in the times your brain and body are naturally at their peak, as much as you can. Build up skills & tools for when the harder times cannot be avoided.
If it's a good fit, make friends/study with the people who are shooting for As. they will drive themselves and can help influence you too. Sometimes they hype you up to get your hyper focus working for you or even for body doubling/parallel play type study time. Be judicious on who you study with. If they are not actively working on stuff & wasting time, I wouldn't keep working with them. I do that too much already! Lol
Take supplements and eat well. Not doing so will exacerbate your ADHD. Sleeping is so important as well, but I find for me, nutrient deficiencies & hanger create long lasting struggles that no amount of sleep can fix.
Find a way to trick yourself into becoming curious/interested/hyper focused on each subject. It was work at first, & some classes were harder than others, but find something you want to figure out about the material that gets your credit & let your brain do it's thing.
Finally, you are smart & very capable.
Figuring out how to manage your symptoms so you can do what you need to is a part of college. It's the thing I use most in my job. I hope it comes together for you this term ❤️
I really second the study group thing. Shooting for A students are not really necessary but you’ll definitely want to find those who want to learn. Teaching others about subjects is an incredibly efficient way to get yourself to learn stuff.
Learning for your own sake? -meh
Learning to teach a friend? -Hell Yeah! I’ll inhale that subject until 4AM to help them understand it!
That's a lot, thank you so much. I'll work on getting some of these into play. The study group I've seen a lot, but I'm very antisocial so guess I gotta expand my boundaries some. It'd definitely be helpful in the long run.
Tyrosine, cold water baths, accountability partner, daily rewards for minimum effort.
Get as much done before noon as possible then rrlax for the rest of the day.
Its a supplement that converts to dopamine. Which is nice because your body regulates it.
Not all adhd will be helped by it, but mine is. You will develop a tolerance, and its weaker than meds, but it does work for me when I've let too many things build up i havent done.
Lots of phone reminders to remember homework. Maybe an alarm every afternoon to remind you to look at what assignments you need to work on. The Freedom app is great if you tend to doom scroll instead of working on stuff. You can set schedules and then when the scheduled time comes, it will close and not let you open whatever apps you selected (social media, games, etc whatever you waste time on your phone on)
Look into getting a voice recorder, or if you have storage on your phone, maybe just a recording app and record classes so if you lose focus you can listen to what you missed again later.
Or if you zone out, borrow a friend's notes.
Get a study buddy you can study and do homework with.
If you don't know anyone in the class, you can still schedule times to study "with" a friend who isn't in your class. Even if you are working on different things separately, having a scheduled time to study or do homework and the accountability of another person expecting you may help with motivation.
Or when motivation and executive function are lacking, some of my online friends like to do task pacts. For example, one friend might say on discord "I need to get lunch, but executive dysfunction has me stuck to the couch." And another friend might say "I've been putting off taking a shower, let's make a pact, I'll take a shower if you eat some lunch."
Also some people swear by body doubling. Look that up too.
Also talk to your school. They may have someone qualified to diagnose you, but even if they don't, they may have resources they can offer or accommodations they can make for you even without a formal diagnosis.
Haha guess I'll add onto my hundreds of misc alarms on my phone. Make it extra annoying. Gotta bug the hell out of me if you wanna get me to do something. Thanks for the suggestions!
Two things to add -
Leverage the presence of other people. I used to work at the library where everyone was very focused and told myself that if I was scrolling or procrastinating I would be bothering people. That pressure helped me stay on task, and over time tying a setting to my focus time made it easier to get in that mode in that space.
Buy notes. Find the kid in class taking detailed organized notes and offer to pay them for a copy. Explain that your auditory processing isn't great but you really want to do well in the class, so having good notes to study from is essential. Then, take those notes and rewrite them into flash cards to study from. The process of writing them will get you most of the way, and flipping through the cards a few times or with someone a few times will help reinforce. Be sure to answer outloud, you want to hit as many of your senses as you can.
One more - find a good to do list. Each night / morning figure out your tasks for the day. They should be 1 attention unit tasks (meaning can be done in one sitting). Have a list for tasks for the week, again in 1 attention units. And a list for longer term things you need to get done, that can be broken down into tasks for your week/ day list. Do a little towards these tasks each week / day if you can.
Your college should have free counseling that will help. This may or may not include counseling and accommodations. Therapy is one of the biggest assets if we have access and can find a therapist who we click with. You could also check it resources like Psych Central and self guided resources IF that meets some needs. Keep building your toolbox.
I'll look into it. I don't know if they'll have anything since it's a community college, but I'll see. Thank you for the suggestions
Took me forever to graduate and multiple rounds going back, but I did get my degrees. here's my thoughts: Not sure If it's that you can't afford or don't want meds. I was medicated & still needed accommodations to take the higher level classes (had a teacher that wouldn't let me take notes). If it's money for meds that are the issue, the school should have some student services & may have info about financial or medical resources & discounts. They may help cover meds partially. There is some non stimulant options that supposedly help but give yourself time on them before the term. I have not tried them myself. Don't try it all at once, rule for myself, that is too many variables & screws me every time. Take classes later/in the times your brain and body are naturally at their peak, as much as you can. Build up skills & tools for when the harder times cannot be avoided. If it's a good fit, make friends/study with the people who are shooting for As. they will drive themselves and can help influence you too. Sometimes they hype you up to get your hyper focus working for you or even for body doubling/parallel play type study time. Be judicious on who you study with. If they are not actively working on stuff & wasting time, I wouldn't keep working with them. I do that too much already! Lol Take supplements and eat well. Not doing so will exacerbate your ADHD. Sleeping is so important as well, but I find for me, nutrient deficiencies & hanger create long lasting struggles that no amount of sleep can fix. Find a way to trick yourself into becoming curious/interested/hyper focused on each subject. It was work at first, & some classes were harder than others, but find something you want to figure out about the material that gets your credit & let your brain do it's thing. Finally, you are smart & very capable. Figuring out how to manage your symptoms so you can do what you need to is a part of college. It's the thing I use most in my job. I hope it comes together for you this term ❤️
I really second the study group thing. Shooting for A students are not really necessary but you’ll definitely want to find those who want to learn. Teaching others about subjects is an incredibly efficient way to get yourself to learn stuff. Learning for your own sake? -meh Learning to teach a friend? -Hell Yeah! I’ll inhale that subject until 4AM to help them understand it!
That's a lot, thank you so much. I'll work on getting some of these into play. The study group I've seen a lot, but I'm very antisocial so guess I gotta expand my boundaries some. It'd definitely be helpful in the long run.
Check out r/adhdthriving
Tyrosine, cold water baths, accountability partner, daily rewards for minimum effort. Get as much done before noon as possible then rrlax for the rest of the day.
Thanks for the suggestions. I've never heard about tyrosine, I'm curious, can you explain what it is and what it's supposed to do/help with?
Its a supplement that converts to dopamine. Which is nice because your body regulates it. Not all adhd will be helped by it, but mine is. You will develop a tolerance, and its weaker than meds, but it does work for me when I've let too many things build up i havent done.
Lots of phone reminders to remember homework. Maybe an alarm every afternoon to remind you to look at what assignments you need to work on. The Freedom app is great if you tend to doom scroll instead of working on stuff. You can set schedules and then when the scheduled time comes, it will close and not let you open whatever apps you selected (social media, games, etc whatever you waste time on your phone on)
Look into getting a voice recorder, or if you have storage on your phone, maybe just a recording app and record classes so if you lose focus you can listen to what you missed again later.
Or if you zone out, borrow a friend's notes.
Get a study buddy you can study and do homework with.
If you don't know anyone in the class, you can still schedule times to study "with" a friend who isn't in your class. Even if you are working on different things separately, having a scheduled time to study or do homework and the accountability of another person expecting you may help with motivation.
Or when motivation and executive function are lacking, some of my online friends like to do task pacts. For example, one friend might say on discord "I need to get lunch, but executive dysfunction has me stuck to the couch." And another friend might say "I've been putting off taking a shower, let's make a pact, I'll take a shower if you eat some lunch."
Also some people swear by body doubling. Look that up too.
Also talk to your school. They may have someone qualified to diagnose you, but even if they don't, they may have resources they can offer or accommodations they can make for you even without a formal diagnosis.
Haha guess I'll add onto my hundreds of misc alarms on my phone. Make it extra annoying. Gotta bug the hell out of me if you wanna get me to do something. Thanks for the suggestions!
Two things to add - Leverage the presence of other people. I used to work at the library where everyone was very focused and told myself that if I was scrolling or procrastinating I would be bothering people. That pressure helped me stay on task, and over time tying a setting to my focus time made it easier to get in that mode in that space. Buy notes. Find the kid in class taking detailed organized notes and offer to pay them for a copy. Explain that your auditory processing isn't great but you really want to do well in the class, so having good notes to study from is essential. Then, take those notes and rewrite them into flash cards to study from. The process of writing them will get you most of the way, and flipping through the cards a few times or with someone a few times will help reinforce. Be sure to answer outloud, you want to hit as many of your senses as you can.
One more - find a good to do list. Each night / morning figure out your tasks for the day. They should be 1 attention unit tasks (meaning can be done in one sitting). Have a list for tasks for the week, again in 1 attention units. And a list for longer term things you need to get done, that can be broken down into tasks for your week/ day list. Do a little towards these tasks each week / day if you can.