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Rhoslyn's Rocky Road
Forum-Index → Diaries → Rhoslyn's Rocky Road
Posted: Wed, 26/02/2025 07:30 (5 Days ago)
Welcome! Here, you'll find me talking about my day-to-day navigating of my Autism and ADHD.
You'll find motivational/inspirational quotes/posts and innovative ways to accomplish tasks.
But it's primarily meant to push me to do more when I'm not doing enough.
And to be proud of what little I've done when it was all I could do.
The below code is just a copy/paste for me as the "pretty" that accompanies every post I make.
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Posted: Wed, 26/02/2025 18:30 (4 Days ago)
Executive Dysfunction is the absolute WORST. To be fair, though, I don't even think I can call this that.
Whenever my alarm goes off in the morning, I get out of bed, walk across the room, and shut it off.
Guess what I do next? I go BACK to bed, and spend the next half hour to two hours trying to force myself to get up.
Dude. You were already up. You keep talking about wasted time doing things you love each day. And you do this.
I really should see if a reward system works. But I also don't want to reward myself for doing what's expected.
Meh. I'll figure something out.
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Posted: Thu, 27/02/2025 23:01 (3 Days ago)
Today, I started working on one of my fanfics and ended up with an episode of Writer's Narcolepsy. This is when your brain decides writing time is sleep time.
So, out of spite to my brain, I spent the next half hour sweeping and mopping my bathroom. The usual ADHD distraction happened. And I wound up sweeping the hallway and sweeping and mopping the laundry room because they were right there. All while pausing every five minutes to go enter the Pit or pick up from the Boss (dad was running us through Pits in Diablo IV).
Those of you with ADHD know that when you're interrupted while in the middle of your cleaning (or whatever) vibe, it can be insanely hard, if not impossible, to get back to finishing it. You don't want to pick up where you left off only to get another interruption before you finish. You justify a "why bother" and put it off.
Though I got increasingly frustrated with the interruptions, I kept reminding myself. "You've already put this off for months. Just a little bit more, and you're done." So I'm actually quite proud of myself for managing to do this.
I'm going to go back to writing now so I can give my body a break. But I plan to finish cleaning the surface areas of my bathroom today and finish cleaning up the laundry room because I won't be able to sleep knowing I left them unfinished.
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Posted: Sun, 02/03/2025 21:01 (17 Hours ago)
Shared from Neurodivergent Geek Girl on Facebook
How to snap out of waiting mode in ADHD & Autism - rewritten cause I can’t find my slide.
Waiting mode is when your brain refuses to start anything because you’re waiting for something - a message, a meeting, an email. You just sit there, staring at your phone, the ceiling or nothing at all. You want to do things, but it feels impossible.
Waiting mode isn’t laziness. It’s a combination of executive dysfunction, time blindness and anxiety, which all affect how the brain processes tasks and transitions:
- Executive dysfunction makes it hard to shift gears or start tasks, even when you want to. The brain struggles to generate the “go” signal.
- Time blindness distorts the feeling of how long something takes. If you’re waiting for something at 3 p.m. your brain might feel like that’s the only thing happening today, making it hard to focus on anything else.
- Anxiety and hyperfocus can trap you in a loop. Your brain locks onto the thing you’re waiting for, treating it as a priority even when you logically know you have time to do other things.
Biologically, this is linked to dopamine regulation. ADHD and autistic brains often struggle with dopamine, the neurotransmitter that helps with motivation, task-switching, and reward anticipation. If your brain doesn’t get an immediate dopamine hit from starting something new, it resists shifting focus.
You’re not lazy. Your brain just processes time and transitions differently. The key is to trick it.
Here are some ways to snap out of it:
1. Stand up. Jump. Dance.
Move. Right now. The fastest way to break waiting mode is to physically reset your body. If you’re sitting, stand. If you’re standing, jump. If you can, dance. Movement signals your brain that things are happening.
2. Change your setting.
Go to another room. Step outside. Open a window. Even small environmental changes help break the feeling of being stuck.
3. Create new deadlines before the deadline.
If you’re waiting for something at 3 p.m. set new, smaller deadlines before then. Example:
*20 minutes to wash dishes
*15 minutes to read
*10 minutes to sort your desk
Set a timer for each task so your brain focuses on now instead of just waiting for later.
4. Pretend you’re on a quest.
Your mission: complete three small tasks before unlocking the next stage (checking your email, starting the meeting, etc.). This works because it turns passive waiting into active engagement.
5. Move your hands.
If your brain won’t start, let your hands lead. Sort a drawer, shuffle papers, fold laundry. Even low-effort movements can unstick your brain.
6. Talk or sing out loud.
Narrate what you’re doing.
“I’m standing up now.”
“I’m getting water.”
“I’m cleaning this table.”
Speaking out loud makes action feel more real and helps break inertia.
7. Interrupt the wait with a sensory change.
Drink cold water. Splash your face and hands with cold water. Change clothes. Sensory shifts snap your brain out of limbo.
8. If you’re really stuck, tie it to what you’re waiting for.
Waiting for a meeting? Prepare questions, snacks, or your outfit.
Waiting for an email? Draft your reply before it even arrives.
Waiting for a delivery? Clear space for it or set up what you’ll need after it arrives.
Doing something related keeps your brain engaged instead of zoning out.
Waiting mode feels like a trap, but small actions break the loop. The trick is to shift anything - your body, environment, or focus - so your brain stops holding its breath.
Hope this helps ❤️
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Posted: Sun, 02/03/2025 21:02 (17 Hours ago)
Yes! This is why it sometimes takes me hours to days to respond to messages.
Dad's got clinical depression, and feels like this often. I've known him to go weeks at a time without answering the phone or leaving the house.
Shared from Empaths, Old Souls & Introverts on Facebook
Do you ever have days where you just don’t have the energy to talk—where even replying to a simple message feels like too much?
Not because you’re upset or anything is wrong, but because conversations feel draining, and silence feels more peaceful.
You don’t want to explain, you don’t want to engage in small talk, and you definitely don’t want to force interactions just to meet expectations.
Calls go unanswered, texts sit there unread, and even the thought of socializing feels exhausting.
You’re not mad at anyone, you just need space—to be alone, to breathe, to exist without the pressure of responding.
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Posted: Sun, 02/03/2025 21:04 (17 Hours ago)
Ah, so this is why!
I've been forced to go without subtitles for 14 years. I've adjusted somewhat, though I still have difficulty following scenes sometimes. And definite difficulty when the background noise/music is too loud.
This also explains why my hearing tests keep coming back normal despite the fact my right ear doesn't process words as it should.
Shared from Neurodivergent Geek Girl on Facebook
Why do so many autistic people need subtitles, even in their own language? Infodump:
A lot of autistic people rely on subtitles, even when watching content in their native language. This is because understanding speech isn’t just about hearing - it’s also about how the brain processes sound. Many autistic people experience auditory processing difficulties which can make spoken words hard to follow - especially in real-time.
Auditory processing isn’t just about volume- it’s about how the brain interprets and organizes sound.
Autistic people can experience delayed auditory processing, where the brain takes longer to make sense of what was just heard.
Examples:
*Hearing the words but not understanding them right away (like the brain is buffering before meaning clicks into place). By the time understanding happens, the conversation has already moved on.
*Needing to replay a sentence in their head multiple times before it makes sense - which is difficult when dialogue is fast or complex.
*Struggling to keep up in real-time conversations because speech moves faster than the brain can process. Subtitles help by reinforcing the words visually, giving the brain an extra way to absorb the information.
Autistic people also tend to have heightened sensitivity to sound, but this doesn’t mean better hearing. It means difficulty filtering out irrelevant noise (hearing electricity, anyone?).
Many also struggle with background noise or overlapping sounds, which can make speech nearly impossible to follow.
Examples:
*Being unable to focus on one voice when multiple people are speaking. A conversation in a busy café might sound like a wall of noise, making it hard to pick out the words.
*Movies or shows with background music or sound effects drowning out dialogue. The brain then can’t separate speech from the rest of the noise, so the words get lost.
*Missing key words in a sentence and having to piece together meaning from context - which can make comprehension exhausting.
Back to subtitles.
Subtitles act as a visual anchor, giving the brain another way to process language. Instead of relying only on hearing, autistic people can read along, reinforce meaning, and catch words they might have missed.
And it’s not just autistic people - subtitles help those with ADHD, auditory processing disorders and even non-autistic people who simply process information better visually.
So if you see an autistic person watching something with subtitles, even in their native language, it’s not a “preference” or a “quirk.” It’s a tool that makes media accessible in a way that spoken language alone sometimes can’t.
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