this post was submitted on 17 Oct 2023
42 points (95.7% liked)
ADHD
9286 readers
88 users here now
A casual community for people with ADHD
Values:
Acceptance, Openness, Understanding, Equality, Reciprocity.
Rules:
- No abusive, derogatory, or offensive post/comments.
- No porn, gore, spam, or advertisements allowed.
- Do not request for donations.
- Do not link to other social media or paywalled content.
- Do not gatekeep or diagnose.
- Mark NSFW content accordingly.
- No racism, homophobia, sexism, ableism, or ageism.
- Respectful venting, including dealing with oppressive neurotypical culture, is okay.
- Discussing other neurological problems like autism, anxiety, ptsd, and brain injury are allowed.
- Discussions regarding medication are allowed as long as you are describing your own situation and not telling others what to do (only qualified medical practitioners can prescribe medication).
Encouraged:
- Funny memes.
- Welcoming and accepting attitudes.
- Questions on confusing situations.
- Seeking and sharing support.
- Engagement in our values.
Relevant Lemmy communities:
Autism
ADHD Memes
Bipolar Disorder
Therapy
Mental Health
Neurodivergent Life Hacks
lemmy.world/c/adhd will happily promote other ND communities as long as said communities demonstrate that they share our values.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
I have been meditating more-or-less daily for > 10 years. It is a very useful practice, depending on your goals. It's good to ask yourself why you want to meditate, so you can tell if it's working or not. It's a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem if you don't know what other people get out of it, though, so here are a few things that I have been aiming for, and how well it worked for me.
Nibbana / Cessation
Many practitioners have spoken of a mental state where thoughts cease, and time seems to pass in an instant. It is supposed to be a transformative experience according to most traditions. You are a wiser, calmer and more caring person from that point forward.
I was seeking this for a long time, and I say it's bullshit. (Or maybe just not possible without becoming a monk & practicing all day every day, which is the same thing when someone tells you it's posslble to get there in 30-60 minutes per day.)
Feel happier / less anxious
Anxiety and depression are things a lot of people with ADHD feel. I have found that daily practice really does help with this. Breath meditation improved my mood and gave me a bit more peace, but a "metta" style (I mostly follow a practice called TWIM) works really well for me.
Make better decisions
You wouldn't think that this would come from just sitting there focusing on your breath (or in the case of metta/TWIM, on a warm, happy feeling), but it does for me. I think that the reason I tend to eat better, exercise more, etc, come from a better understanding of my own mind. There is so much noise in most people's minds (and probably more than average in our ADHD minds), that sitting down to meditate feels like your brain suddenly went into overdrive & you can't focus on anything. The truth is that meditation lets you notice that your mind is always like this. Realizing this (the constant state of distraction) helps me trust my gut reactions less, and rely on logic more.
Improve your focus
Meditation helped me build more focus. Even though you can't really keep your attention on the meditation object for more than a few seconds at a time, constantly (and gently - it takes a long time to learn to be more gentle) directing it back over & over again "builds that muscle". Meaning, I'm able to redirect my attention like non-ADHD people seem to, more of the time.
Caveats
Maybe I can save you a bit of struggle, or maybe you need to suffer through it yourself. In any case, here is some additional advice, if you want to pursue this:
Good luck!