The ADHD Craft Corner

Okay so, I’ve always struggled with coming up with new ways to “self-care,” let alone figured out a strategy to ensure that it actually gets done.

Also, with my recent ADHD diagnosis, I’m learning all kinds of new things about myself. One of them being, I struggle with something called time blindness. So I’m often late to, if I can be honest, everything.

Also, object permanence. So if something is out of sight, it is legitimate out of my mind. Which makes it hard to keep in contact with people I care about that might live across the country, or even… across town.. that I used to see everyday but no longer have that type of interaction with.

I’ve tried making lists; I lose them. I’ve tried lists in my notes app, but mixed among tons of other apps on my phone, I forget they exist. I’ve tried setting timers so I’m not late; my brain outsmarts me and knows how much time I actually have. Also with time blindness, my brain has a hard time distinguishing the different between ‘10 mins and 1 hour,’ so even a timer telling me I have 10 minutes before I need to leave… does nothing for me. I’ve tried changing the clocks, same thing.. my brain knows better. I beat myself up constantly because of these ‘faults’ and have struggled to find solutions.

So I told my therapist I was thinking about implementing some kind of rewards system instead of trying to trick my brain or punishing myself. Because ADHD is essentially dopamine deficiency. So if I can give my brain a little dopamine boost when I’m not late, or when I remember to reach out to a friend, etc. that sounds more promising than the later.

So she suggest this self-care app where you get to hatch a little pet (say less, send me that link).. and as you complete self-care tasks, the pet grows with you. You can also dress it in different outfits & decorate its home. The app has CBT prompts (self-reflection prompts), breathing exercises, stretching exercises, general exercises, a first aid kit to help you process emotions in real time, random acts of kindness suggestions… and more. You can add your friends and send them encouragement throughout the day.

When I tell you that I literally sprinted to my car repeating, “We’ve got this Gertie! We’re going to make it,” in my head so I could check off “make it to work on time,” I mean… this app works for me. I was on time to work all of last week. And you bet your patootie I clocked in and jumped up and down and celebrated, then opened my app and checked the box so Gertie could grow with me. 😅

Can you say tamagotchi adult ADHD version much? This app is legit. There’s a 7 day free trial. And there is a subscription after that, but it’s pretty dang affordable and I feel like it’s worth it.

Check it out, and let’s be friends and grow together!!

Tap the link to add me as a friend, or add my friend code ARYMLQYE41.

Let's be friends on Finch! Meet your emotional support companion to finally make daily self care fun! Take care of your pet by taking care of yourself!

Working on new stickers ☺️

“Hey, do you wanna go to this really good taco truck I found??”

I swear if you ask me a question and I just stare at you blankly for 3-5 seconds, it’s not that I didn’t hear you … it’s just taking me a bit longer to process what you just said. I promise I’m not trying to be rude. I don’t do it on purpose. I can not control it or make the process happen more quickly. Sometimes I just need a second.

Working in an environment as an educator in a fast-paced industry, sometimes I get asked questions like I’m playing in a rapid-fire game show bonus round. My students will look at me perplexed when I stare blankly beyond them, silent. They can’t tell if I’m ignoring them, didn’t hear them, or if something is wrong.

I’m learning to express when my auditory-processing is working a little bit slower. Usually it happens in the mornings when I’m not fully awake and I’m just jumping into the environment. This part of my unmasking journey has been received really well and my students are so good at giving me grace and understanding. But me communicating when this is happening is huge. Otherwise they have no idea what’s going on and why I’m not responding to them.

I usually crack a joke about how my brain takes a second to load the page… or something of the sort. What’s really happening is, this is the time of day when my brain is the most active. I’ve just had coffee, otherwise I’m completely useless… my medication hasn’t had the time to kick in completely and slow my brain down to the speed at which the rest of the world moves. So my brain feels like Spider-Man shooting webs around the city when he just discovered his powers. Some webs connect, others don’t… but they’re flying everywhere regardless. 😅 I promise you, there’s a web making its way to the question you just asked…. I just happened to shoot 5 more off in different directions before you could even finish what you were saying. And it takes me grabbing all 5 starter-strings and pulling the different webs together, looking at the 6 different things they caught, & filing them in a single-file line in my brain before I can make my mouth form words to answer your question. But I can guarantee you… I’ll move from your question, get the laundry in the dryer, grab number 37 nail polish, check a hair cut, tell the receptionist a customer wants to add on a service, and then help formulate a hair color… in the order that the students approached me… whithin the next 10 minutes following…

But… that in a nut-shell is why auditory processing is hard. I heard you, completely. I just heard 7 other things at the same time. And my brain wants to.. and will.. process all of them.

It’s crazy how well people except the things about myself that I felt as if I always needed to hide. Unmasking has felt like such a scary, dark road to journey down. But it’s actually been such a liberating and surprisingly well-accepted path. I’m so thankful to have an incredible community of support. That in turn helps me to be a better supporter for them as well.

Part of my unmasking has been accepting this about myself. My hobbies and interests are constantly changing. Sometimes I circle back around to old hobbies, sometimes I move on to new ones. That’s why I decided to redesign my original shop. I decided that I was going to allow my shop to be a huge part of my unmasking and becoming true to myself.

Can anyone relate to constantly changing hobbies/interests?

What are some of the hobbies you’ve cycled through?

Valentines stickers are live!! Shop link in bio

When you’re scrolling through your Facebook memories… and realize that 10 years later you’re officially diagnosed with ADHD and this makes so much more damn sense 🤣🤣🤣

One of my friends is hosting a hockey player on our local team and she asked me if I could make some hockey puck ornaments for her.

I designed the hockey pucks to be regulation size, imprinted the local team logo on them, and hand painted them. ☺️

This was definitely a fun little project that had me thinking outside of the box.

Long read, but I promise it’s worth it!!

If I’m at home, I’m most likely listening to something. To distract my brain while I’m doing a task, so I can get said task done…Without my overactive brain thinking of all the other things I could be getting done at the same time and wandering off on a side mission… or 5.. 🙄😏

It’s almost always either music, or a true crime podcast. I’d listened to music for two days of a four day weekend.. I think Thanksgiving weekend? I was musicd?-out. And I didn’t want to listen to anything too heavy like one of my true crime podcasts. So I was looking through audiobooks and realized… I always default to Stephen King… which.. heavy…

So I decided to rely on the google machine because my author loyalty runs deep and I don’t even know how to start looking for anything other than my favorite author/genre.

I typed in, “light-hearted audiobooks.” I’m scrolling through the title images when this image catches my eye. “Dirty Laundry,” this sounds like it could be… maybe a little risqué.. maybe a little monotonous-gossipy… light. Fluffy background distraction.

As I read the description I see that it’s about ADHD. I was immediately bummed. You see, I was diagnosed with ADHD earlier this year and I went full-fledged hyper focused on learning about it. Having all the discussions with my fellow neurodivergent friends; my therapist even took a course on it so we could work on coping skills together. I was burnt out on ADHD theory.

But… I decided to give it a little listen… dip my toes in the water and see if it was warm enough to dive in.

By the end of the introduction I was bawling. But not sad bawling. And not happy bawling. Just… understood bawling. Someone was speaking the same… erratic.. emotional… passionate.. nonsensical language as me. Someone.. with this Brisitsh.. or Australian.. whatever beautiful accent.. understood everything that has never made sense to me about myself. Someone understood my… “crazy,” if you will. And she said, “hey… you’re not crazy, you’re not wrong, you don’t need to change everything about how you function, these are not character flaws they’re simply traits/sypmtoms that people with adhd may possess.”.. and we all experience them on a different scale. So one that might be a deeply-rooted symptom in you.. may be less of a symptom for me. And visa-versa.

Let me tell you.. I binged this audiobook. And I felt like a completely different person after. I felt accepted. I felt hope.. so much hope… that I could finally be understood and truly loved by people. Loved for me. Me without the mask, without the constant guilt of feeling like a permanent inconvenience and burden. It gave me hope that there may be people out there that will take the time to understand that my brain functions differently than the majority of the population and that might make life a little (or a lot) more challenging for me. But that doesn’t mean that I need to be ridiculed, constantly judged, or asked to change myself because of it. In fact, I need the exact opposite. People with ADHD drown themselves in shame. We don’t need tough love, we just need… love. And acceptance. Maybe a fist-full of patience. And a sprinkle of empathy.

This book gave me hope that there might be people out there that will be patient with me and allow me enough grace to be patient with myself while I figure out the world through this new lense. That they could hold compassion for me, as I desperately try to find compassion for myself. And in fact, I realized that I have a few of these people in my life already.

My whole life I feel like I’ve been treading water trying to change these things about myself… when.. I really just need to accept that this is just how my brain works. And that’s okay. And that I don’t have to change how my brain works to adapt to how the world is set up. Which is, primarily for neurotypical brain-types. It might be a learning curve to figure out how to allow my brain to function how it’s meant to, in a world that’s not structured for how it naturally functions. But one of the superpowers of having ADHD is that we can pretty much learn anything we want to if we are interested enough in it… which I think is pretty dang cool.

I’ve been sitting over here gatekeeping this hidden gem while simultaneously fighting the urge for the past few weeks to want to scream from the rooftops…

IF YOU LOVE SOMEONE WITH ADHD (chances are you probably do) PLEASE READ/LISTEN TO THIS BOOK!!

Your person will feel loved beyond any measure they ever dreamed possible.

I promise

Dirty Laundry: Why Adults with ADHD Are So Ashamed and What We Can Do to Help Listen to this audiobook by Richard Pink and Roxanne Emery on Spotify.

I’m looking into sticker designs so I can start making some. What kind of stickers do y’all want to see in the shop?? Gimme all the ideas ☺️

Hey Y'all,

You've probably noticed that I've made a few changes to this page.. like the name. 😂

I've decided to revamp the shop to fit with some new life changes. We will still have a focus on houseplants and 3d printing. We will just be adding more!

We originally started out as a botanical shop. Our main focus was houseplants, 3d printed planter pots, and macramé hangers. Plants are still our passion... we just, finally decided to unmask our truth.

That we have many, many passions. Creativity, crafting, and creating are patch-worked into our soul. After having a late-in-life diagnosis of ADHD and working on unmasking, I decided, ya know what... it's okay to want to create.. more... all the time. 😆

Sometimes the hyper focus is real on a certain project, niché, or passion. Then just as fast as the hyper focus arrived, it takes an Irish goodbye. And the hyper focus is real on creating something new.

I've decided... that's okay.

So this shop may end up being, "all over the place," but that's how ADHDers roll. 🤪

One week we may be adding new plants... the next it might be keychains. Who knows? I don't. 😆 So if you love surprises, this is the place for you. You never know what you'll find here. And hopefully you find that as beautiful as I do. 🫶🏼