Post by shedofthemind on Jul 13, 2020 12:28:08 GMT
Hello all, this is my first post, I do tend to ramble when i get going so stop where you like, at least after my tech question if you could please ta....
I'm 53 and have recently figured out I almost certainly have inattentive ADD/ADHD. I've seen my GP and am on the NHS waiting list for an assessment. Don't really want to pay the private amount, yet.
Tech Question: I'm looking for a thing I can wear on my wrist which tells me the time and reminds me when to do things and most importantly what they are, nothing more. I need multiple alarms and or reminders that I can type what they are about and it will vibrate, and that I can have many of them, some regular, some for specific days, and some for in about 30 minutes time to get that cake out of the oven, or 2 hours time to hang the washing now sitting in the machine so it doesn't go damp smelly, y'know what I mean.
Further specifications...
Does this get a bit ranty for this intro/question forum?
I don't really want a full on smartwatch, don't want any fitness tracking, music listening, phone notifications sent to my wrist (the phone sends enough of those direct to my ears already thank you very much). I suppose I could turn some of those things off. I don't want to have to have bluetooth switched on on my phone all the time draining its little battery, and yet another app clogging its little brain, just to run the beebing smartwatch! And I don't want something who's battery only lasts upto 2 days! Or track my sleep, I put my watch on my bedside table in the heap of other things on there. I'd have to have the charger on the heap and fit the watch in the dark cos I'm always last to bed, if i charge it in another room I'd keep forgetting to go there to charge it or put it on again!
Is there anything out there that I could use? I found the 'Watchminder' which has a library of 65 alarm labels but only 12 you can write your self and the method for 'typing' them appears pretty old an clunky. Is there a modern version, one I could speak to would be even better. Help please?
Breath out haaaa
My story blurb if you can manage / be bothered to read it...
Where I'm at at the moment: Managing the home under lockdown, with my 11 and 14 year olds needing nudging along and made to help, and my wife working long hours from the spare room, and my attempt at becoming self employed hampered again.
The build up: Shortly after my second child was born I was made redundant, so with a 2.5 year old and 3 month old I became an 'at home dad', my wife being the one with the much better paid job it wasn't worth me getting another one for a long time. Bringing the kids up has been wonderful (11 & 14 now) and its been the hardest thing I've ever done (nothing unusual there). Managing the housework, shopping, cooking, picking the kids up, kids clubs and all that has/is hard, and its been really chaotic! Missed birthday parties, sprinting to school pickup and all that. At the same time I'm trying to get a business idea off the ground so i can become self employed, I'd like this to go really well - so I need my head in order. I'm a product design engineer, assembling 3D shapes are my thing.
At worst a few years ago i was quite depressed, struggling like hell and having panic attacks I think, going faint and trying really hard not to throw up on the kitchen floor. I got some help from a therapist (in exchange for fitting his kitchen) who gave me, among all sorts of great mindfulness things etc, a really great paper and pencil in your pocket way of keeping track, love it, only problem is it doesn't beep at me or vibrate. A calendar is no use if it doesn't remind you its there right! For years we have used google calendar synced with a big paper calendar on the kitchen wall, weekly synced with a big white board on the kitchen wall and of course i have my own bit of paper and pencil synced in my pocket. I still miss things constantly, dentist appointments.
Realisation: About 3 years ago a friend of mine was talking about his 16 year old son struggling with ADHD and describing his symptoms, and I quietly thought hey I do that and that and that...I began to read and read. I didn't tell anyone yet, i wanted to be more sure before I said to my wife - hey y'know what...? Looking back at my life I became more and more sure. I read my junior and secondary school reports and yes they all consistently say I would do better if i could focus, finish things, that I can produce good work but, to quote one of my junior reports, i would do better if i spent less time gazing out the window! Well there y'go! That's me to a T.
I was getting close to talking about it, honest, when we had our eldest tested for dyslexia - she is a bit and 'there's something else going on with her short term working memory' its pretty rubbish, so she gets the extra time in exams and has a laptop etc, she doing really well at school and is the most organised in the house, if a bit gormless and tactless at times, so I'm not too concerned at the mo. So I had a dyslexia test - similar result - brilliant at shapes, rubbish at remembering something i was told 10 seconds ago. As a child i think i'd have scored higher for dyslexia, my mum always though i was. When reading aloud if self conscious I falter terribly. They recommended I get tested for ADD, still waiting. So then it was time to talk about what I'd been wondering about and how I struggle, it all makes sense. I've always been a bit different, low self esteem, did terrible at school, wrong jobs etc etc. I wanted to know why I can't hold long conversations in the pub, follow a film plot, why I see and hear everything, why I turn the radio off at the wall because its buzzing annoys me, why I can hear LEDs beep, why I can't tun my mind off and sleep!
I've read two brilliant books by Edward M. Hallowell, Additude web site, AADDUK, watched totallyADD on youtube etc. And yep, yep, yep, so much of it fits its made me cry with relief at times. Looking forward to an assessment and hopefully to try some medication, it sounds good to me. That's it, ramble over, for now.
thanks for reading if you got this far.
I'm 53 and have recently figured out I almost certainly have inattentive ADD/ADHD. I've seen my GP and am on the NHS waiting list for an assessment. Don't really want to pay the private amount, yet.
Tech Question: I'm looking for a thing I can wear on my wrist which tells me the time and reminds me when to do things and most importantly what they are, nothing more. I need multiple alarms and or reminders that I can type what they are about and it will vibrate, and that I can have many of them, some regular, some for specific days, and some for in about 30 minutes time to get that cake out of the oven, or 2 hours time to hang the washing now sitting in the machine so it doesn't go damp smelly, y'know what I mean.
Further specifications...
Does this get a bit ranty for this intro/question forum?
I don't really want a full on smartwatch, don't want any fitness tracking, music listening, phone notifications sent to my wrist (the phone sends enough of those direct to my ears already thank you very much). I suppose I could turn some of those things off. I don't want to have to have bluetooth switched on on my phone all the time draining its little battery, and yet another app clogging its little brain, just to run the beebing smartwatch! And I don't want something who's battery only lasts upto 2 days! Or track my sleep, I put my watch on my bedside table in the heap of other things on there. I'd have to have the charger on the heap and fit the watch in the dark cos I'm always last to bed, if i charge it in another room I'd keep forgetting to go there to charge it or put it on again!
Is there anything out there that I could use? I found the 'Watchminder' which has a library of 65 alarm labels but only 12 you can write your self and the method for 'typing' them appears pretty old an clunky. Is there a modern version, one I could speak to would be even better. Help please?
Breath out haaaa
My story blurb if you can manage / be bothered to read it...
Where I'm at at the moment: Managing the home under lockdown, with my 11 and 14 year olds needing nudging along and made to help, and my wife working long hours from the spare room, and my attempt at becoming self employed hampered again.
The build up: Shortly after my second child was born I was made redundant, so with a 2.5 year old and 3 month old I became an 'at home dad', my wife being the one with the much better paid job it wasn't worth me getting another one for a long time. Bringing the kids up has been wonderful (11 & 14 now) and its been the hardest thing I've ever done (nothing unusual there). Managing the housework, shopping, cooking, picking the kids up, kids clubs and all that has/is hard, and its been really chaotic! Missed birthday parties, sprinting to school pickup and all that. At the same time I'm trying to get a business idea off the ground so i can become self employed, I'd like this to go really well - so I need my head in order. I'm a product design engineer, assembling 3D shapes are my thing.
At worst a few years ago i was quite depressed, struggling like hell and having panic attacks I think, going faint and trying really hard not to throw up on the kitchen floor. I got some help from a therapist (in exchange for fitting his kitchen) who gave me, among all sorts of great mindfulness things etc, a really great paper and pencil in your pocket way of keeping track, love it, only problem is it doesn't beep at me or vibrate. A calendar is no use if it doesn't remind you its there right! For years we have used google calendar synced with a big paper calendar on the kitchen wall, weekly synced with a big white board on the kitchen wall and of course i have my own bit of paper and pencil synced in my pocket. I still miss things constantly, dentist appointments.
Realisation: About 3 years ago a friend of mine was talking about his 16 year old son struggling with ADHD and describing his symptoms, and I quietly thought hey I do that and that and that...I began to read and read. I didn't tell anyone yet, i wanted to be more sure before I said to my wife - hey y'know what...? Looking back at my life I became more and more sure. I read my junior and secondary school reports and yes they all consistently say I would do better if i could focus, finish things, that I can produce good work but, to quote one of my junior reports, i would do better if i spent less time gazing out the window! Well there y'go! That's me to a T.
I was getting close to talking about it, honest, when we had our eldest tested for dyslexia - she is a bit and 'there's something else going on with her short term working memory' its pretty rubbish, so she gets the extra time in exams and has a laptop etc, she doing really well at school and is the most organised in the house, if a bit gormless and tactless at times, so I'm not too concerned at the mo. So I had a dyslexia test - similar result - brilliant at shapes, rubbish at remembering something i was told 10 seconds ago. As a child i think i'd have scored higher for dyslexia, my mum always though i was. When reading aloud if self conscious I falter terribly. They recommended I get tested for ADD, still waiting. So then it was time to talk about what I'd been wondering about and how I struggle, it all makes sense. I've always been a bit different, low self esteem, did terrible at school, wrong jobs etc etc. I wanted to know why I can't hold long conversations in the pub, follow a film plot, why I see and hear everything, why I turn the radio off at the wall because its buzzing annoys me, why I can hear LEDs beep, why I can't tun my mind off and sleep!
I've read two brilliant books by Edward M. Hallowell, Additude web site, AADDUK, watched totallyADD on youtube etc. And yep, yep, yep, so much of it fits its made me cry with relief at times. Looking forward to an assessment and hopefully to try some medication, it sounds good to me. That's it, ramble over, for now.
thanks for reading if you got this far.