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See, that’s what the app is perfect for.

Sounds perfect Wahhhh, I don’t wanna
leveretstudy
vvitchgender

I think it’s incredibly fucked how capitalism discourages learning for learning’s sake. People will have interests they’ve spent years researching then say it’s “useless knowledge” bc it didn’t go towards a college degree and isn’t part of their job. Learning is never useless! Your brain is growing and developing throughout your whole life! People would never have epiphanies or sudden lightening strikes of creativity if they weren’t learning new things! That goes double for topics like science, politics, and history, which inform your understanding of the world you live in!

momoxstudies
corgitation

resources I'm using for studying japanese

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vocab/kanji:

  • wanikani: I use daily reviews to learn kanji and vocabulary using the kanji. This resource isn't free, but this has really helped me stay consistent. I like the UI and find the content helpful
  • renshuu: this is my favorite mobile app, I use this to learn JLPT-specific vocab and kanji. I use the free version
  • mochi srs: the best flashcard app! The UI is super easy to use and has lots of shortcuts for making and reviewing cards fast. You can easily create and edit templates for cards, and have cards reference other cards. I have a deck for kanji and one for vocab, and my vocab template references any kanji that are used in the vocab tab. There's also super easy furigana, lots of features for japanese.

grammar:

  • bunpro: really good for grammar, this has lessons for each grammar rule and divides them into groups through popular textbooks and their own groupings for jlpt grammar
  • genki textbooks: pretty standard textbook for learning vocab, grammar, and kanji
  • genki study resources: great site with activities for all the genki lessons
  • tokini andy genki reviews: extra practice for genki lessons, explains some grammar more clearly, introduces new dialogue.

reading:

  • japanese folktales for language learners and japanese stories for language learners: folktales are a really great way to learn, because these references come up a lot. I've seen references to urashimo taro in evangelion, and the new pokemon dlc is a reference to momotaro. This book has the japanese on one page and english on the other, with vocabulary after the chapter.
  • animal crossing new leaf tobimori: I've recently started playing this and it's so much fun. I'm already really familiar with the game so I don't depend on any of the text for playing, and it's good for more common expressions, differences in speech between polite/casual/male/female etc. I have a post describing how I'm able to play this here.

listening:

  • japanese with shun: big fan of this podcast, it's free on spotify and youtube, which scripts on patreon. Each podcast is about a short subject, and they're all in japanese.
  • learn japanese pod: some free podcasts on spotify with more paid content, this one is both about japanese and in japanese. It will teach phrases for specific scenarios, like ordering sushi or refusing situations.

other:

  • tofugu: this blog has everything. Use it for finding reviews on japanese language resources, learning grammar rules, etc.
  • jisho: dictionary app, I use it as my source of truth for vocab and kanji meanings
  • heisig's remembering the kanji: a different approach to learning kanji, this focuses on first teaching the simplest kanji and building from ones you already know. This is different from wanikani, which will make sure you know (its own) particles before introducing the kanji that uses them, but focuses on learning kanji and vocab in priority order. I'm listing it here because I don't use it much anymore
  • deepl: ai translator, works much better than google translate. You can also put sentences in chatgpt and ask it for broken down explanations. Take any translations from ai with a grain of salt - they are great tools but do not ensure accuracy
writing-prompt-s
skribblegurl

some people think writers are so eloquent and good with words, but the reality is that we can sit there with our fingers on the keyboard going, “what’s the word for non-sunlight lighting? Like, fake lighting?” and for ten minutes, all our brain will supply is “unofficial”, and we know that’s not the right word, but it’s the only word we can come up with…until finally it’s like our face got smashed into a brick wall and we remember the word we want is “artificial”.

heywriters

I couldn't remember the word "doorknob" ten minutes ago.

bumblewyn

ok but the onelook thesaurus will save your life, i literally could not live without this website

image
breelandwalker

REBLOG TO SAVE A WRITER'S LIFE

myfairkatiecat

LIFE SAVED

REBLOGGING TO SAVE ANOTHER WRITERS LIFE

sirowsky

I use this every time I sit down to write. It's the best tool in the world and I would be lost without it!

linguist-breakaribecca
mclennonwasreal

probably i just said it but i want to say it again:

- don’t apologise if you don’t know english.

- yes, english is the most common language on the internet but you are not forced to know it perfectly.

- your own language is beautiful.

- non-english people make a huge effort to write in English everyday on this website.

- support non-english people and don’t make them feel bad if they do not know English. 

- actually support all the languages.

- spread more language diversity on Tumblr.

thank you. 

langsandlit

Probabilmente l’ho già detto, ma voglio ribadirlo:

- non scusarti se non conosci l’inglese

- è vero, l’inglese è la lingua più comune su internet, ma non sei obbligato/a a conoscerlo perfettamente

- la tua lingua è bella

- i non anglofoni si sforzano molto ogni giorno a scrivere in inglese su questo sito

- sostieni i non anglofoni e non scoraggiarli se non conoscono l’inglese

- sostieni tutte le lingue

- sostieni la diversità linguistica su Tumblr

Grazie.

athenastudying

Wahrscheinlich habe ich es schon gesagt, aber ich sage es nochmal: 

- Entschuldige dich nicht, wenn du kein Englisch kannst. 

- Ja, Englisch ist vielleicht die am meisten gesprochene Sprache im Internet, aber du bist nicht dazu gezwungen, es perfekt zu sprechen. 

- Deine Muttersprache ist wertvoll 

- Leute, deren Muttersprache nicht Englisch ist, geben sich jeden Tag die größte Mühe, auf dieser Webseite Englisch zu benutzen

- Unterstützt Leute, deren Muttersprache nicht Englisch ist, und macht euch nicht über sie lustig, wenn sie kein Englisch sprechen. 

- Unterstützt alle Sprachen

- Setzt euch für mehr Sprachenvielfalt auf Tumblr ein

Danke. :) 

chiefoftherevolution

- ne vous excusez pas si vous ne connaissez pas l'anglais.
- oui, l'anglais est la langue la plus utilisée sur Internet mais vous n'êtes pas obligé de la connaître parfaitement.

- vos langue maternelle est belle.

- les non-anglophones font un effort énorme pour écrire en anglais tous les jours sur ce site.

- soutenez les non-anglophones et ne leur faites pas sentir mal s’ils ne connaissent pas l’anglais.

- supporte toutes les langues.

- Parlez de plus de diversité linguistique sur Tumblr.


merci :)

whumpadork

Ik heb het waarschijnlijk al eerder gezegd maar ik wil het nogmaals zeggen:

- Zeg geen sorry als je geen Engels spreekt.

- Ja, Engels is de meest gebruikte taal op het internet maar je hoeft het niet perfect te kennen.

- Jou eigen taal is prachtig.

- Niet-Engelstalige mensen doen enorm hun best om elke dag Engels te schrijven op deze site.

- Moedig niet-Engelstalige mensen aan en geef hen geen slecht gevoel over het feit dat ze geen Engels spreken.

- Eigenlijk, moedig alle talen aan.

- Verspreid meer diversiteit in talen op Tumblr!

Dank je wel.

baionikkuthedragon

Probablemente ya lo haya dicho, pero quiero volver a decirlo.

- No te disculpes si no sabes inglés.

- Es verdad que el inglés es el idioma más hablado en internet, pero no estás obligado a hablarlo perfectamente.

- Tu idioma nativo es hermoso.

- La gente que no habla inglés como idioma nativo hace un gran esfuerzo para hablarlo todos los días en esta página web.

- Apoya a la gente que no sepa hablar inglés y no les hagas sentir mal si no saben hablarlo a la perfección.

- Apoya todos los idiomas.

- Apoya la diversidad lingüistica en Tumblr.

Muchas gracias.

achingpineapple

也许我刚刚说过,但是我想再说一遍:

- 你不需要为不懂英语道歉

- 是的,英语是互联网上最普遍使用的语言,但是你不必毫无差错地了解它

- 你自己的语言是美丽的

- 非英语人士每天都在这个网站上很努力地写作

- 支持非英语人士,如果他们不懂英语,不要让他们为难

- 实际上,支持所有语言

- 在汤不热上传播语言多样性

谢谢

korolevaa

я это по-моему уже сказал ну я хочу сказать опять:

- не извиняйтесь если вы не понимаете английский язык.

- да, английский самый популярный язык на интернете, но вам не надо её знать отлично.

- ваш собственный язык прекрасный.

- люди которые не разговаривают по английскому языку сильно пробуют писать по ему здесь каждый день.

- поддерживаете других, и не оскорбляйте их если они не умеют разговаривать по английскиму.

- на самом деле, поддерживаете все языка

- позвольте большему количеству языков существовать на этом сайте.

благодарю. 💖

(извините за грамматические ошибки; русский не мой основной язык)

mastreworld

Jag har antagligen sagt det men jag vill säga det igen:

- be inte om ursäkt om du inte kan engelska.

- ja, engelska är det vanligaste språket på internet men du är inte tvungen att kunna det perfekt.

- ditt eget språk är vackert.

- icke-engelspråkiga personer gör en stor ansträngning varje dag för att skriva på engelska på den här sajten.

- stöd icke-engelspråkiga personer och behandla dem inte nedlåtande om de inte kan engelska.

- faktum är att du bör stödja all språk

- försök sprida mer språk-variation på Tumblr

Tack.

southsidesarcasticwriter

Вероятно го казах, но искам да го кажа отново:

- Не се извинявайте, ако не знаете английски.

- Да, английският е най-често срещаният език в интернет, но не сте длъжни да го знаете перфектно.

- Вашият собствен език е красив.

- Хората, които не говорят английски като роден език, влагат огромни усилия да пишат на английски всеки ден на този уебсайт.

- Подкрепяйте не-англоговорящите хора и не ги карайте да се чувстват зле, ако не знаят английски.

- Всъщност, подкрепяйте всички езици.

- Разпространете разнообразието на повече езици в Tumblr.

Благодаря!💕

ohnomybladder

prawdopodobnie już to powiedziałem, ale wspomnę raz jeszcze:

- nie przepraszaj, jeśli nie znasz angielskiego

- tak, angielski to najbardziej rozpowszechniony język w internecie, ale nie zmusza cię to do znania go perfekcyjnie

- twój własny język jest piękny

- osoby, których językiem ojczystym nie jest angielski, podejmują ogromny wysiłek, pisząc w języku angielskim na tej stronie

- wspieraj osoby, których językiem ojczystym nie jest angielski i nie sprawiaj, że czują się gorzej jeśli go nie znają

- wlasciwie, wspieraj wszystkie języki

- rozpowszechniaj różnorodność językową na tumblrze!

dziękuję

irondadgroupie

I’m going to use “official language” for this, anyone who knows Finnish knows that spoken and written are completely different

Varmaan jo sanoin tämän, mutta haluan sanoa uudelleen

- Älä pyydä anteeksi ettet osaa englantia

- totta, englanti on internetin yleisin kieli mutta sinun ei ole pakko osata sitä täydellisesti 

- Oma kielesi on kaunis

- ei-englanninkieliset ihmiset tekevät suuren teon joka päivä kirjoittamalla englanniksi tälle nettisivulle

- tue ei-englanninkielisiä ihmisiä äläkä loukkaa heitä, jos he eivät osaa englantia

- tue kaikkia kieliä

- Levitä kielten moninaisuutta Tumblrissa

Kiitos

beebeebombam

ฉันอาจจะพูดไปแล้ว แต่ให้ฉันได้พูดอีกครั้งเถอะ :

- อย่าขอโทษถ้าคุณไม่รู้ภาษาอังกฤษเลย

- ภาษาอังกฤษเป็นภาษาที่พบเห็นได้เยอะที่สุดในอินเตอร์เน็ท แต่คุณไม่จำเป็นต้องรู้ไปทั้งหมด

- ภาษาของคุณสวยงามในตัวของมันอยู่แล้ว

- คนที่ไม่ใช่คนอังกฤษนั้นต้องใช้ความพยายามอย่างมากในการสื่อสารด้วยภาษาอังกฤษในทุกวันนี้

- จงสนับสนุนพวกเขาและอย่าให้พวกเขาต้องรู้สึกแย่ที่ใช้ภาษาอังกฤษได้ไม่ดี

- สนับสนุนภาษาทั้งหมดด้วยใจจริง

- ช่วยเผยแพร่ความหลากหลายของภาษาให้กระจายออกไปในทัมเบลอร์

ขอบคุณ

beautiful-basque-country

Segur aski jadanik esan dut, baina berriro esan nahi dut: 

- barkamenik ez eskatu ingelesez ez jakiteagatik

- bai, ingelesa interneteko hizkuntza ohikoena da baina ez duzu perfektoki jakin behar.

- zeure hizkuntza ederra da.

- ingelesez ez dakitenek ahalegin handia egiten dute egunero webgune honetan ingelesez idazten. 

- lagun iezaiezue ingelesez ez dakitenei eta txarto ez sentiarazi ingelesez baldin ez badakite.

- hizkuntza guztiak benetan bermatu.

- indartu hizkuntza aniztasuna Tumblr-en.

Eskerrik asko.

hattytheyee

قبلا هم اینو گفتم اما میخوام دوباره بگم:


-اگه انگلیسی بلد نیستید عذر خواهی نکنید.

-درسته، انگلیسی رایج ترین زبان تو اینترنته اما مجبور نیستی که کامل و بی نقص بلد باشیش.

-زبان خودتون زیباست.

-افراد غیر انگلیسی زبان زیادی هر روز سخت تلاش می کنند که رو سایت انگلیسی بنویسن.

-افراد غیر انگلیسی زبان رو حمایت کنید و برای اینکه انگلیسی بلد نیستن تمسخرشون نکنید.

-در واقع از همه زبان ها حمایت کنین.

-تنوع زبان ها رو تو تامبلر ترویج بدین.

Was low-key nervous as hell writing this in my native language lol

yu-2-ri-txt

Here’s another version but in the Arabic I know:

المحتمل أََني قُلت هذا الكلام من قبل ولكن اوريد أنا أقوله مجدداً :

-لا تتأسف إن كنت لا تعرف اللغة الإنجليزية

-نعم، اللغة الإنجليزية لغة مشتركة علي الإنترنت، ولكن أنت ليس مفروض عليك أن تعرفها تماما.

- لغتك جميلة.

-الذين ليسوا الانجليزيين يقومون بجهد كبير لكتابة الانجليزيه علي هذا الموقع.

- إِدْعَم من ليسوا الانجليزيين ، ولا تجعلهم يشعرون بسوء لأنهم لا يعرفون الانجليزيه.

-في الواقع إدعموا كل اللغات.

- إنشروا تنوع اللغات علي تامبلر.

شكرا 💝

Wow, this was a bit hard for some words.

livinthe2060dream

Poate deja am spus, dar vreau să mai spun încă o dată.

- Nu te scuza dacă nu cunoști engleza

- Da, engleza este cea mai comună limbă de pe internet, dar nu trebuie să o cunoști perfect

- Limba ta este frumoasă

- Vorbitorii non-englezi se străduiesc în fiecare zi să scrie în engleză pe acest site

- Sprijineste vorbitorii care nu sunt englezi și nu-i descuraja dacă nu știu engleza

- Acceptă toate limbile

- Susține diversitatea lingvistică pe Tumblr

Mulțumesc. ☺

dearevan-norton

Dúirt mé é díreach ansin ach táim ag iarraidh é a rá arís:

- Ná bheith ag gabh do leithscéal mar níl Béarla ar eolas agat

- Sea, tá Béarla an teanga is coiteannta ar an t-idirlíon, ach níl tú brúite é a bheith ar eolas agat go liofa

- Tá do theanga féin go hálainn

- Déanann daoine neamhbéarla iarracht ollmhór chun Béarla a scríobh gach lá ar an suíomh seo

- Tabhairt tacaíocht do daoine neamhbéarla agus ná chur drochintinn orthú muna bhfuil Béarla ar eolas acú

- Tabhairt tacaíocht do gach teanga in ndáiríre

- Scar níos mó éagúlacht teangach ar Tumblr

Go raibh maith agat

notveryimpressed

ഒരുപക്ഷേ ഞാൻ അത് പറഞ്ഞു, പക്ഷേ ഞാൻ അത് വീണ്ടും പറയാൻ ആഗ്രഹിക്കുന്നു:

  • നിങ്ങൾക്ക് ഇംഗ്ലീഷ് അറിയില്ലെങ്കിൽ ക്ഷമ ചോദിക്കരുത്.
  • അതെ, ഇംഗ്ലീഷാണ് ഇൻ്റർനെറ്റിലെ ഏറ്റവും സാധാരണമായ ഭാഷ എന്നാൽ നിങ്ങൾ അത് പൂർണ്ണമായി അറിയാൻ നിർബന്ധിതരല്ല.
  • നിങ്ങളുടെ സ്വന്തം ഭാഷ മനോഹരമാണ്.
  • ഇംഗ്ലീഷല്ലാത്ത ആളുകൾ ഈ വെബ്‌സൈറ്റിൽ ദിവസവും ഇംഗ്ലീഷിൽ എഴുതാൻ വളരെയധികം ശ്രമിക്കുന്നു.
  • ഇംഗ്ലീഷ് ഇതര ആളുകളെ പിന്തുണയ്ക്കുക, അവർക്ക് ഇംഗ്ലീഷ് അറിയില്ലെങ്കിൽ അവരെ വിഷമിപ്പിക്കരുത്.
  • യഥാർത്ഥത്തിൽ എല്ലാ ഭാഷകളെയും പിന്തുണയ്ക്കുക.
  • Tumblr-ൽ കൂടുതൽ ഭാഷാ വൈവിധ്യം പ്രചരിപ്പിക്കുക.

നന്ദി.

complit

intro to lit theory

poesizing

  1. Authorship: Barthes, Death of the Author; Foucault, What is an Author?
  2. Formalism: Eichenbaum, The Theory of the “Formal Method”;  Brooks, from The Well Wrought Urn: Studies in the Structure of Poetry
  3. Structuralism: Saussure, Course in General Linguistics ; Barthes, from Mythologies
  4. Psychoanalysis: Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams; Lacan, The Mirror Stage & The Significance of the Phallus
  5. Ideology: Althusser, Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses; Foucault, Truth and Power
  6. Feminism & Queer: Sedgwick, from Between Men; Cixous, The Laugh of the Medusa; Wittig, One Is Not Born a Woman; Butler, Gender Trouble
  7. Deconstruction: Derrida, from Of Grammatology;
  8. Postcolonial: Fanon, from The Wretched of the Earth; Spivak, Can the Subaltern Speak?
  9. Cultural Materialism: Adorno & Horkheimer, The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception; Williams, Base and Superstructure in Marxist Cultural Theory  

these are about 2/3 of the readings for my intro to lit theory course, if you’ve ever wondered what one studies on such courses, the links lead to free pdfs  

complit

for reference, if anyone’s curious.

my intro to theory course featured

  • Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams
  • Barthes, Mythologies; selections from Critical Essays
  • Benjamin, selections from Illuminations
  • de Man, selections from Allegories of Writing and Blindness and Insight
  • Derrida, selections from Dissemination
  • Foucault, sections of The Order of Things
  • Butler, Gender Trouble 

as you can see, my professor really only cared about deconstructionism; I’m jealous of this syllabus.

remind me later and I’ll post my Francophone postcolonialism syllabus, too.

lenaresearches
anarchapella

Please fucking lie to your employer. Like they don’t need to know your mental health issues or what drugs you do. Ffs

unfriendlyblackwitch

its not lying if its to employers or cops

and look up ur rights on what they can and cannot ask u many places ban asking about ur record and transportation status and things like that resources will also tell u how they reword sketchy questions so ur prepared

mixingpumpkins

Hey. Take it from a former HR person… this goes double right now.

I just spent some time putting in some job applications myself (not for HR, lol) and got about 15 interviews. And idk if it’s because of COVID uncertainty or if places just don’t fucking care anymore because they know people are desperate for work, but the amount of straight up illegal shit my interviewers asked me was appalling.

(That’s not even counting the questions that were technically legal but clearly fishing for information they’re not legally allowed to ask.)

A tame example? Two questions into a phone interview, the guy on the other end of the line asked: “How old are you?”

I said “Excuse me?” - giving him a chance to rethink that.

He didn’t. “How old are you?”

“Sir, you are not allowed to ask me that question.”

“Well, I want to know. I’m asking.”

“And you’re legally not allowed to ask me that. I’m not required to tell you my age.”

At that point, I guess he managed to remember an old HR bulletin or something (I hope to god he wasn’t actually HR himself), and he said, “Well, I need to know if you’re over the age of 18.” (Which is what he should have asked in the first place… or not, since that was in the application that he could have read.)

“Yes. I’m over the age of 18.” 

And we moved on. Two questions later, he tried another illegal question. I called him on it again and ended the interview, citing that a workplace with such a clear disregard for the law, especially upon first contact with a potential employee, was not going to be a good fit. (They offered me the job anyway, lol. I didn’t send a thank-you or a response.)

At a different interview, the majority of questions were “fishing” questions - just looking for that info they’re not actually allowed to ask. (This person was also either not really HR or an HR person who was exceptionally bad at their job.)

I could tell they were getting frustrated when I dodged answering the personal stuff, and they actually got extremely upset when I mentioned later in the interview (re: less relevant work experience) I had worked in HR. They were super flustered for the remainder of our time, and I watched them skip over questions on their sheet they had clearly planned on asking. They KNEW they were being sketchy and were counting on me not knowing anything about HR - or my rights - and so they got upset when I did.

These were super tame examples. I’m begging you, if you’re job searching right now, PLEASE know your rights. Please know what interviewers are allowed to ask.

Please don’t volunteer information or elaborate more than you’re required to about personal things. Save your words (and everyone’s time) by elaborating why you’re good for the position/what you can do.

I may create a resource list on this shit later but PLEASE PLEASE KNOW THIS STUFF BEFORE YOU TALK TO AN EMPLOYER. This goes for anywhere you’re interviewing as well as your current employer. This also goes for HR. HR may be the person you go to when shitty stuff happens, but that doesn’t mean they’re your friend (or competent).

They don’t need to know your age (beyond 16+, 18+, or 21+, depending on the job). They don’t need to know your medical history. (For the love of god, do NOT answer the “have you been diagnosed with depression?” question.) They don’t need to know if you have kids or whatever. They don’t need to know a LOT of those things that may appear on an application, including your veteran status, whether you’re on/have been on unemployment, etc. They’re not entitled to know specifics about your transportation (unless you’re using that transportation for the job, like Uber/delivery drivers). Look this up for your state/the job’s state.

Beware questions like “What year did you graduate?” if you’re like me and don’t put dates on your resume (I just put amount of time spent at employers, not dates of employment). They’re fishing for your age. It’s “Oh, you know, 100 years ago,” if you feel comfortable making a joke, or “About [generic number, like 5 or 10] years ago” if not.

Also beware things like the “What do you do in your free time?” question, even if you already work there. This is not a friendly getting-to-know-you question. This is a basis for judgement. Not up to an invisible standard? They’re going to be biased against you for pay raises, promotions, etc. Mention kids/lots of family/social engagements? That’s a tick against you for not being the kind of person who lives to work (yes, it’s gross and stupid). Mention lots of solitary things? Cool, that’s their mental note to ask more from you because you’re “not doing anything anyway.” By all means, be friendly with your coworkers/talk about shared interests if you want, but it is none of your boss’s business, and be aware what could get back to them. 

Don’t. Tell. Employers. Shit.

bitchesgetriches

We wrote up a handy list of those illegal questions here:

10 Questions You Should Never Be Asked in a Job Interview 

nombinary-snax
fivepebble

people say folks with adhd struggle with "delayed rewards" aka long term goals and as such we tend to focus more on short term rewards. what they don't talk about is that at when we Do accomplish long term goals we don't actually feel anything proportionate to the amount of work we did to achieve it. In my head I suffered for a while and then money spontaneously appeared in my bank account.

oaks-and-willows

"Don't you feel satisfied that your windows are so clean now?" It sucked and it sucked and now I don't care. I just remember the sucking.

butts-bouncing-on-the-beltway

Hello, I have ADHD and I am also a licensed clinical therapist!

This part sucks. Not gonna lie to you. That said, our brains DO still get rewards, just not from "task completion" (something something, the combination of executive functioning whammy that is task initiation, task break down, task execution, and task transition following completion). Instead our rewards tend to come from one or more of a few areas:

  • Food. If you've ever seen the stat that ADHD folks are more likely to have "binge-eating" patterns related to sugar and carbohydrates, this is why! Simple sugars are an easy burst of energy, comfort, flavor, and sometimes even joy! For everyone, but for ADHD folks this may feel really significant because we so rarely have other reward responses
  • Drugs. People with unmanaged or undermanaged ADHD are more likely than non-ADHD peers to find themselves reliant on substances like alcohol, weed, cocaine, opioids, etc, due to the way these substances interact with our reward centers. And even once our disabling symptoms are well accommodated, reliance on substances to induce reward responses is still common, and can be essential to the "rest and decompress" process that our autonomic system (the sympathetic nervous system specifically) needs in order to reduce hyperactivity of motor movements, thoughts, or activation/reactivity responses.
  • Mentally/emotionally stimulating activities. This one is vague. But that's because they're going to be different for every person, and likely different even within one person's lifetime! For example, right now my "stimulation exposure" activities are to go outside on the deck with my dogs and tear bits of herbs off my garden growths to chew on (combining sunshine, watching my dogs play or playing with then, and fun variable tastes works well for me), or maybe putting on my noise cancelling headphones to my "caberet" or "southern gothic" playlists while I curl up in bed with some hot tea (the caffeine in the tea is regulated when I feel hyperactive, and the heat, steam, and flavor make for great mindfulness opportunities. Also, the music lets me shrink my world to a size that is tolerable for me at that moment), or diving into whatever my latest research project is (who doesn't love a research rabbit hole!)

Sometimes individuals have other things that can trigger rewards for them, and it's always worth making a note when you run across something like that!

I find that by popping off one of these options DURING or IMMEDIATELY AFTER a task that would otherwise be next to impossible to get thru without becoming a raging self hating asshole can make a big difference in how one experiences that task.

Examples: when I need to clean the house because my maintenance routine has fallen apart, I prep a vape with sativa delta or sativa THC, and shove it in my binder. I take a hit periodically throughout the task process to keep me functional and regulated. I also set pomodoro timers for 45 min each so I can alternate between "working" and "resting".

When I fall behind on notes, my wife buys me peanut M&Ms from the corner store and I pop a pair of M&Ms for every late note I submit for work.

When I'm having a low-function work day, I will prioritize taking my breaks outside with the dogs, and sometimes will splash water around from the hose on them and myself for a bit of a temperature change.

If I've overextended myself but still have essential tasks to complete, I will pause about every 15-30min to do a breathing exercise (5-6 count breath in through the nose, and 2-3 count breath out through the mouth - this is really good for short energy boosts and overcoming brainfog)

It's important to keep in mind, that these are not "incentives" in the traditional sense, where if you don't do the task, you don't get the reward. ANY use of your executive functioning would be rewarded in the brain to some extent for regulated neurotypicals, and just because our reward systems aren't great at self-activating as expected, doesn't mean we should have to live without the positive reinforcement that EVERYONE is supposed to get. So if you made an attempt at the thing, you get to trigger your reward response.

Overtime, myself and clients I work with have all noticed a shift in how we perceive tasks once this becomes common practice. Because we now have history and memories of tasks feeling positive to do (even when they are demanding or difficult for us), it becomes easier to interact with that task overall. You start to better notice the changes in approach that may make it even easier. You stop dreading the knowledge that the task needs to be done. It's easier to hop back into maintenance routines even after they've fallen apart. Basically, when you manually trigger what your brain NEEDS and can't self-create, a lot of the distressing aspects of executive function become WAY more manageable.

There's also a lot to be said about the experience of shifting self shaming and self blaming around what it means to "succeed" at a thing or "complete" a task, but that's sort of a different post. For now, suffice to say that being the kind and compassionate and understanding person you likely are for others, FOR YOURSELF, makes a big difference in how easy or hard the above strats will be to execute.

You probably know a few of the things that manually trigger that reward response for you. How can you make that ability work in your favor?

lastoneout

So if your brain won't give you a reward for completeing a task...store bought is fine?