Am I just bad at being an adult? - Anxiety and Depre...

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Am I just bad at being an adult?

lenny_thecat profile image
29 Replies

I have a weird way of doing things. I start doing one thing and halfway through it I start doing another and halfway through that I try to finish the first thing I started. Sometimes one task will gets finished and the other won’t or neither do. Does this happen to anyone else ?

Is this anxiety? ADHD ? Something just different?

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lenny_thecat profile image
lenny_thecat
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29 Replies
hypercat54 profile image
hypercat54

Of course it is as this is normal behaviour for many people whether they suffer anxiety or not. Sometimes people start half a dozen things and never finish any of them off. It's called being human and that's life. x

Kat63 profile image
Kat63

I can be the same way a lot of the time. I get bored easily, and I’m happier if I have more than one project to work on at a time.

-Sasha- profile image
-Sasha-

I think we sat next to each other in 'What the Hell am I Doing 101' This is literally my life. Some things get done the same day, some a few days later, hey maybe even weeks later, depends on how easily I get distracted

jkl5500 profile image
jkl5500

I agree with the others here. There's nothing weird about what you're doing. It depends on what tasks you're doing, how long they take, and whether they're a pain in the neck or not. Sometimes I start something just to make a "dent" in what has to be done. Just knowing I started it (finally) makes it easier to finish later. Be easy on yourself.

lenny_thecat profile image
lenny_thecat in reply tojkl5500

Thank you this actually help feel better! Sometimes it feel like everyone else has it together besides myself.

JEG325 profile image
JEG325

ltc, let me join the other in saying that your reaction is fairly common among the average persons. I am that way myself. The only way I can finish anything is if I force myself to stay locked onto one thing until it's finished. Here's one way to fight it....Do one thing at a time, do it as well as you can, then move on. 1,000 browny points if anyone can figure out who that last sentence is paraphrasing....

kalinevada profile image
kalinevada

I know what you mean because I have those hours or minutes also and you rush around, it happens to me ! I don't know.

Imagines with my happy childhood play in front of my eyes. When time passed and I grew up I was more and more unhappy, with physical manifestation of depression and anxiety. Today I'm lost in this life, feeling that I missed somewhere in the road of life my purpose in this life.

lenny_thecat profile image
lenny_thecat in reply to

i totally get this. sometimes its easier to think about the good, easy times. I too feel like I don't know who i am or who i want to be and don't know where i fit in. but this had lead me to so many different jobs and meet so many different kind of people. Being lost is ok bc we find different path take than the basic ones. You didnt miss your path you just haven't found the right one yet.

in reply tolenny_thecat

Probably you are right, I didn't find the right path, but for me is to late now, in this life to find another way. For more then 30 years I hoped, now I realised that is to late for hope. I just want to lie down and dissapear.

Marimac profile image
Marimac in reply to

It's never too late tiberiu20, please never believe that or I'll have to believe it too. And we all have a path and a purpose. Maybe some of us don't know what it is exactly, I don't. But I know that I'm on this site reading posts and hoping and praying that everyone finds at least a moment of peace in all this mental angst we go through. And even though I wish it on no one, I know there are others who undestand without an explanation. There's peace for me in knowing I don't have to convince someone of anything.

in reply toMarimac

Thank you, but to have money to pay for all treatments we should work. But for work, any kind of work we should be in good health. I am not in good health, none of us are in good health, so we cannot work, then we have no money for treatments, then we become more depressive and anxiously, it is a circle, and we cannot break it.

Marimac profile image
Marimac in reply to

I understand and know exactly what you mean. I've gone through some periods in life that I wasn't able to get out of bed, even to get a shower. I would physically hurt from lying in bed for so long but not be able to sleep. I'd be naseated and have headaches from not eating and days and nights would run together. I'm not in the best place right now but not the worst I've been either. I wish I knew what would keep me from going back to that horrible place but when it happens it's as if it's almost overnight. Unfortunately the times I've gotten better only happen very slowly. I'm certainly not an expert and know that what works for one person may do nothing for another but something that always seems to make me worse is trying to force myself to get better, or letting myself feel guilty because I'm not able to be what someone thinks I should or that I'm weak because I'm not well or lazy because I don't push myself. I have to tell myself it's ok to feel bad and give myself a chance to get better. Letting go of the anxiety and worry about what other people think has always helped me. Sometimes I just feel 'yuck' and want to be left alone. I don't like to be around anyone when I'm down and depressed. If i do, it's only someone I trust completely and I don't know many of those people. But I don't necessarily want to ne alone either. After a while it's as if I get tired of being depressed and ready to change something. When I get to that point, things will start to change, but not a second before.❤

I'm not an advocate for meds if you can avoid them but I do think they can be a big help at times.

in reply toMarimac

What we all know is the fact that we never cured.

Marimac profile image
Marimac in reply to

No I know we can't be, that would be an unattainable goal. Going back to finding purpose, I hate sounding cliche' but faith has been the one true constant in my life. I know some don't agree and that's ok. And I've almost forgotten my faith in the best times when I thought I didn't need it, and the worst times when I thought it left me. But it was always there when I was ready.

in reply toMarimac

What is important for us is to have money to support treatments. For this we need to work and for work we need a good health. So we must achieve a good health no meter how we will do this. I think this is a must for all of us, to make everything to make money.

Marimac profile image
Marimac in reply tolenny_thecat

If weird is a negative word for you lenny_thecat, then change it to something you think of as positive and call yourself that. Just a suggestion but go to thesaurus dot com and type in weird and look at all the different synonyms. :) A little therapy trick I learned to embrace my quirkiness. I still work on it every day but now I laugh a lot more.

More likely ADHD as a sufferer I was like that at school and even at home things never would get done as I would get bored and lose motivation I totally get you

rach1402 profile image
rach1402 in reply to

Yes, as soon as I started reading the original post I thought that sounds just like my ADHD, even before a read the bit wondering about ADHD at the end.

Happens to me all the time....and I think us anxious folks are thinking ten billion miles a minute that we're multitasking our overloaded brains. This is life though...it's faster than ever and it's easy to put one thing down and grab another...and then remember later....oh yeah, there's that one thing I put down. You aren't a bad adult, you are an adult if this is happening, lol. I swear I need some of those "Tile" things that help you find where you left something because I'm constantly in between fifty things. As hypercat easily summed it up: it's called being human and that's life. Couldn't be said any better.

richw612 profile image
richw612

Yes, I do this very thing and have since I was a kid. My mom would tell my teachers.... You have to give him one thing and nothing else until the one thing is complete. I don't think it's bad adulting if that's a word. I'm not sure what it is but i have found a few tricks to control it. Doesn't always work but it gives me goals, something to work towards keeps me distracted from the other stuff.

marheart profile image
marheart

Lack of concentration is not a friend. Seek talk therapy.

mvillarreal profile image
mvillarreal

I have ADHD, and this kind of thing used to happen to me a lot (I've been getting better lately, but it takes practice). I'm not a doctor and cannot diagnose you, but it sounds like you might have ADHD. If it becomes a serious issue for you, it might be good to ask about treatment options and getting a diagnosis. And no, it's not "bad adulting." That's a societal label that stigmatizes people with mental health difficulties. It's just something that some people who are perfectly imperfect have to work on and get better each day.

rach1402 profile image
rach1402 in reply tomvillarreal

That's exactly what I think, couldn't agree more.

Marimac profile image
Marimac

Gosh you should see my house, my room, the closets, garage, projects everywhere. I get frustrated, distracted, annoyed, angry, you name it. But anyone who knows me at all, knows that if they don't like it then they can leave. I am able to stop at filthy, I only have clutter everywhere from all my 'I'm going to organize it' projects. I've given a very close friend permission to intervene with caution if it goes too far. I think at one point I was going to start collecting things just so I could catalogue them. I have no idea why that sounds like fun but it does.😄

lenny_thecat profile image
lenny_thecat in reply toMarimac

Hahaha that’s me too, but at some point I just start throwing everything away

Marimac profile image
Marimac in reply tolenny_thecat

Every once in a while I'll get frustrated, drink a couple of 5hour energy shots and start cleaning and throwing stuff out. And it never fails, I spend the next week or so trying to remember where everythig is. :)

rach1402 profile image
rach1402

I think you might have hit the nail on the head when you asked if it could be ADHD. That was my first thought when I started reading your post, even before I read your question at the end asking if it could be ADHD. As someone has already said, we're not qualified to diagnose anyone but we can spot the signs if we've been through it. I'm 38 years old and I only got diagnosed a couple of years ago so I grew up wondering many of the things you've touched on. It does erode your self esteem to grow up feeling different, stupid even, to try so hard and constantly fail. I wish I had been able to get a diagnosis when I was a kid because the longer it goes undiagnosed and untreated in most people, the worse it gets and the more devastating an effect it has on your life, relationships and health. Even if you don't like the idea of medication, at least you will know know what you're dealing with and have options. I found it easier to accept my faults and forgive myself when I understood why I was struggling with simple, everyday tasks that most people can do without having to really try. Good luck in your journey to finding some answers, I'm sure you'll feel better when you do x

shodan95 profile image
shodan95

It could be ADHD or it honestly could even just be the way you do things. It happens to me when I'm doing something I don't really want to be doing. It makes life kind of hard and makes work tasks more challenging, but at this point in my life I am used to it and just try not to judge myself. Don't judge yourself for it because that will just add shame and make you feel and perform worse. Have you been doing things like making task lists or using timers to organize your focus? As long as it's not interfering with your ability to earn a living or finish school, would it matter to you if this was just the way you were and it didn't need to change?

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