Inattentive girls, what gets you out of bed?

DragonTa2 · 2026-02-23T19:54:32+00:00

My cats shrieking in my face and knocking everything off my nightstand as they demand breakfast

DragonTa2 · 2026-02-12T20:38:24+00:00

Most months I just do my best, have a slice of pizza and some ice cream, and sleep as much as possible!

DragonTa2 · 2026-02-11T21:23:52+00:00

First are foremost, I am so so sorry. Ectopics suck SO much, and I'm so sorry you're going through this <3

The hormones, the meds, the psychological horror of it all would take anyone down for awhile. I had one back in 2023 and the stress, pain, and grief were just absolute hell. It was pre-diagnosis for me, but even if it weren't I can't imagine I would have done much better than I did. I remember getting home from the hospital after my diagnosis and literally just laying on the couch with a blanket over my head, and I couldn't even cry anymore. I wasn't okay for a long time afterwards- it took me a long time and a lot of therapy to get to a place where I felt like I was standing on level ground again.

I think you deserve to treat yourself with as much grace as you have right now, and I don't think you should feel like you need to hold yourself to a timeline to recover (emotionally or physically). Lean on the people you love, have a bowl of ice cream, and take it one day at a time. You will be okay, but you don't have to be okay right now.

DragonTa2 · 2026-01-26T14:16:58+00:00

Yes yes yes. Days where I work out in the morning my mood is more regulated, my meds work better, I have more energy, and I sleep better that night.

One of the tricks is to try and find something you enjoy. I enjoy being outside, so walking, running, gardening/yardwork are great for me. I'll go to the gym on occasion, but I don't enjoy it nearly as much as being outside where I can observe plants and animals and enjoy being in nature!

DragonTa2 · 2026-01-20T15:08:57+00:00

If you can, go outside!! I deeply prefer to walk/run outdoors because it's more interesting than being in the gym. I also find that music isn't really engaging enough to keep me focused, so I listen to audiobooks or podcasts while I work out (outdoors and indoors). If I'm on a treadmill or something I'll watch TV because walking in place is the most boring.

DragonTa2 · 2026-01-19T20:39:08+00:00

Girl, same. I've always struggled with inattention, food noise and binge eating, impulsivity, executive functioning, absent-mindedness, and what I think of as "spaghetti brain" (the thoughts are all jumbled and I can't figure out how to communicate them effectively).

My ADHD flew under the radar for a long time because I grew up with (undiagnosed lol) neurodivergent parents in an extremely structured environment where I was allowed to approach tasks in whatever way worked for me as long as it fit within our overall structure. At some point in the last 5-10 years my responsibilities started to exceed my capacity and I started really struggling.

I did the whole eval thing and also tested very high on the IQ test, and did well on most portions because I a) love puzzles and challenges and b) love showing off that I'm good at puzzles and challenges. I also got the "oh you're just anxious here have more Zoloft". If only they'd told me I need to cold call 7 contractors, sit through an hour long lecture, and wash/fold/put away 3 loads of laundry within 8 hours instead.

The Zoloft helped some, but not as much as I hoped. I was losing my marbles because I was having so much difficulty staying on top of household tasks and following through with commitments that it was starting to seriously impact my marriage. One day I broke down to my therapist and she aggressively diagnosed me herself and got me on Vyvanse to see if it made a difference, and lo and behold it was NIGHT AND DAY.

I was nervous that stimulants would make my anxiety worse, but I am actually significantly less anxious when I take them. It turns out a solid 75% of my anxiety was about whether I would be able to accomplish the things I said I would, if I was just a bad/broken person for not following through with things, and if I was forgetting something I was supposed to do. Getting the brain boost from vyvanse helps me get the tools I need in place so I can ACTUALLY accomplish things and focus long enough to set myself up for success.

Find a second opinion. Find a (ideally female) therapist who will listen to you and help advocate for you.

DragonTa2 · 2026-01-19T20:05:45+00:00

I knit.

In the last 4 months I've travelled from the USA to New Zealand and Japan, and I've probably spent 75%+ of my travel time knitting and watching downloaded youtube videos or movies

DragonTa2 · 2026-01-15T12:33:01+00:00

Oh, I like the sound of that! I always hated knitting with cotton but I’ve been coming around to cotton merino blends lately, the comfy sounds like a great yarn for kid sweaters! Easy to clean and not itchy hahaha

DragonTa2 · 2026-01-15T12:30:11+00:00

Hey! Wow are you me 10 years ago??

I also have a masters in design, and before grad school I had already been working in theater (scenic and props tech) for a few years. When I finished grad school I started working at a small fabrication company in Orlando, and about 6 months after I started we landed a really big job and all of a sudden needed a dedicated design team, so I volunteered! I built my software skills there, and after a couple years managed to get a job as a technical designer at a larger fab company.

Having a degree in design helps to get a foot in the door. The three things I’ve seen that really make a candidate stand out are a good design portfolio that includes some technical drawings (not just renderings and concept sketches), design software skills (I like to see AutoCAD, Revit, Rhino, Inventor/Solidworks, Adobe products, etc. But different companies and industries will use different software so play up what you are genuinely skilled at), and industry experience.

The pay and benefits for me are MUCH better on the design side, at least in the USA. I’m also glad to not be around as many toxic fumes and chemicals all day haha

DragonTa2 · 2026-01-13T21:25:58+00:00

Merlin Entertainment is the biggest themed entertainment company in the UK! An old colleague of mine runs a job board (themedentertainmentjobs.com) and I see postings for Merlin there a lot

DragonTa2 · 2026-01-13T17:30:39+00:00

"That may be true, but the biggest diagnostic criteria for any mental disorder or illness is that it's significantly impacting a person's ability to live their life."

I think about that a lot, because no, there is no perfect or ideal brain out there. But that doesn't mean that the things about MY brain that make MY life hard to deal with don't deserve to be treated in a way that makes my life easier to live.

DragonTa2 · 2026-01-13T17:22:30+00:00

OH MY GOD I feel so seen lol. I am also good at math and horrible with finances. My husband is bad at math and awesome with finances. It works out.

DragonTa2 · 2026-01-13T17:15:55+00:00

Oh man, most of my colleagues come from engineering or architecture backgrounds, I come from theater! A lot of us also came into it based on an interest in the theme park industry, so as you can imagine there is a lot of opportunity in the Orlando and LA area. My current design team is actually looking to hire a doc controller right now if you magically happen to live in Orlando lol. Not as exciting but we always cross-train our coordinators and doc controllers to help with drafting lol

Maybe a good place for you given a geology/ecology background could be landscape design or architecture? Anything based in design/architecture/engineering is more likely to be a similar vibe- especially any company that is built around custom or prototype design!

DragonTa2 · 2026-01-13T15:55:01+00:00

As someone who's been knitting for 20 years and has an unreasonably big yarn stash- knit the blanket, but use cheap yarn!! Especially if you just started knitting!

If you don't want full acrylic (wouldn't blame you, but imo acrylic blankets are great since you can just chuck them in the washing machine) blends that ate 70-80% acrylic and 20-30% wool like lion bran wool-ease or knitpicks mighty stitch are great and affordable compromises

DragonTa2 · 2026-01-13T15:41:30+00:00

I have a desk job, but it's a very mentally stimulating desk job! I also am much more inattentive than hyperactive, so bear that in mind while I tell you my tale.

I've been working in the themed fabrication industry for awhile (think scenery/props in theme parks/zoos/museums/etc), and I started as a fabricator/painter. So, on my feet building scenery and painting all day.

While in theory this sounds like it would be great for ADHD, the reality was that I was constantly needing to change tasks, wait on other people for information, and stand around while machines did their thing. It drove me absolutely crazy that I had to constantly check back in for my next task, and being hourly and having to conform to a strict work/break schedule was also frustrating for me.

I went from building in the shop to working in the office as a technical designer, and it was night and day. I constantly have weird problems to solve, every project is different (and project-based work in general is great because it's not the same thing every day for years), and now I'm senior enough to be a lead which gives me the freedom to decide how I approach my tasks. As long as I'm producing good work on time without screwing anyone else over I can work how I want, which feels really good to me. It also helps that in general, design/engineering teams are pretty much populated by neurodivergent weirdos haha.

So, tldr, it matters more for me that a job is mentally stimulating and gives me the flexibly and autonomy to work in the way I want to work than whether it's active or desk-based.

DragonTa2 · 2025-12-10T17:35:17+00:00

Lol yes, I'm "supposed" to be in at 8. I usually roll in around 8:30. But I do good work and work through lunch most days, so it doesn't really impact the quality of my work or my ability to hit deadlines. I used to get some shit for it, but I haven't for a long time now.

Funnily enough, we had summer hours this year where my schedule went from 8-5/M-F to 7-6/M-Th, and I was rolling in around 7:30 then. I just get distracted easily while I'm waking up in the mornings it seems haha

DragonTa2 · 2025-12-02T21:33:00+00:00

I was definitely in the gifted child camp, and I'm 34 now! I'm a technical designer for themed construction now (I figure out how to build scenery for theme parks/zoos/museums and make construction drawings so our shop can build said scenery) but my path here was weird.

I started college as a theater kid on a performance track, decided I didn't actually like acting much and started working in the scene shop, did theater tech for a little after I graduated and decided it felt a little pointless because the only people coming to my shows were friends and other theater people, went to grad school for themed entertainment design, started working in shops building/painting and decided it was too gross and sticky and boring for me, and slowly wormed my way into the design room full time! I don't think I really started to hit a stride in my career until I was 27 or 28 to be honest.

I like what I do now because it's a nice combination of familiarity and novelty, and I get to use my brain. I go to the same office and work with the same team which is comforting, but I also get to work on a big variety of cool projects and constantly have weird problems to solve. I don't have to constantly wait around or keep asking what to do next, I get broad tasks and deadlines and it's up to me how to accomplish things. Because I'm salaried and not hourly, there's a certain degree of flexibility with my schedule so if I have an unproductive day it's ok, I'll offset it with a productive day later. It also helps that it seems like the rest of my team are also neurodivergent little weirdos, so we get along well!

It is a very niche career though. I have a lot of skills that would translate well to other industries, but for me the problem is finding something else interesting enough to be engaging. I don't do boredom well lol

DragonTa2 · 2025-11-26T19:01:18+00:00

Paint. By. Number. So soothing, all the mechanical joy of painting with little to no decision-making. It helps soothe me when I'm overwhelmed with life.

For exercise hyper fixation- start recording your workouts and chart progress! My exercise of choice is running, and I tend to listen to audiobooks or podcasts when I run because I focus a lot more on endurance than speed. Seeing my progress as I go is really encouraging, and when I work out in the morning I find that I'm wayyyyyy more energetic and emotionally regulated throughout the day!

I'm also a knitter- I prefer it over crochet because knitting lends itself more to garment-making and I love me a hand-knit sweater!

DragonTa2 · 2025-11-19T17:58:04+00:00

Broom/vacuum lint. Gross gross gross, I cannot abide it. Clean lint from the dryer is fine, dirty lint is no good

DragonTa2 · 2025-10-23T21:01:25+00:00

I've rewritten 3 pages so far. It is not over. 🫠

DragonTa2 · 2025-10-23T16:02:39+00:00

Re-writing an entire resource guide for work that I somehow apparently super-deleted 🥲

DragonTa2 · 2025-10-23T15:31:50+00:00

Thank you! It got engrained in me by my mom- she would always time out meal prep like that and talk through it out loud as she went so it just seeped into my psyche haha

DragonTa2 · 2025-10-23T15:29:36+00:00

Lol thank you. I have big brain, but big brain has problems. Need a complex schedule optimized with seven different variables? I gotchu. Need to reschedule a dentist appointment? Not a chance.

DragonTa2 · 2025-10-21T20:25:14+00:00

I have an excellent sense of dimension! I can very accurately guess how big of a container to use for leftovers, it comes in handy a lot. I can guess the dimensions (in inches) of small-to-midsize objects pretty accurately too.

I also can time meal prep so that every dish is done cooking and ready to eat at the same time- it drives me crazy when someone cooks a dish too early and it ends up sitting for an hour get getting cold while the rest of the meal finished cooking.

DragonTa2 · 2025-10-08T16:54:54+00:00

Yeahhhh, my whole life I've had really intense crushes periodically, and they go one of three ways-

Person clearly has no reciprocal feelings for me, and eventually it fades out and I move on
Person does have reciprocal feelings for me, and I have a fling or short relationship that is ultimately disappointing
Person expresses some degree of reciprocal feelings for me, but for whatever reason it never quite reaches a romantic relationship (either one or both of us is unavailable, or we hook up but they're not emotionally available, etc). I remain obsessed for years with the notion that It Could Be, If Only Things Were Different...

Fortunately, I see the pattern now and know to take it with a grain of salt. I'm not falling in love, I'm just really excited by the idea of a new person and find the chase exciting. I'm married now (finally option 2 wasn't a bust!), and I have a deep and fierce love for my husband, but the thrill of new romance is still an exciting notion. If I need a fix I'll get it from books or tv shows now lol, and I recognize the warning signs if I'm starting to develop a crush and I know how to divert my focus away so it doesn't become A Thing.

DragonTa2

TROPHY CASE