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Jul. 30th, 2003 11:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivkaI suppose that it's normal to be falling to pieces at this stage of the process, but it's damned annoying.
Once again, I'm having trouble making myself work on the dissertation. No real progress since Sunday. I know that I can do what needs to be done, so it's not the paralyzing self-doubt and fear of negative evaluation that it was before. I just seem to have trouble... collecting myself, I guess. I'm not focusing. Instead of a laser-beam brain, which is what I need, I've got a swarm-of-gnats brain.
Also? Irritable. Not pulling my weight with housework, yet not amassing large piles of academic work in compensation. Perfectly unexceptional amounts of joint pain are making me go all whiny and complainy. I just can't seem to get a grip.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
curiousangel is being a saint, but I know I must be testing the hell out of his patience. If I can barely live with myself, how can he?
I know what I need to do: set small measurable goals, work on them whether or not I feel like working, give myself small concrete rewards, and just shut up with the whininess. It's not like it's a complex plan. But I just... argh.
Once again, I'm having trouble making myself work on the dissertation. No real progress since Sunday. I know that I can do what needs to be done, so it's not the paralyzing self-doubt and fear of negative evaluation that it was before. I just seem to have trouble... collecting myself, I guess. I'm not focusing. Instead of a laser-beam brain, which is what I need, I've got a swarm-of-gnats brain.
Also? Irritable. Not pulling my weight with housework, yet not amassing large piles of academic work in compensation. Perfectly unexceptional amounts of joint pain are making me go all whiny and complainy. I just can't seem to get a grip.
curiousangel is being a saint, but I know I must be testing the hell out of his patience. If I can barely live with myself, how can he?I know what I need to do: set small measurable goals, work on them whether or not I feel like working, give myself small concrete rewards, and just shut up with the whininess. It's not like it's a complex plan. But I just... argh.
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no subject
Date: 2003-07-30 10:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-30 11:13 am (UTC)Yeah, Ritalin affects non-ADD people differently - it's a stimulant for most folks. When I find myself in that creaky "can't... make... brain... work..." kind of place, where I can't seem to start anything, I've occasionally wished for a nice, 8-12 hour burst of energy that I'd *have* to put into *something*. (After all, even if I didn't get Project X started and finished, maybe I'd have a REALLY clean house!) [grin]
no subject
Date: 2003-07-30 11:27 am (UTC)It's also a stimulant for people with ADD, though - it gives them enough additional mental energy resources to (a) focus and (b) inhibit impulsive behavior.
The idea that psychostimulants have a paradoxical "tranquilizing" effect for people with ADD, different from their effect on people without ADD, has been disproven. Drugs like Ritalin will improve just about anyone's concentration, focus, and mental organization.