8mo ago

It doesn't exist once you step out of the shower

118 comments

Successfully managing ADHD means throwing the empty shampoo bottle towards the bathroom door so you'll see it when you walk out and then write "Shampoo" on the chalkboard hung up next to your front door where you'll see it before you go shopping so you can put it on the shopping list on your phone.
- Seriously my adhd management system is basically "putting shit where I'll trip over it" and then waiting to get sick of still deliberately stepping over/around the inconveniently placed item.
  
  Until watching a different member of the household step over it ONE TIME, at which point it becomes the #1 priority.
- it's this, or recognizing that you don't actually need shampoo and can just buy a life supply of soap bars all at once and use that for washing every part of your body.
  i've come to recognize that a big part of why i find minimalism so nice is because it brings the amount of things i need to remember down to something vaguely manageable.
  
  If you're curly, that means having straws in place of hair
- Bold of you to assume I'll remember to check my shopping list.
  
  You guys make lists? Is it like the notes im supposed to keep?
  
  I've been honing my ability to add things I need to a list on my phone's home page. I've been doing it for 7+ years now. If someone asks 3 years later, how much butter to use for belgian waffles that I made once, I'll know it is the blue colored note, 5th line from top.
  If I go to the store, I'll still forget I have the list.
- Sometimes when I have a great idea but am in bed and about to fall asleep, and don’t want to take out my phone and wake myself up, I’ll grab something off of my nightstand and yeet it into the middle of the floor with the idea in my head, so the next morning I’ll wake up and see the thing and remember my idea… works surprisingly well!
- Idk about ADHD but I buy a bunch of shampoo and conditioner, and when I notice I'm at the second-to-last bottle I put it on the shopping list on Google keep
- https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.tasks
  App has a widget that takes up 40% of my home screen as a check list (checks disabled so I don't fat finger them)
  I don't have ADHD, but I do have significant difficulties remembering things and this is the solution that has worked for me for the last 8ish years.
- I've got a Google mini in the bathroom so I can listen to a podcast while I shower. The side benefit to this is I can yell out to get it to add shampoo to the grocery list

Secret tech is to just buy like 4 bottles at a time, then you only have to deal with the problem 25% of the time
- But you still have to remember to bring it into the shower before you get in.
  
  My OSHA unapproved slip and slide flooring says otherwise.
- Exactly, I buy a big pack of soap bars so when it's getting low I tell myself to open a new one when I get out of the shower, only to tell myself the next day until my soap bar runs out and I have to use my wife's body wash
  
  When my soaking wet self has to do the shuffle from the shower to the soap under the sink and notice it is low I put one of the rmeaining bars in the sink so I can't miss it later as a reminder to pick up some more when I'm not soaking wet.
  Putting stuff in my way is the best way to make sure future rlme does something about it.
  
  I keep by backups on a shelf within reach of the shower. I toss the empty in the middle of the floor. Someone will toss it eventually.
- Shopping at big box warehouse club stores has this solution built in, with the unfortunate downside of having to go in to those stores.
  
  Also a good way to end up with 16 bottles because you can't remember if you're on the last bottle or just bought it. Especially when doing the wholesale store where I only buy it when it's on sale once or twice a year.
  Also doesn't solve the issue of bringing a new bottle into the shower.
- This is definitely the way. I have so many extras of everything.
- I do this and keep a reusable/editable checklist on my phone (Google's Keep Notes since I use android) and continually add to it over time.
  If I remember needing something and I have my phone, I can add it. This lets me run through the list to see if I can add anything else or need to uncheck things I might be running low on. Every so often at home, when I remember, I also go through the house to add any consumables I use; leaving unchecked if low, checking off if good for now.
  When I'm in the store and the compulsory feeling of forgetting something hits, I go through the checked to uncheck whatever I can remember I need or am running low on, then add what the store has to my cart/basket. I then will only check things off right before I go to/while in checkout or when putting them away at home.
  
  For me it's just a text file named 'buy.txt'.
  
  Do you list food on there, too, or mostly inedible consumables like toilet paper? Do you add bulk non-perishable food? Do you have weekly food on there, like produce? This is an awesome idea. My only hesitation is that I've always used a paper grocery list.
  
  I do the exact same thing!
- Costco is my Savior
- Only 4? I buy them by the case.

My trick to this is to leave the bottle on the tub/shower floor when I'm truly done with it. It increases the chances that I'll get rid of the bottle once I'm out of the shower. It does not necessarily guarantee that I'll remember to grab a new bar of soap or shower gel, but it interrupts my usual post-showdr flow of things enough to up the odds that I will
- I open the shower door and immediately throw the empty bottle into the basin that way it will bother me at some point and take care of it
  
  I used to do that too! For some reason it didn't work as well for me, though. I'd remember to take the empty bottle with me, but I'd forget to replace it before leaving the washroom

This was one several things I've seen throb this community that made me, eventually, do a test. Turns out I've got adhd, just went undiagnosed my whole life, was called hyper active, was told not eat certain foods with e numbers in the 80's, not drink coke (caffeine), I've a follow up doctors appointment, but being nearly 50 and only figuring this out now, is been a real mind fuck, positive feeling though
- Yeah, I'm in my 40s and just now being tested. Based on the one test I did, it seems I probably have it. If I do it will explain a lot of my struggles, but thinking about all that lost time being untreated is gonna tear me up a bit. I always heard ADHD was one of those made up illnesses and all boys are hyper, and I believed that for a long time.
  
  Make sure to take care of your mental health during and after the diagnosis. No matter how insignificant the diagnosis may seem it is very likely to have at least some impact sometimes lasting a few months
  
  Sounds very familiar, I'm doing my best to just take it as what can I do from here and not dwell on the past, lying if I said I don't spend any time contemplating the what ifs.
  
  I’m 41. Was diagnosed with ADHD when I was 31. It took like 10 minutes to get diagnosed and I bet anyone could get the designation as an adult.
- e number foods in the 80s?
  Also caffeine was the opposite for our family. Soda addictions is just the teasing version of actually using amphetamines to get your shit together lol.
  
  Yeah it was a thing, additives and the like, was told it was making my hyperactive, well several of them were to be avoided, e110,e117, buggered if I recall what they were. There was a book that listed them all. Yeah, I found when I used to blast the goodie l coffee all day I was much more able to focus at work, it hindsight it kind of makes sense

Not sure that I have ADHD, but when I remember to, I put the empty bottle on the floor outside of the shower. I still forget or can't deal with it when I get out sometimes, but it won't sit on the floor indefinitely like it will if left in the shower.
- exactly. Squeeze the fucker out and yeet it right out. Some time the same day you'll walk into your bathroom, find a shampoo bottle on the floor, ask yourself "da heck?" and will remember that you gotta go buy some.
  
  And then Wifey will throw the bottle and yell at me because I don't throw my junk, and then she will yell at me again because I use her shampoo.
- It's scary how you can find other people on the other side of the world doing the same thing as you, always reminds me I'm not that special lol. I do exactly this!

The FOSS-only crowd might flame me for this, but I’d argue this type of scenario is a legit use-case for voice assistants, because “remind me to buy ________” is a fairly easy habit to get into and it’s a single step, fast enough to beat the attention bounce.
Edit: I meant no offense. Reworded to “FOSS-only.”
- It absolutely would be a good thing for a voice assistant.
  But most kickback against voice assistants isn't the lack of use case, it's all the other bullshit you have to accept alongside it.
  If I could install a voice assistant that didn't require a constant internet connection and could work alongside other services, I'd use it.
  
  I think there's one on F-droid? Starts with a D. I'm sorry I just woke up and can't find it.
  Edit: its Dicio, oof tho it doesn't look offline but it does tick the rest of the boxes.
  
  HomeAssistant has seen a bit of a revolution around the concept of voice assistants.
  
  You can build your own on a Raspberry Pi or similar PC
  https://github.com/OpenVoiceOS
  Can indeed work offline, but only the basic stuff
- I've tried voice assistants, won't be viable until there's at least half a million autistic linux users who iron out all the kinks for a self hosted service.
  
  I bet some FOSS voice recognition projects have matured since last I checked, but the closest I had sketched out in the past required external calls to the local speech kit api on macOS or iOS. We’ll get there. It’s too useful to let big tech have a monopoly on it.
- We did that for years, until the products we bought switched APIs making us have to change shopping list apps a couple times, then shut off the feature altogether.
  Any tech that requires an outside server eventually gets shut off and you spend my more time managing it than you saved in the long run.
  Just toss the shampoo bottle on the floor to remind yourself.
- Yes, that is a legitimate use case for that technology.
  I do not consider myself anti-tech by any stretch of the imagination (I can put my hands on no less than five computers from where I'm sitting) and I want things like voice assistants and smart houses and whatnot for the benefits they can provide, but we've got to pry the invasive corporate bullshit out first.

And then I "remembered" to buy more but forgot to bring it into the bathroom and think I need to get more, and forgot I bought some, so I "remember" 2 more times when I'm getting groceries, and now have 3 bottles sitting on my kitchen counter now.
I just went to put one in the shower and left the other 2 on the bathroom counter. So I'm good for a while.
- Whenever I bring in the shopping, I always get that stuff to the bathroom ASAP. It's the only thing that's saved me from having to trot through my house, soaking wet, mostly naked (ain't nobody wanna see that) to get the soap/shampoo/whatever

Have I ADHD? I thought I was just stupid ^^.
- Why not both? :P
  
  I'm at least stupid, maybe both.
- Despite the way it’s portrayed in the media, ADHD is underdiagnosed in some groups (women and anyone not white is less likely to be diagnosed in the US, for example). So, maybe. It’s worth talking to a psychiatrist about it if it’s regularly impacting your life.
  It can be difficult to figure out on your own whether or not your symptoms are ADHD, because everyone has moments that could count as ADHD symptoms. But for people without ADHD they only happen occasionally or rarely. To steal an analogy, everyone pees, but if you’re pissing 40 times a day it’s time to see a doctor.
  That said, if you’re in the US now is a super shitty time to get diagnosed because there’s a terrible ADHD med shortage. My husband’s been without meds for about 2 months now.
  
  Thanks for your serious answer. My bad joke wasn't deserving such a caring message.
  To be honest, I actually don't think I have ADHD, I'm just the kind of guy who's always in his head, not actually paying attention. As a teenager I saw a psychologist because I had memory troubles, but he didn't saw anything strange (and I'm a white man; I'm not American, but racism and misogyny are realities here too).
  I hope your husband will receive his meds again soon!

I toss the empty bottle into the sink while still in the shower. That way I find it again later.

**sorry, that's just being human. **

I buy multiple so you have multiple to squeeze the death out of.

What is object permanence?
- Baby ~~don't hurt~~ can't see me
  Baby ~~don't hurt~~ can't see me
  No more

I throw it on the bathroom floor over the curtain. Then i add it to my list on my phone after i dry off when i pick it up to throw it away.
- Every time you see it you kick it closer to the shopping list on the refrigerator. Just like the cardboard tube of the toilet paper you replaced with the last roll

quietly adds shampoo to the grocery list...

I try to throw the bottle to the bathroom entrance, and once I'm done in the way of the front door to make it a physical inconvenience to forget it (then hopefully goes on the shopping list)
- This is my universal system. It doesn’t even need to directly correlate with the reminder, since most of the time I just need to be reminded that I need to remember something.
  For example, I’ll leave a chair in the middle of the kitchen so I remember to do something when I get home. The second I see it I remember whatever it is I need to do. I’ll leave it there until it annoys me into doing what it was I needed to do. Very effective for my ADD/OCD combo.

That's not adhd. That's called beeing a human.
- I think you have ADHD, my dude. Welcome to the club.
- no
  downvote me all you want. I'm right and in fact, this very comment is against the rules. lemmy.dbzer0.com/c/adhd/comments/4051762
- It isn't.

How do I know my phone is waterproof enough to withstand the shower?
I ain't watching or filming porn, I'm ordering toiletries.
- They say that most are these days, but I don't trust it enough to test.
- Most flagships are good for that. If it is water resistant at all it should be alright. Problem then is that the water will make it really difficult to use the touch screen.

Oh yeah I've been out for like 4 days, just keep adding water to it

Fill the bottle up with water and you can get at least another week out of it
- In the meantime we'll remember to buy some more, right?!??

It doesn't even have to be hidden away, the thing you aren't remembering or even do occasionally remember to do could be in the middle of your living room.

PSA: it's not good for your hair to shampoo every day. Every other day should be fine.
- Honestly every other day is still a LOT. Shampoo your hair when it gets greasy, no sooner. The grease glands on your head will calm the fuck down after a while.
  
  Uh... Can I ask more about hair? I try to wash my hair once a week, but it currently gets greasy after about 5 days (day 6 and 7 I wear headbands). If I wash it on day 5, do you think I'll eventually make it to 7 days easily, or do I need to power through?
  5 days isn't going to work. It has to be every other day or every 7 days, as I can't keep track otherwise! Wash it when it's greasy doesn't work for me either 🤷 I'm not intuitive.

Add water. Rinse and repeat. Literally.

thanks, added shampoo to my shopping list lmao

I feel seen
- Sorry, we'll all give you some more privacy.

I literally always have a second item on hand. The second I open something, I immediately add it toy grocery list. This gives me a lot of time to remember.

Place the squeezed bottle on the fringe, so you remember before you get in your next shower.
- You skipped a few steps. First, throw the bottle out of the shower on to the floor so that you see it when you get out. Then, see the bottle on the floor when you get out and remember why it's there. Now, place that bottle somewhere to remind yourself to buy more. Lastly, realize that you forgot to wash your junk because of that whole empty bottle situation while eating lunch and smelling funk.
  
  Dam are you me?
  Who did - Why did I put an empty bottle of shampoo in the car? Oh yeah...

Where'd i put that?

the empty jar of Noxzema that's been sitting on the edge of my bathtub for two weeks would like a word

I thought this was standard forgetfulness
- only if it happens occasionally! If it's every single time and you don't wash your hair for several days, repeatedly, then it's probably ADHD and an issue that needs to be dealt with.

Hmm...
I really should get tested but I keep forgetting.

That's another nail in the coffin.
Oh well, at least it works to my advantage when I don't remember to bring work with me home to ponder.

Hahaha - yes. Non adhd people will remember.

118 comments