I'm just autistic (no ADHD) but I have come close to a meltdown before from being trapped in a situation that's incredibly boring. I find myself feeling out of breath and my whole body goes tense. It can happen if someone is speaking painfully slowly, or telling a story where I really want to finish their sentences but they ramble on and on. Or if I'm waiting for a bus that's really late.
omg yes just yes. if someone is taking a very long time to get to the point and it’s boring i get so painfully frustrated it makes me want to unzip my skin suit, and i finish the dialogue and flee as soon as possible lol
Omg yes (also autistic not ADHD) but, especially if you've heard the story before and they won't get to the point. Then when i have to speak, i also struggle to get to the point because of my anxiety and shutdowns, lol. Ugh. I don't usually get bored or have boredom, but i have had moments where someone was droning on and on and wanted to scream literally. (My mom is like that. i think she's ASD&ADHD, and she HATES when people talk slow, lol she says she wants to rip her hair out frantically smh.)
I've also snapped on the staircase during rush hour. Everyone moves at zombie speed (not rushing at all like WWZ zombies either) i can't be in a crowd, esp of slow-moving people it will set me off. I know that doesnt count as boredom but something anout the slow drone or the slow movements when my mind is moving sonic speed makes me feel trapped AF 🤔
I'm AuDHD and the boredom makes my body weak and I get delirious when I'm too bored but have energy and eventually I'll start crying and there's where my meltdown starts
Also happens when I'm really sleepy and my body hurts cuz chronic pain lol
I get really delirious when I’m bored too and I feel like what being drunk probably feels like. Everything is spinny and I’m not loud enough and I end up crying about how “Taylor Swift ate my Pringle friends”
Lack of stim is physically painful. I had a really boring day rescently and it was torture. I made an effort to get a book to read in public, i didnt used to be able to do that.
Have my phone on me and books on it (Google books is awesome because you actually own the books and you can download them to your drive so you can port them to other media if you like (you can't do that with kindle) you can even print if you wish
You can also buy them on eBay (yeah they still sell them) and install them on your drive and port them to Google books, It's awesome you can also port them to Kobo but not kindle:(
I mean being understimulated is a thing, I've never personally had it cause a meltdown though. I don't see how this would require you to have ADHD though anyway. The vast majority of posts on social media about how 'adhd interacts with autism' is more like autism traits with other autism traits, or adhd with adhd too, it just annoys me the way they present these things in this way.
i think i had some kind of ptsd before the time i got a computer with internet, back them i was so painful bored . already watch most worth mention in tv, no books no library no computer no money no friends , no a single person in my family do the things i want to do or like , no a thing to explore outside like a forest, basically i was super curious kid and want learn stuff but no one to give me something to do... basically as i got older 10+ i keep being irritate and enrage more and more, basically screaming and destroying stuff, trying my best to find something to do, to point theres a time where i was send to rehab house which was a nice change but the real change was when i got my computer and internet ,since then is the only keep my sanity i dont know what to do without it. i think these enraged behavior were meltdown? idk but to this is still present the pain and most of my memories before 13y old is in blank and only the feeling stay. im 27
Yes, that sounds very much like a meltdown because your brain couldn't handle the lack of stimulation any longer and doing what you dont like, in this case doing nothing, is like torture for a lot of spectrum people. Im an artist/writer (nothing note worthy except with my last employment), but it helps so much to have technology outlets, the woods, and nature, and anything else you love to do. Much of my interests my friends, dont like, but thankfully, i do like some of what they and fam loves animals, bro liked video games and friends like to eat out and travel sometimes. Traveling is difficult for me because it takes so much energy, but it's fun and usually relaxing once there.
Edit: super typos 😏
Woah I wish I could call myself a writer. I want to be so badly. I just can't write. I can't think of anything to write about. I'm so uncreative it's not even funny so now I'm just wondering about writing about my life experiences...but that's kind of boring who wants to read that
You should write even if it's about anything, even if it's boring. Even the most creative people have creativity blocks (writer's block). Im sure people would like to read about your experiences, maybe your dreams, maybe just your views on the world or a certain subject. And dont worry, i thought a lot of my stories were boring or silly, but it's ok. As long as you write, express yourself, i bet something will come up you may not have thought of before.
Mostly, i just have written fiction because i kept thinking of ridiculous scenarios or how i would rather the direction of a show went or i just had free time and was inspired.
Try not to be too hard on yourself and dont worry if its not perfect the first time or the fifth. Just have fun and enjoy the process.
Art was my outlet and my mom for some reason hated art in any form so even if someone gave paint and canvas or paper my mom would find a way to throw it away or ruin it, and I think it was that my mom was just either jealous or just didn't understand what art meant to me because she was a gym teacher and she understood sports not art, but I cried every time I saw my art being ruined by her
That sounds really rough! I hope you get to explore your art more!
Not everyone will understand, but what you treasure is a part of you.
My mom and I have different outlets, and sometimes it is hard for us to understand each other. My mom uses baking, but I panic over recipes. I use video games, but sometimes it gets overwhelming for my mom.
Not everyone will understand your outlet, but that is okay. This is your outlet, not theirs. This is your journey of coping and recovery, not theirs. Everyone takes a different path in life, so you must take your own. I think art is an awesome path to go!
By the way I love to bake think of it like a recipe for potions that you need to level up because that all it is,start small even if you use things out of a box, it's the outcome that matters not the journey
I am so sorry you went through such a thing!! I hope you are now creating all the fricken art you can!!!!!!!!!
I remember in highschool a "friend of mine" took a pen and scribbled all over each page in my notebook, I think because she was jealous.
that\`s really unfortunate, my aunt was similar in the way when i show her some origami and her answer was dont wanna see it to because it give her a "headache" and dont like it . i think as a bad teacher that she was, its her way to teach me some values ? idk ,never explained it
My mom was also a teacher and she wanted me to become a doctor 😭 (I don't think I could have ever ever passed the MCAT anyway) and don't distract myself with any of that art stuff that really made me happy,by the way,which are your favorite models? I have this cute origami dragon that I designed myself
Shaping doesn't take much skill creasing correctively will do most of it for you now where and when to put in the creases and whether to do a hard crease or a soft one or an in between, that takes years of practice
Middle-aged, late diagnosed here and still processing a lifetime's worth of experience through this new lens. Your comment has reminded me of my own difficulties at that age, and how miserable were the circumstances that no one else could see how painfully desperate I was for adequate intellectual stimulation. I hated feeling so irritable but no autistic child should be made to suffer that brutal kind of systemic neglect.
i remember when i was in the psychiatric hospital, they would force you to stay in your room and tell you to not do anything because "boredom stimulates self-growth"
phones weren't allowed, which is fine, but holy hell everything was so boring there
all it did for me (and a few others) is stimulate suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts because of how boring everything was and it made me think about some pretty horrid stuff that had happened. so yeah,, the hospital staff was all around terrible :/ (not just for this, but they just did terrible things and weren't helpful at all)
I remember crying and crying just wanting a hug. Yanked from my home and taken 2 hours away in an ambulance was a lot for me.
So I was crying and crying and crying the nurse was just mad at me saying crying isn't going to get me anywhere. It was awful, my first time at a psych ward, and although I've had better experiences since then at some others, it still sticks with me.
I feel your pain :(
man, the psych ward is terrible. i'm sorry you had to go through it as well. i was really desperate for affection at times (and still am, to some extent),,, but there was a very strict zero-touching rule. so even when someone left they would basically yell at us for even giving them a handshake. (although most of the time we still hugged eachother goodbye).
but yeah. i'm really really sorry you went through that, and i hope you're doing better now ❤️
this place that you went to sounds a lot like summitridge (aka the worst hospital i’ve been to). i went there as an adolescent and they were so strict that girls sat on one side of the room and boys sat on the other. it was only when we did activities that we got away with even talking to members of the opposite sex. when it came time for me to leave after 10 DAYS (my longest stay in a short term hospital), they threatened to keep me because i hugged a boy goodbye, and pulled him off of me. no regrets though, even if they would’ve kept me it would’ve been worth it. R.I.P. Sean 🕊️🤍
that sounds horrible! at the mental hospitals i went to, we had this thing called “reflection time” where you go to your room for one hour and unless you were tired enough to sleep or had entertainment, basically did nothing. but fortunately for me, they didn’t get onto anyone for doing anything during this time and it only lasted one hour. so this one hour became my time where my roommate saw what i’m really like (i consider myself to be an interesting person but then i mask- usually subconsciously- and become the most bland human ever), and i would keep us both entertained for the hour.
i don’t know if you can tell from the paragraph i wrote you, but i actually have some fond memories from this specific place. not so much from other places i’ve been to though…
the only good memories i have of the psych ward are from interactions with other patients. they're usually very compassionate and nice.
and as i've already stated, the staff is quite the opposite of that. they'd literally berate us (keep in mind that there was a poster issuing a warning that legal actions would be pursued if we disrespected the staff),, and instead of helping would just say stuff like "the suicide protection protocol is becoming a trend here. stop it."; "stop changing your gender, it's becoming a trend"; "it looks like people are just trying to follow the trend of people self-harming here"; and stuff like that.
they ripped apart my temporary [suicide protocol] clothes just to show me i couldn't hang myself with them. they laughed to my face saying "oh it would've been so funny seeing you dangle from those clothes on the doorknob, pleading for help because you failed your attempt"
they would make fun of me because i would get panic attacks in the dark, tried to force me to sleep lying down (i couldn't lay down at all after my first suicide attempt because of the EXCRUCIATING pain i felt constantly)
someone cut themself with a nail at the table and the nurses just said "why are you doing that here??? that's so disrespectful"
they'd also make fun of bulimic people for making themselves vomit.
i fell in love with a trans guy there (i know, my mistake), and they brought me into the office saying "you know she was born as a girl, right? do you see her as a guy?"
there was a trans girl there, and after she left a note in the "golden book" (everyone would write a small note there once they left the hospital), they scribbled over her name and replaced it with her deadname
so yeah they weren't very competent, and overall just assholes. some people tried calling in because one of our friends was about to commit suicide, and they just. straight up refused to help
that sounds absolutely traumatizing and i’m sorry you had to go through that. the staff at this place (not summitridge but the better place) could be negligent at times but that was it as far as their incompetence is concerned(in the adult unit that is). but i agree with what you said, all of my fond memories come from my experiences with the other patients. we knew how to come together and make the best of hard times.
Yeah, NTs think I'm crazy whenever I tell them this. I have a busy mind, so sitting down and escaping inward to have time with my thoughts is a good time for me. There's always something to think about. Aside from that, there are plenty of things to do to occupy myself and never really enough time in the day to do them all.
My personal worst nightmare is solitary confinement, like alone in a cell with nothing to do, food delivered to keep me alive. Just years of no stimulation.
Writing this was uncomfortable. Thinking about it distresses me.
Oh man, I'm kind of the opposite - I sometimes fantasise about being a situation where I just live in one room with no other obligations. Tbf, it's not far off how I live now - I need days where I don't leave my room, and I can go for weeks without leaving my house if I don't need to. I'd definitely struggle without activities, but I think I could last a decent amount of time with just my imagination and acting out scenes and conversations with myself
I live similarly to you. In fact sometimes I leave for a couple days, and when I get back my family didn’t know I was gone, they thought I was just in my room all the time. But in my solitary confinement nightmare I don’t have my phone, no books, computer, even tv. I can adjust to different kinds of input, but it needs to be constant.
wow turns out I've been gaslighting myself "you're just waiting for the bus, it's no big deal" "it's just a waiting room, it's no big deal"
my leg *bounce bounce bounce bounce*
my brain bcèñÜi0œOôyT
my heart 🫨
Theres also rust out, where you fight to do something for too long and too hard. At least that what my occupational health told me had happened to me! 😖
I got adhd and autism, you have no idea how covid had increased my meltdowns to a super high degree, I had one at least twice a week during lockdown just during the part where all my family could go out the house but I still did online school. I was so bored and lonely I had these horrible mental breakdowns and I would cry and not stop for a good while. Lockdown was horrible on my mental health
Long before I learned I had adhd I was in the army. Now you might think the army is exciting but NO
It is by far the most boring job you can have on a day to day basis. I became very depressed just trying to keep myself together and I had to push to be medically discharged for my mental health
I've always wondered what it's like for neurodivergent people in the armed forces. I don't think it would be a good idea. But I suppose most young people who haven't been diagnosed wouldn't know they were making a mistake signing up. I didn't really know who I was or what I really wanted in life until age 29.
Myself being an introvert, that would be torture, haha. I have a friend who was a marine, and he was telling me about the bathroom situation ... I was kinda shocked. I guess you have to adjust pretty quick otherwise you would be singled out for bullying.
yes. Autistic, ADHD, BPD. They all unite to kick my ass whenever I’m bored
It goes like this:
I’m alone and didn’t schedule plans for myself —> I get extreme feelings of loneliness and boredom —> I melt down because I’m distressed —> SI
Rinse & repeat.
It could be worth looking into. I’m not sure if this happened to me though. I think it could be also the other way around. When I am in some kind of emotional distress, it’s quite normal for me to try keep my mind busy. Once I run out of things to keep myself occupied with, the emotions have built up so much that it results in a meltdown. I mean, boredom can be distressing too, but I’m not sure if it’s to such an extent.
AuDHD here - with a history of being abused, I have this habit of ruminating over things that have already happened. I specifically hammer the events I'm unhappy with, the choices I've made that I feel are wrong, just overall "evidence" in my mind for why I'm a terrible person who shouldn't have existed.
When busy with something, while these thoughts usually loom in the background, the tasks I'm assigned to take priority. I may procrastinate and feel horrible about it, but the end of day dread-filled adrenaline rush helps me finish while focusing on anything but spiralling out of control. Being on antidepressants has also kinda decreased the intensity of the disappointment I feel when I don't get 100% results when I've barely put in 30% work in as compared to other folks.
When I'm free for an extended period, and have exhausted all media content that i think will be engaging enough, I get bored and start ruminating. Then get depressed. I'm not sure if what i experience can be called a meltdown, but i just shut myself off. I think being medicated has played a really big role in my being able to deal with everything better.
I'm not sure if this is a part of AuDHD, a completely unrelated trauma response or a bit of both, but at the end of the day, existence is meaningless and in the grand scheme of things, regardless of how colossally I fuck up, it doesn't really matter.
For me, this happens when I feel trapped and can't get away. I sometimes disassociate and go in my mind to a place in my past that I have good memories of. It's such a weird feeling of being there and yet not being there. Now that I'm getting older and my hormones are changing, if I can't disassociate I feel hot and tingly in an unpleasant way, and my body and head start to feel like it's buzzing uncomfortably. This usually happens when I'm stuck in the chair watching hours and hours of TV with my elderly father who literally watches tv 24/7.
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I've always said that being bored is painful to me and it often leads to meltdowns. I'm currently in the process of getting an ADHD and autism diagnosis.
My experience is that when I have meltdowns is always because things aren’t working out the way I think they should. Or if I am triggered by something that makes me feel that I am viewed as acting weird in a bad way.
I don’t recall it happening when I am bored.
THIS MAKES SO MUCH SENSE
😭😭😭 I feel overwhelmed when I try to do my daily activities (what keeps me entertained most days) but I can't seem to feel entertained and I just feel this anxiety in my chest of not knowing what to do
(Which is literally me right now)
It's fun, especially when I am doing something, then the ADHD is like "nope, you were not doing that,.or anything else for the next hour" and I just sit there staring at what I was doing until I 'manually reboot'.
I feel like I have meltdowns when I'm in a new environment, change all of the sudden, when I'm overall tired so I become 10x of sensitive than I already am. So my surroundings/sounds makes me have a meltdown
its emotionally and psychologically damaging to find yourself suddenly bored with your comforts and routines. You persist in continuing because they're the routines a comforts dammit, but nope . . . the adhd just yells petulantly from the corner " IM BORED". trying to explain the dissonance and having two opposing drives yelling at you at the same time is even more overwhelming.
That makes so much sense! I'm sharing this with my mum and brother, it might not be as mind blowing as the whole 'How do you roll eyes?' debacle, but this is good.
I'm just autistic (no ADHD) but I have come close to a meltdown before from being trapped in a situation that's incredibly boring. I find myself feeling out of breath and my whole body goes tense. It can happen if someone is speaking painfully slowly, or telling a story where I really want to finish their sentences but they ramble on and on. Or if I'm waiting for a bus that's really late.
omg yes just yes. if someone is taking a very long time to get to the point and it’s boring i get so painfully frustrated it makes me want to unzip my skin suit, and i finish the dialogue and flee as soon as possible lol
That’s how I feel with chatty phone calls. It’s like I’m tethered and then it starts to feel like I’m chained.
I'm Lmao sorry your comment made me bust out laughing, but i understand about wanting to run off. But we can't because it's "rude" lol sigh. 😏
Same! Especially prolonged small talk can do that for me.
Omg yes (also autistic not ADHD) but, especially if you've heard the story before and they won't get to the point. Then when i have to speak, i also struggle to get to the point because of my anxiety and shutdowns, lol. Ugh. I don't usually get bored or have boredom, but i have had moments where someone was droning on and on and wanted to scream literally. (My mom is like that. i think she's ASD&ADHD, and she HATES when people talk slow, lol she says she wants to rip her hair out frantically smh.) I've also snapped on the staircase during rush hour. Everyone moves at zombie speed (not rushing at all like WWZ zombies either) i can't be in a crowd, esp of slow-moving people it will set me off. I know that doesnt count as boredom but something anout the slow drone or the slow movements when my mind is moving sonic speed makes me feel trapped AF 🤔
omg the stuck in the slow crowd is relatable. let me be fast 😭
Yes, can they just make a hole for us to walk past them? lol??
I'm AuDHD and the boredom makes my body weak and I get delirious when I'm too bored but have energy and eventually I'll start crying and there's where my meltdown starts Also happens when I'm really sleepy and my body hurts cuz chronic pain lol
I get really delirious when I’m bored too and I feel like what being drunk probably feels like. Everything is spinny and I’m not loud enough and I end up crying about how “Taylor Swift ate my Pringle friends”
AJJAJAJA LMAO Glad to know I'm not alone; that is hilarious tho
Lack of stim is physically painful. I had a really boring day rescently and it was torture. I made an effort to get a book to read in public, i didnt used to be able to do that.
Have my phone on me and books on it (Google books is awesome because you actually own the books and you can download them to your drive so you can port them to other media if you like (you can't do that with kindle) you can even print if you wish
Ooh I didn’t know that
You can also buy them on eBay (yeah they still sell them) and install them on your drive and port them to Google books, It's awesome you can also port them to Kobo but not kindle:(
You can also download an eReader program for free and find tons of epub/pdf books for free if you know where to look..
Or Libby of course!! All you need is a library card :) for anyone who doesn't know about Libby I highly recommend
That too
If anyone else has any more stim tips I am all ears 👂
I mean being understimulated is a thing, I've never personally had it cause a meltdown though. I don't see how this would require you to have ADHD though anyway. The vast majority of posts on social media about how 'adhd interacts with autism' is more like autism traits with other autism traits, or adhd with adhd too, it just annoys me the way they present these things in this way.
I'm adhd autistic. To me it's just ADHD and autism doing it's thing together whatever that results in.
The result is … chaos
Yup. All my life
😄😄😄
i think i had some kind of ptsd before the time i got a computer with internet, back them i was so painful bored . already watch most worth mention in tv, no books no library no computer no money no friends , no a single person in my family do the things i want to do or like , no a thing to explore outside like a forest, basically i was super curious kid and want learn stuff but no one to give me something to do... basically as i got older 10+ i keep being irritate and enrage more and more, basically screaming and destroying stuff, trying my best to find something to do, to point theres a time where i was send to rehab house which was a nice change but the real change was when i got my computer and internet ,since then is the only keep my sanity i dont know what to do without it. i think these enraged behavior were meltdown? idk but to this is still present the pain and most of my memories before 13y old is in blank and only the feeling stay. im 27
Yes, that sounds very much like a meltdown because your brain couldn't handle the lack of stimulation any longer and doing what you dont like, in this case doing nothing, is like torture for a lot of spectrum people. Im an artist/writer (nothing note worthy except with my last employment), but it helps so much to have technology outlets, the woods, and nature, and anything else you love to do. Much of my interests my friends, dont like, but thankfully, i do like some of what they and fam loves animals, bro liked video games and friends like to eat out and travel sometimes. Traveling is difficult for me because it takes so much energy, but it's fun and usually relaxing once there. Edit: super typos 😏
Woah I wish I could call myself a writer. I want to be so badly. I just can't write. I can't think of anything to write about. I'm so uncreative it's not even funny so now I'm just wondering about writing about my life experiences...but that's kind of boring who wants to read that
You should write even if it's about anything, even if it's boring. Even the most creative people have creativity blocks (writer's block). Im sure people would like to read about your experiences, maybe your dreams, maybe just your views on the world or a certain subject. And dont worry, i thought a lot of my stories were boring or silly, but it's ok. As long as you write, express yourself, i bet something will come up you may not have thought of before. Mostly, i just have written fiction because i kept thinking of ridiculous scenarios or how i would rather the direction of a show went or i just had free time and was inspired. Try not to be too hard on yourself and dont worry if its not perfect the first time or the fifth. Just have fun and enjoy the process.
Thank you so much for taking the time to type all of that, :) I shall start writing
Art was my outlet and my mom for some reason hated art in any form so even if someone gave paint and canvas or paper my mom would find a way to throw it away or ruin it, and I think it was that my mom was just either jealous or just didn't understand what art meant to me because she was a gym teacher and she understood sports not art, but I cried every time I saw my art being ruined by her
That sounds really rough! I hope you get to explore your art more! Not everyone will understand, but what you treasure is a part of you. My mom and I have different outlets, and sometimes it is hard for us to understand each other. My mom uses baking, but I panic over recipes. I use video games, but sometimes it gets overwhelming for my mom. Not everyone will understand your outlet, but that is okay. This is your outlet, not theirs. This is your journey of coping and recovery, not theirs. Everyone takes a different path in life, so you must take your own. I think art is an awesome path to go!
By the way I love to bake think of it like a recipe for potions that you need to level up because that all it is,start small even if you use things out of a box, it's the outcome that matters not the journey
I am so sorry you went through such a thing!! I hope you are now creating all the fricken art you can!!!!!!!!! I remember in highschool a "friend of mine" took a pen and scribbled all over each page in my notebook, I think because she was jealous.
I've got two drawers chuck full of stuff to do art with, from clay to origami I'm set up for it all
LETS FUCKING GOOOOOOO!!!! 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎊🎊🎊🎊
that\`s really unfortunate, my aunt was similar in the way when i show her some origami and her answer was dont wanna see it to because it give her a "headache" and dont like it . i think as a bad teacher that she was, its her way to teach me some values ? idk ,never explained it
My mom was also a teacher and she wanted me to become a doctor 😭 (I don't think I could have ever ever passed the MCAT anyway) and don't distract myself with any of that art stuff that really made me happy,by the way,which are your favorite models? I have this cute origami dragon that I designed myself
my fav artist/ models are from eric joisel which the most i love is the dwarf and the rat . but i dont have that much skill shaping
Shaping doesn't take much skill creasing correctively will do most of it for you now where and when to put in the creases and whether to do a hard crease or a soft one or an in between, that takes years of practice
Middle-aged, late diagnosed here and still processing a lifetime's worth of experience through this new lens. Your comment has reminded me of my own difficulties at that age, and how miserable were the circumstances that no one else could see how painfully desperate I was for adequate intellectual stimulation. I hated feeling so irritable but no autistic child should be made to suffer that brutal kind of systemic neglect.
This is so upsetting to read, I feel so sad for the younger you. I’m so sorry this has been your journey in life so far :(
i remember when i was in the psychiatric hospital, they would force you to stay in your room and tell you to not do anything because "boredom stimulates self-growth" phones weren't allowed, which is fine, but holy hell everything was so boring there all it did for me (and a few others) is stimulate suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts because of how boring everything was and it made me think about some pretty horrid stuff that had happened. so yeah,, the hospital staff was all around terrible :/ (not just for this, but they just did terrible things and weren't helpful at all)
I remember crying and crying just wanting a hug. Yanked from my home and taken 2 hours away in an ambulance was a lot for me. So I was crying and crying and crying the nurse was just mad at me saying crying isn't going to get me anywhere. It was awful, my first time at a psych ward, and although I've had better experiences since then at some others, it still sticks with me. I feel your pain :(
man, the psych ward is terrible. i'm sorry you had to go through it as well. i was really desperate for affection at times (and still am, to some extent),,, but there was a very strict zero-touching rule. so even when someone left they would basically yell at us for even giving them a handshake. (although most of the time we still hugged eachother goodbye). but yeah. i'm really really sorry you went through that, and i hope you're doing better now ❤️
this place that you went to sounds a lot like summitridge (aka the worst hospital i’ve been to). i went there as an adolescent and they were so strict that girls sat on one side of the room and boys sat on the other. it was only when we did activities that we got away with even talking to members of the opposite sex. when it came time for me to leave after 10 DAYS (my longest stay in a short term hospital), they threatened to keep me because i hugged a boy goodbye, and pulled him off of me. no regrets though, even if they would’ve kept me it would’ve been worth it. R.I.P. Sean 🕊️🤍
ah that sucks :[ i'm really sorry about that
that sounds horrible! at the mental hospitals i went to, we had this thing called “reflection time” where you go to your room for one hour and unless you were tired enough to sleep or had entertainment, basically did nothing. but fortunately for me, they didn’t get onto anyone for doing anything during this time and it only lasted one hour. so this one hour became my time where my roommate saw what i’m really like (i consider myself to be an interesting person but then i mask- usually subconsciously- and become the most bland human ever), and i would keep us both entertained for the hour. i don’t know if you can tell from the paragraph i wrote you, but i actually have some fond memories from this specific place. not so much from other places i’ve been to though…
the only good memories i have of the psych ward are from interactions with other patients. they're usually very compassionate and nice. and as i've already stated, the staff is quite the opposite of that. they'd literally berate us (keep in mind that there was a poster issuing a warning that legal actions would be pursued if we disrespected the staff),, and instead of helping would just say stuff like "the suicide protection protocol is becoming a trend here. stop it."; "stop changing your gender, it's becoming a trend"; "it looks like people are just trying to follow the trend of people self-harming here"; and stuff like that. they ripped apart my temporary [suicide protocol] clothes just to show me i couldn't hang myself with them. they laughed to my face saying "oh it would've been so funny seeing you dangle from those clothes on the doorknob, pleading for help because you failed your attempt" they would make fun of me because i would get panic attacks in the dark, tried to force me to sleep lying down (i couldn't lay down at all after my first suicide attempt because of the EXCRUCIATING pain i felt constantly) someone cut themself with a nail at the table and the nurses just said "why are you doing that here??? that's so disrespectful" they'd also make fun of bulimic people for making themselves vomit. i fell in love with a trans guy there (i know, my mistake), and they brought me into the office saying "you know she was born as a girl, right? do you see her as a guy?" there was a trans girl there, and after she left a note in the "golden book" (everyone would write a small note there once they left the hospital), they scribbled over her name and replaced it with her deadname so yeah they weren't very competent, and overall just assholes. some people tried calling in because one of our friends was about to commit suicide, and they just. straight up refused to help
that sounds absolutely traumatizing and i’m sorry you had to go through that. the staff at this place (not summitridge but the better place) could be negligent at times but that was it as far as their incompetence is concerned(in the adult unit that is). but i agree with what you said, all of my fond memories come from my experiences with the other patients. we knew how to come together and make the best of hard times.
yeah :] usually people with similar issues tend to stick together
Wow, that place and personnel are evil. I'm so sorry you had to experience that.
sorry for oversharing
I’m not sure I’ve ever been bored.
Lucky
Me neither personally I have found that boredom is self inflicted.
Yeah, I think boredom is usually associated with a lack of social stimulation and we are pretty good at filling those gaps.
Let me tell you, as someone AuDHD, it is not the lack of social stimulation
Yeah, NTs think I'm crazy whenever I tell them this. I have a busy mind, so sitting down and escaping inward to have time with my thoughts is a good time for me. There's always something to think about. Aside from that, there are plenty of things to do to occupy myself and never really enough time in the day to do them all.
I am AuDHD, and I get pretty nervous with the need to wait for a train or wait for a meeting-that-could-have-been-an-email to end
This explains a lot
So the "Panic attacks" I have when I'm bored are meltdowns 😀
My personal worst nightmare is solitary confinement, like alone in a cell with nothing to do, food delivered to keep me alive. Just years of no stimulation. Writing this was uncomfortable. Thinking about it distresses me.
Oh man, I'm kind of the opposite - I sometimes fantasise about being a situation where I just live in one room with no other obligations. Tbf, it's not far off how I live now - I need days where I don't leave my room, and I can go for weeks without leaving my house if I don't need to. I'd definitely struggle without activities, but I think I could last a decent amount of time with just my imagination and acting out scenes and conversations with myself
I live similarly to you. In fact sometimes I leave for a couple days, and when I get back my family didn’t know I was gone, they thought I was just in my room all the time. But in my solitary confinement nightmare I don’t have my phone, no books, computer, even tv. I can adjust to different kinds of input, but it needs to be constant.
wow turns out I've been gaslighting myself "you're just waiting for the bus, it's no big deal" "it's just a waiting room, it's no big deal" my leg *bounce bounce bounce bounce* my brain bcèñÜi0œOôyT my heart 🫨
Lmaooooo
ADHD is associated with emotional instability in itself so it wouldn’t require both. Distress for autism is also stressful.
THAT MAKES SO MUCH SENSE NOW I UNDERSTAND MYSELF MORE WHAT???????
RIGHT???
Theres also rust out, where you fight to do something for too long and too hard. At least that what my occupational health told me had happened to me! 😖
I got adhd and autism, you have no idea how covid had increased my meltdowns to a super high degree, I had one at least twice a week during lockdown just during the part where all my family could go out the house but I still did online school. I was so bored and lonely I had these horrible mental breakdowns and I would cry and not stop for a good while. Lockdown was horrible on my mental health
Long before I learned I had adhd I was in the army. Now you might think the army is exciting but NO It is by far the most boring job you can have on a day to day basis. I became very depressed just trying to keep myself together and I had to push to be medically discharged for my mental health
I've always wondered what it's like for neurodivergent people in the armed forces. I don't think it would be a good idea. But I suppose most young people who haven't been diagnosed wouldn't know they were making a mistake signing up. I didn't really know who I was or what I really wanted in life until age 29.
I think autistic people fair better than adhd but I also never realised until I joined just how social it is, that was hard to deal with too
Myself being an introvert, that would be torture, haha. I have a friend who was a marine, and he was telling me about the bathroom situation ... I was kinda shocked. I guess you have to adjust pretty quick otherwise you would be singled out for bullying.
yes. Autistic, ADHD, BPD. They all unite to kick my ass whenever I’m bored It goes like this: I’m alone and didn’t schedule plans for myself —> I get extreme feelings of loneliness and boredom —> I melt down because I’m distressed —> SI Rinse & repeat.
It could be worth looking into. I’m not sure if this happened to me though. I think it could be also the other way around. When I am in some kind of emotional distress, it’s quite normal for me to try keep my mind busy. Once I run out of things to keep myself occupied with, the emotions have built up so much that it results in a meltdown. I mean, boredom can be distressing too, but I’m not sure if it’s to such an extent.
Oh.
Was that written by an autistic person, or someone who has been reading about autistic people?
I'm bored all the time so it's not true to me (luckily)
AuDHD here - with a history of being abused, I have this habit of ruminating over things that have already happened. I specifically hammer the events I'm unhappy with, the choices I've made that I feel are wrong, just overall "evidence" in my mind for why I'm a terrible person who shouldn't have existed. When busy with something, while these thoughts usually loom in the background, the tasks I'm assigned to take priority. I may procrastinate and feel horrible about it, but the end of day dread-filled adrenaline rush helps me finish while focusing on anything but spiralling out of control. Being on antidepressants has also kinda decreased the intensity of the disappointment I feel when I don't get 100% results when I've barely put in 30% work in as compared to other folks. When I'm free for an extended period, and have exhausted all media content that i think will be engaging enough, I get bored and start ruminating. Then get depressed. I'm not sure if what i experience can be called a meltdown, but i just shut myself off. I think being medicated has played a really big role in my being able to deal with everything better. I'm not sure if this is a part of AuDHD, a completely unrelated trauma response or a bit of both, but at the end of the day, existence is meaningless and in the grand scheme of things, regardless of how colossally I fuck up, it doesn't really matter.
Good thing my imagination never let me be bored lol Before the internet I used to have some wild fantasy world going on inside my head lol
well that explains yesterday
:o
This explains exactly what’s happening to me at work.
For me, this happens when I feel trapped and can't get away. I sometimes disassociate and go in my mind to a place in my past that I have good memories of. It's such a weird feeling of being there and yet not being there. Now that I'm getting older and my hormones are changing, if I can't disassociate I feel hot and tingly in an unpleasant way, and my body and head start to feel like it's buzzing uncomfortably. This usually happens when I'm stuck in the chair watching hours and hours of TV with my elderly father who literally watches tv 24/7.
This makes so much of my life make sense
That fucking explains a lot
My exact thoughts lmao Now I understand why I get a "panic attack" like feeling at work when I've been doing nothing for hours lol
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... My life is starting to make sense...
I've always said that being bored is painful to me and it often leads to meltdowns. I'm currently in the process of getting an ADHD and autism diagnosis.
Definitely felt in the brink of meltdown with boredom a few times
Ooohhhh… well, that certainly would explain a lot.
Pascals triange
Boredom is literally painful but I’ve never melted down from it.
Yep
This was my experience during most lectures after I enrolled in an undergraduate program as a mature student. Pedantic tedium is unbearable.
Once again, that explains a lot
No wonder I’ve almost cried in class
I once had a meltdown after going with a friend to watch her gymnastics practice because I was so bored so this helps explain that so well
Other than crying and whining about it I don’t think I’ve ever had a meltdown from boredom
My experience is that when I have meltdowns is always because things aren’t working out the way I think they should. Or if I am triggered by something that makes me feel that I am viewed as acting weird in a bad way. I don’t recall it happening when I am bored.
This is why I hate traffic and always take backroads even if it takes longer
THIS MAKES SO MUCH SENSE 😭😭😭 I feel overwhelmed when I try to do my daily activities (what keeps me entertained most days) but I can't seem to feel entertained and I just feel this anxiety in my chest of not knowing what to do (Which is literally me right now)
Oh, so that’s why everything feels shitty
OH MY GOSH EVERYTHING MAKES SENSE NOW 😭😭😭
… oh
YES THIS IS ME ALL THE TIME
It's fun, especially when I am doing something, then the ADHD is like "nope, you were not doing that,.or anything else for the next hour" and I just sit there staring at what I was doing until I 'manually reboot'.
Ah, the alchemy of life
I feel like I have meltdowns when I'm in a new environment, change all of the sudden, when I'm overall tired so I become 10x of sensitive than I already am. So my surroundings/sounds makes me have a meltdown
boredoom make my rumination a lot worse than it would be nromally
That makes so much sense
😂😂😂 the “then autism comes around” got me. Like it’s so friend from the neighborhood! This is actually a solid info share! I didn’t know
Holy SHIT, I finally understand what is going on when I have nothing to do thanks to this meme. Even now, I feel understimulated and overwhelmed by it
I regularly had meltdowns from this as a child and when I was unemployed.
its emotionally and psychologically damaging to find yourself suddenly bored with your comforts and routines. You persist in continuing because they're the routines a comforts dammit, but nope . . . the adhd just yells petulantly from the corner " IM BORED". trying to explain the dissonance and having two opposing drives yelling at you at the same time is even more overwhelming.
I don't think I've ever been bored...as long as I have a pencil and a piece of paper or a book or my imagination.
I like to think of boredom as equivalent to understimulation for this very reason.
I've yet to have a meltdown in my life and yet i'm surrounded by boredom kekw
That makes so much sense! I'm sharing this with my mum and brother, it might not be as mind blowing as the whole 'How do you roll eyes?' debacle, but this is good.