I have ADHD. I make no bones about it. It’s why my portfolio is so wide spread, why I have tried so many different crafts, and want to do so many more. I have trouble focusing on just one thing, despite many years of enforced trying when I was a kid and trying on my own as an adult since that is “what you’re supposed to do.”
It really, really doesn’t work. I have many failures that attest to that. I can also hyperfixate on things (ADHD super power) so I would get things done, and think that maybe I was just doing it wrong the other times. Boooo.
It wasn’t until Grad School that I was able to lean into my weirdness. Don’t get me wrong, grad school was very toxic and unhealthy in so many ways, simultaneously ignoring health and wellness needs while encouraging selfishness and obsessive behaviors. I nearly lost my partner in that time because I couldn’t get out of my own head enough to truly spend time with him. But on the other hand…
It was because of that selfishness I was able to begin to find what works for me, and to finally let me stop expecting myself to conform to the expectations of the neurotypical world. Sure, there was the portion of that which was in defiance of a particularly insensitive and unkind teacher who adhered to the “suck it up buttercup” school of thought, but a large portion of it was because of Aaron Link, the BEST mentor I have ever had. He encouraged me and worked with me with no motivation but to make me a better artist.
With him I found that I needed play to get anywhere, that focusing on what interested me and gave me joy brought excitement and focus that I didn’t have before.
Listening to a (not too deep or involved) story while I work can fill that need for play when working on the not so creative parts of being creative. A lot of art is just doing a lot of work once the idea is out of your head, so a story is absolutely necessary for me to get anything done, so I have listened to SO MANY stories. Audible, for all that it is part of Bezos’ evil Amazon empire (that is sadly lacking in Amazons), has been a godsend for me. I have listened to SO many titles–hundreds of books– that my “oh I need to read this eventually list” is actually rather short.
Even better for me, it turns out that distraction is a great painkiller. While I have been unable to work due to chronic pain, I have sat in my (medically required) comfy chair and drawn while listening to books to dull the pain. I didn’t even know I was doing that until I started to learn about pain and how to handle it.
So I’m going to share some of these stories with you.
MCM Creative 