Update, I just had my first meeting with a psychiatrist and he said thta I’m a classic case of ADD. 3-4 more visits and a bunch of tests and he’s positively sure I’ll get a diagnosis and medication. Woo-hoo, spectrum here I am!
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Welcome to the club! Just be aware, if you try meds, that different kinds affect different people very differently. If one doesn’t help, you can always try another!
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Yeah, the doctor laid out a couple of different drugs we can try.
I have ADHD.
I finish songs.
I find that if I have everything set up and only work for 45minutes at a time and leave notes for future me.
I finish tracks.
I’m also a Software engineer by trade and I use the same strategy when writing code.
I leave little guard rails every where so I don’t fall down a rabbit hole of mindless tweaking.
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Good strategy.
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it’s just coming up with little strategies, and trusting that the strategies work.
my current focus for this album I’m working on is 6u - 60hp eurorack setup and two Elektron boxes and an external sequencer.
I do get the whole “being over whelmed” when there more than just that. My monkey brain just fizzles out and I get distracted.
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Where did you buy them? I … know some people … who could use them 
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And be prepared for saving money by buying less, saving time by being less interested in each and everything; cleaner house, better paperwork, normally less anger and/or anxiety, fewer fights with family members and also – less creativity, less funny thoughts and joking, more sincereness (I mean, that’s the point of it - better function in civilised environments?) and – if there was any relevant ASD traits – they will be much more obvious (uncovered) because they normally don’t react to the medication.
Can’t eat the cake and keep it, unfortunately.
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People in general should be more rational. And funny. Well – just like any normal ADHD/ASD person. :star_struck
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Is anyone here using Tiimo? I came across it when looking for resources for my son’s newly diagnosed ADHD and I’ve been setting it up for him. It’s a cool way to quantify daily tasks and have things very black and white. It’s easy to setup repeating schedules and also import existing calendars.
I’d like to suss out ways to integrate creative routines into it as well, once I get a better understanding of how it works for my brain.
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That is somewhat of a problem, no?
GAS is an element in distractable ADD because we enjoy being interested, deep focus and research.
It’s a lot easier learning new things than getting through the levels of understanding in one particular topic. It’s definitely possible to continue deep diving into one topic, but the new product threads and asides make it easy to knock us off that course.
Harder to locate the topics that would help us focus on one concept or gear item, and those higher level topics also get less responses to our questions, probably others having similar issues stumbling through the “feed” of threads.
I haven’t used this but I’ve tried almost every other prioritization/planning tool in the book. Be prepared for it to work brilliantly for a couple weeks, then to drop it entirely for a few more weeks, and eventually finding a different tool to replace this one. That’s the ADHD cycle, haha!
Of course results may vary but if your son has the same kind of ADHD my mom and I have, I just want to prepare you! Don’t get discouraged if it doesn’t form a long lasting habit or if your kid gets bored and stops paying attention to the app - it’s natural for us to completely ignore notifications and neglect any feelings of urgency we once had when setting up any kind of time management. Soon enough it’ll come back in a massive wave of incredible productivity, energy, and/or creativity.
In any case, you’re a pretty cool parent for wanting to help your son with this kind of stuff. I’m sure they’ll appreciate it deeply in the future
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Interesting that this topic gets brought up because electronic music has played a big part throughout my life in managing my ADHD. Before I ever got interested in producing, I used electronic music as study music. I have a hard time sitting still for long periods of time and keeping focus, and I found electronic music helped me get into a flow state for studying better than anything else.
During the pandemic I started buying hardware for producing, but I found I also liked just having it out on my desk while doing everyday work, especially the Elektron boxes due to the feel of the buttons and the knobs. They became a sort of outlet for stimming to keep me focused.
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I just read this whole thread. I should probably get looked at. I’m a fucking maniac and 90% of what people are describing as symptoms of ADHD, ASD and even ODD apply directly to me and my whole life story. No problems finishing music though so I guess I have that going for me.
@Vacanthouses, how are you doing? I was very troubled to see that you said you were finally kicking the last of the opiates on January 1st but have not returned to this thread since December. I feel a little better after seeing that you have posted in other threads much more recently.
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Both my brother and I have ADHD (we were both diagnosed and re-diagnosed several times through childhood, teenage years and early adulthood) we’re both highly creative and heavily involved in electronic music I’m a sound designer and musician he’s a musician and DJ.
It definitely has its pluses when it comes to being creative and “thinking outside the box” but it also has its downsides like how I have so much trouble actually finishing a track, I spend so much time programming and playing and coming up with ideas easily that are absolutely worthy of finishing and releasing but then I get bored and distracted and come up with another idea for another song and end up in the infinite loop of making lots of demos that span across several genres and never actually finishing anything
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I’m not sure if this deserves it’s own thread or not, but I’m curious how you guys go about learning more complex machines. Maybe it’s a matter of age for me (I’m 49 now), but when I was young I could pound manuals and do ok, although in retrospect I think I still wasn’t digesting a lot of material because of distraction. These days I get very distracted, checked out, overwhelmed very quickly when I get something new and, accordingly, I’m making shit progress on machines I should totally know by now. I’m also suffering from having acquired more machines that I can learn at the same time, so that’s creating its own overwhelm.
My question is, how do you guys succeed when learning a new machine? What does a process look like when it’s working for you? Videos? Manuals? Working in small chunks of time? Hyper-focused rabbit-hole that you emerge from days later? Start a new song?
Again, this might be worth a unique thread, but I thought I’d start here since I’m particularly curious about ADHD folks.
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I feel you, man. I’m 41 and I’ve been into hardware electronic music since age 16 or so.
I used to be sharp as a TACK. (got diagnosed with ADHD at age 39)
Here’s how I retain that mental edge:
- Get enough sleep every day (minimal screens and bright lights into eyeballs after dark)
- Eat balanced meals that balance the protein and carbs (carbs will spike then drop your blood sugar…brain no likey that, so intentionally eat enough protein to keep brain blood sugar levels high till next meal)
- Costco Omega Fish Oil x2 every morning
- For men: refrain from excessive “spilling of your vital essence” (wink wink)
- Total visual minimalism in work area. (I prefer to work on Elektron machines and NI Maschine on an empty desk or cafe table). The more machines in view, the harder it is to focus.
- The initial learning period for me shouldn’t be too masochistic and “obejctive” based…just enjoy playfully discovering functions and features and how things work and keep a manual handy. This will create more momentum to regularly sit down and play around while learning by osmosis…rather than “OK, I need to learn this machine…or else!” To me, that attitude just creates executive inertia and I opt for something else like drawing and never learn my musical tools.
Good Luck!! 
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I have “moderate to severe” ADHD. I’ll be reading through this thread with interest, but first wanted to share a few things I’ve found helpful, in no particular order.
- Body doubling / coworking. I’m particularly in love with Focusmate. I think it’s the #1 tool that has done more to mitigate my ADHD than any other single thing. It seems surgically designed for ADHD brains. You don’t need to use it only for getting office work done or the like. You can totally use a 25 or 50 minute session to dedicate to learning your gear or making music.
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In conjunction with #1 above, Beeminder. You set a goal of your choice, and if you slip up on that goal, you literally pay $5 or $10. This might seem extreme, but if you’re anything like me, you need to let some form of panic set in or have some real tangible loss on the line before your executive functioning kicks in. There’s Focusmate integration which auto-updates when you complete a Focusmate session, and the two combined hold me accountable and keep me focused.
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ADHD brains tend to not be motivated by the traditional motivators that neurotypical people rely on (including money, guilt, shame, strong feelings that one “ought” to do something, etc. - we’re sort of capitalism-averse in this regard). If we don’t take some genuine interest in something, or there’s no factor of novelty in it, it’s very hard to get us to do it. Keeping this in mind, you can “bootstrap” interesting things to mundane, uninteresting tasks in order to get interested in doing them. For me, I got really into listening to podcasts while I’m washing dishes or cleaning. I even have to listen to the podcasts at 1.5x speed in order to fully engage my brain. But once I’m dialed in, I can do chores like that for a long time, and the mundanity falls away completely.
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I know it’s not news for anyone, but exercise does help. A lot. I need to be reminded of this more than anyone. I’m currently on a kick of watching Better Call Saul while doing cardio, or listening to music or podcasts while doing strength training (see #3 above). Cardio really seems to quiet down my brain, it’s an excellent start to the day.
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If you feel like you’re completely useless for the rest of the day, never underestimate the feeling of “reset” that sleeping gives you. When you wake up, your brain is probably going to be in a completely different state than it was before. I think this is much more pronounced for ADHD people than for non-ADHD people. Use this to your advantage. Don’t be afraid to call it quits on the day and get some rest if you’re running on fumes and just seem to be aimlessly surfing on autopilot with zero ability to stop. Just commit to getting up early and making a renewed effort to getting stuff done in the morning.
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Many ppl tell me that I probably have ADHD. Personally I think psychology is hardly a science and it’s pathological AF.
I disagree with the premise that it is a disorder if you cannot make yourself interested in stuff that is boring and non-essential to you.
This is not to say that some ppl don’t need help with this stuff and that medication couldn’t help with their lives but that maybe everybody aren’t supposed to live their lives the same way.
As for electronic music and music in general it’s great to be able to lose yourself completely and to get excited about things in a way that makes your friends think you’ve lost your mind.
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Thank you for this beautiful and self-opening, exposing post.
A lot of what you have said reminds me of myself years ago.
I am 52 ATM and want to reply a bit of my thoughts to you.
ADHD? I am in, but…not. What is this at the core of it´s meaning? And you made the capitalism reference yourself. 
Some years ago I would have agreed. No longer do I.
Have you ever engaged yourself in the origin of human being, evolution-wise?
The once that got bored by collecting roots and berrys where the one to see the sabertooth early enough.
They contributed a lot to the group. To pick up your capitalism quote.
What is the benefit of someone with those qualities?
To be bored by tedious, long ongoing and uniform task is normal. Not to everybody, but to a significant portion of the population. (Significance starts at about 5% statistically ).
The important thing is: IT IS NORMAL. Variances are normal.
Earning money is not interesting. It is just earing money. It is just a standardized reinforcement to keep you going on.
You are more than what´s in Skinner-Box. You are a human being not wanting to have your creativity measured in money (the reinforcement)
This is, at it´s core, a bit of a critisism against the behavioural treatment of “problems” like this.
All of what you said is true. In a society like ours, it is obvious to try to get to grips with what everybody does.
So optimize yourself and work on your “weak” points.
What I want to underline is: You weaknesses are your strengths. Your are a creative musician.
Why is this? Do you get bored by unifomitiy? If you answer this with yes, this means you are a creative person.
The value of human being is not measured in it´s outcome (terrible word).
All our specialities are normal (in a statistic way of thinking) an we should stop to try to get being a statistical average.
Every human being is special. The world suffers severly from not harvesting/using/embracing this potential.
I have a son, who was diagnose with ADHD when he was 11 or so. As a father I always tried to make taking medication or not his own decision.
I failed because he felt the social preasure of functioning. He is well now, but he always says that he hated (and still does) taking medication and to feel like he was somewhat like not average.
This leaves scars in such a young soul.
My statement is the following:
Try to accomodote to the social preasure. But do it in a way, knowing that it is the society not leaving enough space for a lot of special people who a totally normal.
Society want´s a normality that is NOT NORMAL.
What is not normal (also in a scientific and statistical way) expecting people to fit. Fit into roles of economical groth.
If you want to I can elaborate a lot more about this.
Hope this makes sense.
Best Mario
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