What issues are you dealing with (if you feel like sharing)? I can speak from my experience being in therapy for AuADHD, anxiety, depression, childhood traumas, and a few other things.

ETA: Some generic things from my therapist that will help most people:

Drink enough water. This alone can have a significant impact.
Try to do regular physical activity that you enjoy, if possible. Even if you don't feel like it.
Check your posture. If you find yourself hunching, try fixing that.
Do things that you know that you enjoy when you are not depressed, when you are depressed. Our brains are weird and "fake it 'til you make it" kinda works - by doing non-depressive things, you can trick your brain into being happier.
Try to engage socially, if you find yourself to be a hermit. Our brains are evolved to be social animals and isolation can be damaging.
If you are having trouble with the state of the world and things that you do not have control over, try engaging in things that you do have control over. This can be as simple as deep cleaning your sink or fixing a squeeky hinge. The amount of frustration caused by inability to impact important global happening is problematic for maintaining good mental health - our brains evolved in environments where life-threatening problems had immediate solutions but humans have built societies that don't work that way.

Important items

Be patient and kind to yourself. Especially your past self. We all did cringy things when young with brains not fully-developed and/or without the information that one has currently. If you have trouble doing so, try mentally taking a step back and pretending that you are dealing with a close friend who you care about deeply. Would you judge them and make them feel bad about their past mistakes? I hope not.
Concern and depression about the world at large is a very valid way to feel. It's important, especially for those of us with mental health challenges, to take the airplane safety spiel "put your own mask on first before helping others" approach to rendering aid to others. If you are in or near crisis, you are not in a place to help others and need to focus on getting to stable ground yourself first. Needing to do this isn't slacking off or "not doing your part". Not everyone is equipped to be out marching all the time (some are not equipped for this at all). If someone offers unhelpful criticism of inability to engage physically due to mental or physical health, they are best ignored rather than responded to.

[–] SpicyColdFartChamber@lemm.ee 3 points 1 week ago (11 children)

Any advice on how to do work like other people? I am quick to grab my phone everytime I get even slightly stressed or don't immediately know the answer to a problem.

And it takes a lot of time for me to do something, it takes other very little (at least compared to me). Any advice on that?

[–] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 2 points 1 week ago (3 children)

I have that problem and it's still a problem for me but what I've found that sort of works is to keep a to do list of all the shit I need to do. Kind of like a bulet journal but less complicated. If someone asks me to do something then instead of immediately jumping on it (unless it's an emergency) I put it on the list. Then when I am working on something and it stresses me out to the point I am reaching for my phone I move to a different item on the list instead (sometimes). When I finish something or review the list and see a bunch of things crossed off it also gives me a little mood bump. Also keeping my phone in my bag instead of within reach and just listening to podcasts or whatever on my wireless buds helps.

None of this is a perfect solution but it did help a bit. Usually if I can get myself in a groove I can power through several items and make up the time I lost dicking around so having a list ready is handy for that as well.

[–] SpicyColdFartChamber@lemm.ee 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

How do you manage between difficult and simple tasks? And Do you do the simple items first or the tough ones?

I've found myself of two minds about this.

Completing smaller simpler tasks feels fulfilling in that moment and helps boost productivity but doesn't feel so good from a broader look back at them.

Whereas finishing difficult tasks feels really good but they can sometimes keep going on and on and on and feel never ending. They might take up a whole day and in that I might miss the small tasks.

Thanks for your reply.

[–] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I manage them mostly by timeline. At any given time I have 15-20 things going I need to get done so whatever is due next gets priority. Unless it's something difficult and I'm having trouble getting my brain to go into gear I will switch tracks and do the next item down that I'm able to knock out quickly. I also try to break larger things into small tasks. So instead of "xxxx deployment". It's schedule XXXX planning meeting with customer, get quote, get PO, document site, and so on. With things getting added as they come up.

I can't really speak to the rest of your comment because nothing I do ever really gives me any kind of lasting good feeling, other than having it off by back if it had been stressing me out. Sometimes that is impetus enough to focus and get something done though.

[–] SpicyColdFartChamber@lemm.ee 1 points 1 week ago

Ahh I see. Thanks.

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