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Why Is It So Hard to Do Something That Should Be Easy? (Wall of Awful pt. 1)

How to ADHD

1.9M subscribers • 1 video on Rounds

YouTube
  • Recommended by 6 people, in Hacker News, across 6 different months.
  • Presented by Jessica McCabe, as the video describes them

For anyone, no background needed. Education, not medical advice.

2.1M views7 years ago6 recommendations

Mental healthBrain and nervesADHD

Jessica McCabe explains the Wall of Awful, a psychological barrier of negative emotions that makes starting tasks difficult.

Please share!!! This is one of the most important videos I think we've ever made. Special thanks to Brendan Mahan for coming on the show! You can connect with him and learn more at www.adhdessentials.com And to brains Stephen and Palestrina for doing all the editing and animation! See more awesome cartooniness at youtube.com/justcallmegary -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Facebook: facebook.com/howtoadhd Twitter: twitter.com/howtoadhd Support us on Patreon: patreon.com/howtoadhd WE WROTE A SONG!! Get the “The Fish Song” on... ...iTunes: bit.ly/fishsongitunes ...Google Music: bit.ly/fishsonggp ...Amazon: bit.ly/fishsongamazon LINKS: (links) Why is it so hard to do something that should be easy? "The Show Must Be Go”, “Life of Riley” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Why it's here

6 people recommend this

What people say. Highly recommended by viewers as an insightful explanation of ADHD-related procrastination and emotional barriers.

sosukein Hacker News • Recommends

On “Procrastination is driven by our desire to avoid difficult emotions, says expert”

Looks like I'm late the party but I submitted a YouTube video talking about this as "The Wall of Awful" emotions and experiences you need to get through in order to start a task that has negative emotions associated with it. It totally changed how I approached my procrastination by simply asking myself "why" I was avoiding a task. link to this video
View on Hacker News

sosukein Hacker News • Recommends

On “Procrastination is driven by our desire to avoid difficult emotions, says expert”

I haven't been able to find a "final" solution. Most recently I've been writing things down with pen and paper to keep me on task. To make the ethereal physical and break it down into steps and checklists. Again totally recommend this video on the wall of awful for ADHD procrastination link to this video
View on Hacker News

nullsensein Hacker News • Recommends

On “How hard should I push myself?”

My 2 favorite videos on How To ADHD are: Wall of Awful link to this video The ADHD Tax link Driven To Distraction is available on Audible and I think you get one free book if you create a new account. That's how I read it anyway. This video is hands down the best explainer video Ive found out of all that I have watched link Also this video highlights some really interesting research which shows why we get distracted. Basically the Default Mode Network and Task Positive Network are supposed to anti- correlate and in ADHD brains they don't perfectly do that. link
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hnickin Hacker News • Recommends

On “Me and ADHD”

Maybe the concept of the "wall of awful" will help you understand it more. I struggle with it too though. link to this video
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alexanderjchunin Hacker News • Recommends

On “Ask HN: Tips for handling chronic stess?”

Totally. It's a negative feedback loop. I need an efficient circuit breaker and the only thing I can really think of is Nike's "just do it." Why is it so hard? Feels like I'm hitting a wall. I've watched this video several times link to this video and it helped me understand what part of the problem was, but it's still been hard getting things going. It might be an inspiration problem. I'm not proud of it, but during this lull I bought Animal Crossing on a whim and logged 200 hours in a month. I was able to wake up early, be super productive in that game with no caffeine and little food. I don't understand.
View on Hacker News

zubspacein Hacker News • Recommends

On “Ask HN: What mental models do you use everyday?”

Climb the wall. Written white on black on my desktop background. It's kind of funny, how sometimes random stuff you see on the web sticks to your head. I think it was one of those procrastination links on Hacker News which somehow brought me to this weird video 1 about how to "Climb the wall of awful". I was a hobby climber before and it somehow made sense to me at that time. Another thing I like to say to myself is "Just do it" at moments when I read Hacker News, Reddit, Twitter and come back to Hacker News for another round. 2 1 link to this video 2 link
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coldteain Hacker News • Recommends

On “Procrastinatory Doom Loops”

Here's the same concept, refrased as "Wall of Awful", in a neat video for ADHD people: link to this video
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munk-ain Hacker News • Mentions

On “ADHD, a Lifelong Struggle (2018)”

…eys didn't sound like they should. And everything is a spectrum, everything - nobody is immune to indecision fog, getting sidetracked, feeling helpless in front of a decision that feels bigger than it rationally is, etc... but those moments usually happen rarely, for some people it is a constant fight that actively lowers their quality of life. 1. link to this video…
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nullsensein Hacker News • Mentions

On “'Ugh fields', or why you can’t even bear to think about that task”

>Most people experience this from time to time. If you're unlucky enough to be at the tail end of the distribution where basic tasks make you feel this way every day it's no longer called an 'Ugh Field' instead it's called the "Wall of Awful" link to this video One of the absolute best techniques I've found for breaking it is a trick I learned from DBT called "Improve the moment" where you simply think about what pleasant sensory experience could you introduce right now to make you feel better and then you do that quickly. I find if I put on a song or smell the lemon scented dishwashing liquid or run my hand under warm water it helps me to get moving on a task. It's not fool proof but it's a good tool…
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