Hello, I'm new here and not sure if this is where I ought to be posting this or not, but hey, I have ADD so this is where I'm posting it. HA!

Um, I was recently diagnosed with ADD, which I was pretty sure I had, but I had to find out, and sure enough.

Anyway, I'm in grad school now getting an MFA in visual arts and my problem is the thesis component of my degree - it's 50 pages minimum.

I'm having a hell of a time focusing and the stress of not being able to focus is making it worse. I have no prob hyper-focusing on my studio work (because I'm into it), but the excessive reading and then the writing that's supposed to come out of it, well, I'm afraid I can't do it.

I'm seeing a psychologist on campus, but the faculty at my dept. just doesn't get it (or me). I'm feeling more and more isolated all the time as I'm going to school 4,000 miles away from where I used to call home.

There's alot more to my story, but to avoid making this too long, I'll close by saying --- does anyone have any advice?

Originally posted by fauxpas:
I'm afraid I can't do it.

You can do it! http://www.healthboards.com/ubb/smile.gif

I wish I had some good advice for you! I'm an artist, too, but never went as far as you have in college, so I don't have any experience with writing a thesis! I hear it is very stressful...ADD or not!

You can do it, though...I know you can. You didn't get this far without some major skills!

Best wishes...don't give up!

Break your thesis into parts. Make each part an achievable goal. Reward yourself after completing each goal. Finish one part before going on to the next. Go to an equestrian shop and buy some blinders. (I bet you didn't know horses had add, why do you think Mr Ed was so impulsive.) Seriously work in a distraction free environment. Good Luck

Here's what works for me, and boy do I have ADD:

1) Don't try to begin writting cold turkey. Over a period of several days read half a dozen similar works by your fellow students. It's weird, but my mind has several modes. For instance I can not write if my mind is in math/science mode. Immersing myself in similar work for a number of days changes my modes.

2) A previous post wrote about dividing the work into managable pieces. For me this amounts to a list of section headings or even an outline. This is very powerful.

3) I find it very helpful to prepare finished copies of all the tables, charts, figures, ... befor beginning writing. Then I write just enough to clearly link all the section headings and tables... At this point adding more stuff to fill out the work is actually irresistible. Now you'll have to disciplin yourself not to write too much. : )

Works for me.

Carl

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I'm not sure this is the most healthy thing, but this is how I got through college, law school and passed the bar exam 10 years ago.

Start in tiny little bits to mass all the materials you will need. When writing something that required research I would do "strikes" on the library. Go in with one topic or point in mind, get what I needed as fast as possible and get out. Then take it home and add it to the pile (you will get a lot of late fees using this method, but hey beats dropping out). Once you think you've got enough to take a crack at it, remove all other stimulation from your work room. no radio, tv, noisy clocks, etc. Drink three pots of coffee (before I was diagnosed and on meds I could drink 3-4 pots of coffee a day, I was very clearly self medicating). Stay in the room until you have a framework built. Not an outline, but a framework. Hang some meat on your thesis, line up specific research points with outline topics and shape the flow of your arguement to toward your resolution.

Then attack the individual points in the framework and flesh them out ech fully. Do this for as long as you possibly can until you can't possibly take another second of it. Hopefully you've made a chunk of headway. Now leave your work area behind and go play. Whatever it is you do to reward yourself. Schedule another day like this and another until you have all the points completed and then schedule a final day to stitch it all together.

I always found the key was isolation and huge amounts of coffee (and cigarettes unfortunately), a do or die deadline looming always helped as well.

It's stressful but manageable when you know that you have the escape hatch of leaving the room, but MAKE yourself stay as long as possible and ACCEPT that you will keep doing this until it's done.

Worked for me, your milage may vary.