Ups and downs in energy, brain capacity and creativity

[AuroraBorealis]

When I have a more long-term project that'll go over weeks, months or even years (such as my doctoral thesis), I'm not good at working consistently in predictable amounts. I have phases where I am very uninspired and struggle to focus and do almost nothing, which then are interrupted by high-energy, high-motivation phases in which I can do a lot of work in a few very focused sessions.

However, during those high-energy sessions, I never know whether I should take complete advantage of them, which would include sleeping less, resting less, and experiencing a strong crash after a few days but having accomplished a lot, or whether I should still force myself to take breaks during those phases, which would mean no crash, but less results.

I'm tempted to accept a crash right now because I'm already 2 months behind my current deadline. However, I can't really afford to crash because of work.

Do you also experience these strong ups and downs when working on long-term projects? How do you handle the unpredictability? Do you use your highly productive phases completely, accepting the crash afterwards? Or do you force yourself to pace?

Do ADHDers among you experience this? If you take ADHD medication, has that changed anything about it? I mean those extremes between no focus/motivation at all, and short spurts of almost hypomanic brain capacity.

I'm not really looking for advice on how to handle my current, specific situation. I'm simply interested in how others experience and handle this.

 

[TBRS1]

To me, it seems as if you are describing symptoms that I tend to experience. In my case, it is due to low grade bipolar (requiring careful self management, not medication).

In my case, it gets much, much worse when under stress, and follows predictable seasonal/weather cycles (I can predict my mood using weather forecasts ).

I can self-manage by a) knowing the cycles, b) being very careful at certain times in the cycle, c) leveling out via a meditation practice, d) light therapy, e) always having something to do that I want to do even when "down" (in my case, I finger harp strings).

My daughter is using an ADHD medication (don't know which one) for similar issues. She is very pleased with the results - it is working for her.

P.S. - almost forgot... Yes. Use the ups if they aren't dangerously uppy. Run any iffy decisions through trusted others before committing, though.

 

[AuroraBorealis]

To me, it seems as if you are describing symptoms that I tend to experience. In my case, it is due to low grade bipolar (requiring careful self management, not medication).

In my case, it gets much, much worse when under stress, and follows predictable seasonal/weather cycles (I can predict my mood using weather forecasts ).

I can self-manage by a) knowing the cycles, b) being very careful at certain times in the cycle, c) leveling out via a meditation practice, d) light therapy, e) always having something to do that I want to do even when "down" (in my case, I finger harp strings).

My daughter is using an ADHD medication (don't know which one) for similar issues. She is very pleased with the results - it is working for her.

Interesting. I would rule out bipolar for myself because I don't feel like my mood is affected. Just my ability to focus and my energy level.

Thanks for your input!

 

[FayetheAspie]

I have high energy/low energy cycles as well. They seem to coinside largely with the extroversion/introversion cycles. High energy and higher extroversion typically going together and lower energy and higher introversion typically going together. The high energy phase does seem to affect mood seeing as how there are frequent bouts of euphoric mood during these phases. The low energy phases; however, do  not necessarily involve depression and I can often enjoy doing a lot of research during these phases.

 

[WhitewaterWoman]

I am mostly okay in the mornings, alert, my brain and body work well, I can get things done at a moderate pace.

By the afternoon this is all gone. I am tired, sleepy, cannot do any task that requires actual brain work, only mild physical stuff.

If I don’t rest in the afternoons, I can “crash” into exhaustion and increased pain that could last for weeks. This is mostly due to the chronic illness I live with.

But I have been interested to learn throughout the years of reading forum posts that aspies do seem to have inconsistent levels of performance across skills (of course) and across time.

 

[Outdated]

Do you also experience these strong ups and downs when working on long-term projects?

For me this is with short term projects as well. There's a couple of different factors that come in to play and they seem to affect my overall level of intelligence along with everything else.

Sleep is the most obvious issue. Poor sleep dramatically affects my performance and getting unbroken sleep is incredibly important to me. One of the things that turned me away from alcohol is that it always meant I had to keep waking up during the night to go for a wee. Unbroken sleep was far more important to me than alcohol.

General happiness is the other thing for me. As long as I'm enjoying myself I'm capable of almost anything, but if I become stressed the wheels fall off of that pretty quickly.

Both of those issues also dramatically affect my sensitivities, my tolerance for how much I can cope with in a day.

 

[Nervous Rex]

My mental/thinking capacity depends on one thing only - how much sleep I got. My emotional capacity is a crapshoot.

In the book series, The Stormlight Archive, there is a character blessed/cursed with a mental capacity that changes every day. He can be a genius one day and a drooling idiot the next - or anything in between. His aides have to give him an IQ test every morning to see what they are dealing with and what he's allowed to do.

I feel like I need to give myself that kind of emotional test every day, and then make a checklist of things that I'm not allowed to do. E.g., "Today, I am very irritable. I'm not allowed to respond to emails today, and verbal answers to questions should be as short as possible."

 

[vergil96]

I was more like that when younger. Now I'm ratger steady.

 

[Judge]

For me you're describing my clinical depression. When my energy and attitude ebbs and flows like the tide. Though when I think long term projects, I realize as an adult they were all relatively short term projects, where time would always intercede and save me from being swallowed up by depression.

Had I had such long term projects, they wouldn't bode well for me.

With short term projects, I tended to be able to see their completion on my horizon, and somehow was able to soldier on. When perseverance could pay off.