Cure for Hall's disease?

[hallsofvallhalla]

I give a look into some personal things only because of my love and kinship with this community.

For those who do not know what hall's disease is(there use to be a wiki entry on it), it is starting a project then moving on to something else before the first project was ever finished. During the MMORPGMaker days I was horrible about this, worse than even now. Must have had 20 projects in a month. They tagged it Hall's Disease. Yes I now have a disease named after me .

Well 3 weeks ago I went to the doctor on some issues and he scheduled me for a session with a therapist. Now my Mother is a legal drug addict. She has been taking pills since the 70's. It has destroyed her body and caused it to be reliant on them. It has been rough. So I swore off pills forever. However my concentration issues have gotten worse with age. So to make a long story short the therapist diagnosed me with ADD. I was like what? I am not some hyperactive kid, but she explained to me that I have had it my whole life and if I really want to fix this I should at least try it for a week. As much here lately as I have let the community down with lack of videos and support I was like what the hell.

I must saying after 2 days the treatment is working so far. I am getting things done. Concentrated. I go home and instead of working on 10 things at once or collapse on the couch fatigued I am actually working on videos again, working on old projects. Guess we will see in the next week if I am finally cured

[vitinho444]

Yeah i kinda have that

But i try to focus whenever im thinking starting new projects, i just breath and say "DUDE FINISH YOUR CURRENT WORK YOU FUCKING STUPID IDIOT, OR I WILL PUNCH YOU" ...

Good luck for your treatment

[MikuzA]

Quite interesting.
I'm actually really surprised how similiar this sounds..
Most annyoing thing about planning something, visualising it in your brain of how awesome that would be.
Then you just never get it that far to actually be even close to what the awesome visualization was! And a new plan begins..

It's like me and my brain conversation>

<BRAIN> "Put this there and whoa, this here.. YEAH.. use this unique feature! Yeah.. That will make it"
<ME> "Yes, Yes!! I'll start that right away.. whoa, this might take awhile but it's worth it.. cool.."
<BRAIN> "FORGET ABOUT THAT, I HAVE AN NEW IDEA!"
<ME> "Oh.. ok.. Tell me about it?"
<Repeat>

But, when this happens and you actually manage to FINISH something.. the feeling you get is the best high ever!

[Hamilton]

Eh, I think we all have some form of that, especially in a gaming environment; given when new technology, graphics or methods or such comes along. But yes, as mentioned above, just got to try to stay focus with one project and see it through before starting another. Or have a couple of projects in parallel, but no more.

For the medication, it is helpful, but if possible (and no need to tell me or say this in public), I would say to try to ween off the medication over time. Hopefully at a certain time, the brain has learned this approach and of producing its own form of chemicals rather than from an external source. The brain and body are marvelous systems, capable of relearning things. A bit of past experience.

With that said and just seeing this, I'll hold off on an announcement I was just going to make...

[hallsofvallhalla]

oh i agree 100%. i am very anti-meds.

No need to hold off on any announcement.

[hallsofvallhalla]

and yes everyone has some form of this. The difference is the ability to make yourself stay focused and to be able to tell yourself to stick with something. With me it is like telling me to jump over a house standing flat footed.

[Hamilton]

Oh ok... but I hope this doesn't become another distraction. Though this has been getting delayed, just like most game projects do, however finally just getting there.

For me, I like to go by a quote from one of the producers from the SG1 TV series, something to the effect of, "we have all of these ideas, but feels like we are running with boots made of concrete." Have those ideas and want to get them out quickly, but the freaking process is so slow.

[Jackolantern]

I don't think it is all ADD, that is for sure. I know why we all have problems finishing projects, and not just us here, but "us" as in all developers. And it brings in parts of what has already been mentioned here:

1. You have a great idea, and feel very excited and energized based on how cool it is going to be, or how hyped you are about the idea.
2. You rush in to do the beginning of the work, and start shooting through it.
3. You begin to hit the tedious, hard work. Things start to get a bit boring. The initial rush of the idea is fading.
4. Your brain begins to trick you into stopping because it wants more stimulation.
5. A new idea hits you, and your brain gives you massive rewards (serotonin and dopamine) for changing course and following up on that instead, because it is more stimulating.

You see, your brain resists being bored. Why do you think TV became such an overnight sensation? "Fun" is essentially nothing more than your brain being stimulated.

It is the people who can power through that who finish projects. And really, it isn't just devs. Indie film makers, knitters, and just about any other hobbyists who take a lot of dedication to create 1 product also suffer from it.

[vitinho444]

I don't think it is all ADD, that is for sure. I know why we all have problems finishing projects, and not just us here, but "us" as in all developers. And it brings in parts of what has already been mentioned here:

1. You have a great idea, and feel very excited and energized based on how cool it is going to be, or how hyped you are about the idea.
2. You rush in to do the beginning of the work, and start shooting through it.
3. You begin to hit the tedious, hard work. Things start to get a bit boring. The initial rush of the idea is fading.
4. Your brain begins to trick you into stopping because it wants more stimulation.
5. A new idea hits you, and your brain gives you massive rewards (serotonin and dopamine) for changing course and following up on that instead, because it is more stimulating.

You see, your brain resists being bored. Why do you think TV became such an overnight sensation? "Fun" is essentially nothing more than your brain being stimulated.

It is the people who can power through that who finish projects. And really, it isn't just devs. Indie film makers, knitters, and just about any other hobbyists who take a lot of dedication to create 1 product also suffer from it.

So true.. scumbag brain -.-
In the beginning of the summer i had the idea to finish off my 3D FPS Stealth Game and the summer is almost over and i have a pretty decent base but not a full game.. and since early July my will-power is at 10% if that high..

[OldRod]

Glad things are looking up - I've been a sufferer of Halls' Disease for a long time myself

We should start a support group. HDA (Halls' Disease Anonymous)