Would you find this difficult?

[AbsentmindedWoman]

I just want a reality check here. I have ADHD. Cannot try medication yet until cleared by cardiologist so I'm just trying my best to muddle along.

Anyway - I'm totally overwhelmed at the moment by the following sequence of complications:

• My phone broke last week
• Logged into online Apple support, pleased I remembered Apple ID (hardly use it)
• Despite signing in, I can't schedule appointment to leave it at genius bar because it wants 2 point verification which means it sent a code to my (dead) phone
• Got email this morning inviting me to make appointment for Covid vaccine
• Have to use online portal, need an activation code to sign up
• Call doctor's office to enquire how to get code
• They're not answering calls, it says to leave messge and they will call back
• I'm calling on landline and realise I don't know landline number (I moved in last year, we hardly use it)
• Have to wait until my wife is off her conference call to get the number

I just feel incredibly stressed, it's like all the individual small steps totally scramble my brain, and then beat myself up for feeling useless bc of how anxious I am. That's not normal is it? Would you find it all generally annoying but fine, not a big deal?

I'm generally quite stressed at the moment due to my mother's cancer and my own health problems but this feels like my bandwidth is ridiculously tiny.

It's not you, things like this are a total pain for almost everybody. Hope you're ok.

That sequence of events would be frustrating for anyone OP, even more so if they were coping with the other, larger issues that you’re currently going through. Sometimes the smallest things make me feel overwhelmed, usually when I’m very tired. Keep going x

Yeah most people would find that really frustrating and stressful

I would find all that really difficult to deal with too. I don’t have an ADHD diagnoses but I’m getting to the point where I may seek help. The multiple steps it takes to do anything get very confusing and any external noise makes everything 100 times worse.
Writing step by step lists helps so if something, like your vaccination appointment, isn’t sorted out straight away you can refer to the list and see which step you got to and what needs doing next.
It’s exhausting.
Please don’t be hard on yourself. You have a lot of things going on which will make it so much harder. Just keep writing ‘to do’ lists - they help keep some order and prevent the overwhelm.

The genius bars are all closed?

To be fair, that's a pretty damn annoying sequence of events!

Ok thank you all, I feel less inept knowing other people would be frustrated by this too.

I now have my landline number, so that's a step in the right direction!

@Dogsarehairy

The genius bars are all closed?

I'm in New York. They're not closed here, you can book an appointment. However walk ins aren't happening.

No that would all seem overwhelming to me too

What is wrong with your phone? Can you go to a supermarket and get a cheap unlocked pay as you go phone and put your SIM card in it?

Writing step by step lists helps so if something, like your vaccination appointment, isn’t sorted out straight away you can refer to the list and see which step you got to and what needs doing next.

This is incredibly helpful and I'm going to use this approach today. Thank you @PinkTinsel99

This thread is actually making me realise that my ADHD stuff is worst when it comes to tasks that need to be broken down into a thousand tiny steps.

I don't have ADHD but I have had a similarly frustrating day with lots of stupid little things going wrong (not having the right ID to pick up a parcel so journey was wasted, doing an online password recovery and it not working so having to call the customer helpline, etc).

I feel like throwing all my toys out of the pram and having a proper childish tantrum. Modern life can be maddening sometimes.