There's a lot of stuff that got ruined for me because of people trying to "help" me with my ADHD when I was younger. Like, gum, the color red for school supplies, outlines for papers, timers, stuff like that. I wouldn't call them triggers, but I don't enjoy them much at all when I know it didn't bother me as much before it was forced on me.
My sister's kindergarten teacher (also after school sitter) made me chew gum to help me concentrate. Usually for homework or some learning stuff. It would give me a headache after a while and all I remember from that time is chewing gum, not whatever I was learning.
Red folders and notebooks were proposed to help me remember topics better because my English teacher told my mom there were studies done about red being a color to help memory. Guess what I remember from those classes? If you guessed red, that's correct. And that's all I remember. Tbh, I remember the stuff I wrote in my green stuff more than red or even blue (my favorite color).
Outlines were always pushed for papers. Especially by the same English teacher who suggested the red. While she was a great teacher and supposedly the best in my school to help with ADHD folks, I hated her attempts. They didn't help at all and made me resent stuff more. If I had to do an outline, I'd do it in my head, write the paper, then reverse engineer the outline from it. If it had to be in class, I'd trash the outline when I got home. Doubt my mom realizes that's what I was doing because she still likes how the teacher "helped" me.
Timers were made to make me work on my homework with a set time. 15 minutes one subject, 10 minutes break, repeat until all homework done, swapping subjects each time. I remember just ignoring the timer until it screamed at me (still makes me anxious and I can hear it clearly just typing, probably the most a trigger if any of these are actual triggers), turn it off, reset it, but keep working on the same subject until it was done. Wouldn't even take breaks because I wouldn't enjoy what I took a break doing.
This is all stuff my mom is still convinced helped and would still help me. Yet all of it I still have resentful memories and cringe at. Anyone else have stuff like this?
