Mental Health Wednesday June 2026

My son landed a summer internship, which is awesome. I would’ve loved an internship at his age. It’s only for June, Monday through Friday, but it’s a great opportunity.

What does not please me about this situation is my brain.

In part because I feel like I have to wait to work on other things, like, say, writing, until we have completed said internship. Gas is crazy high right now, and it’s a 30 minute commute one way. So I get him there, go to a nearby park and cool my heels with little projects and books and such not for 4 hours, then we go home.

I feel I cannot FOCUS on writing related activities (because we all know editing and spell checking is WAY more fun) while I am at the park.

I know this is a logical fallacy. There are literally 8million things I can start/do prior to having completed his internship. I can slam out rough draft ideas–sloppy, repetitive and full of bad grammar and horrible spelling. I can work on crafting props for cover art photos (yes, I do that. Yes, the evidence does lean towards masochistic tendencies). I can read and research silly things that are tangentially related to writing ideas. I can scope out hiking trails at this particular park for video shoots. I can pre-write blog things. I can work on the other social media bits and pieces that I do not understand, like Instagram or Threads or something like that.

There are PLENTY OF WRITING RELATED THINGS I CAN DO IN 4HOURS, FIVE DAYS A WEEK FOR THE NEXT 3WEEKS.

And yet, my brain says “no.”

“But why?” I ask.

“Reasons.”

Last month, I dealt with the anticipation of the internship and the last day of school by reorganizing my office space, puttering in the yard (emphasis on “puttering”), and generally planning on what I would do for 4 hours a day in June.

This is what I don’t like about my ADHD brain. This “waiting mode” because I know something is planned for the future. It could be ten minutes or ten weeks from now, but if I know it’s on the schedule, it immediately screams “HALT!” To everything writing related.

Which is not logical.  I can totally do a little thing here, and another one there, and just whittle down the MANY TASKS that are indie necessary. I know I can do that. I know how to eat a megalodon (which is somewhat bigger than an elephant)–one little piece at a time.

But getting my brain to work on that one itty-bitty mouthful.of a task is a Herculean task in and of itself.