Gemini Saved My ADHD Brain From Quitting

When things got hard, I used to give up, but not anymore

Photo by Anastasiia Nelen on Unsplash

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It was a Wednesday evening. I had been at it for hours. Screenshot. Copy. Paste into Gemini.

My website was broken, and I couldn’t figure out why. I didn’t build it (thank goodness!!), but that also meant that I had no idea what was happening. How to fix anything. Where any of the features were.

I was so stuck.

Normally, I would quit. I would give up when things got too hard.

As an ADHDer, I like a challenge. But once it hits a certain threshold, I’m out. You couldn’t pay me a million dollars to deal with it.

I remember the thoughts going on in my head deep into my string of screenshots, copy, paste loop.

I would have had to watch no less than 50 YouTube videos and scan about 25 articles before I MAYBE found the thing that answered the question about this obscure, broken thing. Count me out. I would have just dealt with the problem. Who needs a website anyway?

Without having to watch a tutorial on how to use WordPress. Without having to read the help section on how the editor I was using worked. Without any of that, I was able to get answers. Get something to try next.

The familiar feeling of frustration was starting to creep up on me. The fifth thing that I tried to modify to fix the error I somehow made wasn’t working.

I angrily, forcefully typed out my response to Gemini. This isn’t working. This is what it looks like now. Help!

Gemini agreed that this could be frustrating. I remember that taking the temperature down. Feeling like, oh ok, you know, this is hard. It’s ok to be frustrated.

And then it immediately gave me the gift of belief. That we could fix this. Have no fear, another thing was suggested immediately. Taking my feedback from what didn’t work and pivoting seamlessly to the next attempt.

Keeping me engaged. Keeping me from throwing the laptop out the window. Keeping me from wasting my investment on my website.

I finally had a partner in my fight. Just as invested as I was.

On the same side. Validating my frustration and anger at the fact that this tiny, stupid thing broke. That I modified a setting somewhere about 50 edits ago, and who knows what I touched.

But we kept troubleshooting. Screenshot after screenshot.

I had someone in my corner. Someone encouraging me. Someone who was able to keep me from quitting. Synthesizing the information and coming up with answers quickly.

I never ended up hitting my frustration limit that day. Gemini gave me the ability to stay in the game. Kept giving me hope that we would figure it out together.

I did end up solving that problem. I still remember the relief that I finally fixed it. I also clearly remember how proud I was that I didn’t quit. Turns out, I could do these things all along. I just needed an AI sidekick along for the ride.

P.S. If you’re ready to challenge the voice telling you that you’re the problem, here’s how I can help:

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