Have you seen that tweet that's "Sir, that's my emotional support knitting"? I mean, that's pretty much the tweet, actually but oh my god ahahaha I was like I FEEL THIS ON A SPIRITUAL LEVEL when I saw it.

One of the things about having a physical object to fiddle with is -- and this is why knitting is the only way I can cope with some things AT ALL -- it's a socially acceptable reason to avoid or break eye contact. Western culture and US culture in particular are fucked up in demanding such constant eye contact in social settings, because that shit is exhausting and wearing for a LOT of people, and it takes an even higher proportion of brain cycles to deal with for a lot of neuroatypical people (autism, ADHD, among others). But knitting? Or having a cigarette or cigar or pipe or whatever to fiddle with? Means you can take a break from it, without taking the social hit of having rudely refused to make or maintain eye contact, because there's a REASON you did. See, it's the physical object right there! That's totally the reason why! And people will, subconsciously, accept that reason.

The other thing I want to say is, okay, so last I'd heard mostly the research shows that humans are generally actually shitty at consciously focusing on two things simultaneously -- and that people who multi-task at all effectively are actually task-switching very quickly between the things that they're doing. Like, very very quickly sometimes, but that it seemed to be task-switching at speed when it comes to conscious attention. I'm fucked to go find the cites on that, because it's been awhile and who the hell knows where it is now, but honestly it doesn't matter because okay even IF we take that as granted.... the conclusions people reach FROM that, basically never bother to take into account neuroatypicalities and how managing those can mean that it really doesn't matter if we're shitty at multi-tasking because the alternative of single-tasking is, for various reasons, actually even less productive than the shitty multi-tasking. Like. The thing about ADHD people is: we ain't managing to focus constantly on ANYTHING, barring a fit of hyperfocus, so what we often have to DO is find a stable of things we can flit between to ALLOW for the constantly wandering attention. Trying to single-task means nothing actually gets done, multi-tasking gets things done more slowly than effective sequential single-tasking would, but effective single-tasking isn't on the damn table as an option.

So, like here's a WEIRD thing about me and my memory: I can't take notes and retain shit from audio input. This is the combination of my audio processing bullshit (my hearing is fine, I have trouble sometimes turning the noises people make into meaning and there's a noticeable delay, which is fun and hilarious when I've asked someone to repeat something and halfway through them repeating it my brain finishes the turnaround and lets me know what the fuck they said and I interrupt them with the answer). Anyway, so, the thing is the process of taking notes obliterates any chance of that audio getting processed from short-term memory into long-term memory. But sitting quietly doesn't help me retain shit that much, because my memory is fucking terrible (fun fact, that's an ADHD symptom, I was in a 400 level neurobio class before I ever learned that short-term memory and attention are, we think, basically the same fucking thing, and I was like, well that explains literally fucking everything about my ADHD and the fact that the severity of my memory symptoms are a major indicator of how well the medication is or isn't handling it). ANYWAY, my point is: in order to retain anything from audio input, I need to be doing something with my hands, but NOT taking notes because that engages too much of the rest of my brain that is needed for committing shit to memory. Even ADHD medication did not change this. I doodled a lot for years before I found knitting. And I knit my way through my entire undergrad degree. The only exception to this is things like ochem and math, where the notes I am taking are the process of working through a problem along with the instructor, but that's fundamentally different than taking notes from words? That's noting down the problem and working through it.

...I'm not sure if I have a point anymore, so, uh. Have a comment! :D