Discomfort in your own room

Cooking, finances, shopping and any regular tasks that are challenging

Moderator: Moderator Team

Post Reply
MaroonedinMonkeyland
New member - welcome them!
Posts: 8
Joined: Thu Oct 09, 2014 8:59 pm

Discomfort in your own room

Post by MaroonedinMonkeyland »

I just wanted to enquire to whether anyone else on this forum experiences discomfort in a room they have rented in a tennancy agreement . By discomfort I mean low moods,or feeling disorientated because of the furniture and or fixtures which can lead to being disorganised or feeling in a low mood/ feeling lost. I also realise time management is a poor trait of dyspraxics and is bound to be poorly exercised when one is dealing with living alone.

Me, specifically I am in a Halls of residence for university study and share the flat with 5 other students. As well as being surrounded with an upstairs flat of the same size and many more within the same block etc. (2 stories, interconnected but spread wide)

I must concede that At the moment I seem to use my room for sleep, leisure (laptop or book) and assignments(laptop) which seems very cyclical and in a way I'm isolating myself. I do have plans to join societies and go out into town for leisure, but for the next 3 weeks unfortunately that is simply not on the agenda. I am aware of the phrase "you need to get out more" and to tie me over for now that would consist of starting the day by walking a few times around the block to re-calibrate myself so to speak and to clear my head before teh day ahead.

When I reside in my room however, a number of factors contribute to my discomfort and sometimes a low mood.

Seasonal Affective Disorder

I had a particularly gloomy autumn last year whereby I would return home in the dark , even though it was perhaps shortly into early evening/late afternoon. A number of background noises no matter big or small (even the clicking of the radiator) would significantly affect my concentration , Id feel confined and that the world was closing in on me. Time also felt like it was going very slowly, I would be in an unbreakable trance of low mood.
By chance over the radio I heard about SAD and bought myself a lamp from staples, It must be said that it made a difference. I was also able to concentrate better on assignments// even browsing the internet in a dim light setting in my room rather than lights on or one light on. The blue light that the SAD light emits is not too disimilar from the frequency of daylight and did a good job of lifting my mood.
It must be said I was also experimenting with a number of ear plugs at the time, silicon and foam. But wearing them all of the time makes me feel ill because you almost feel disconnected from the world. So i just put on some Brian Eno as a bit of background ambient music. The same effect can be said for going for a peaceful reflective walk, you may enjoy the birds chirping and distant dog barking and a passing cyclist but you dont enjoy the rumbling of an engine from a nearby road or the noise of a tree being felled.

Away from the noise and back onto SAD! Another way to combat it is to make full use of the daylight by waking up earlyish and going out for a walk before being shut in a building for the rest of the day.

That was me sharing my experience...

Striking a good balance in the space of one room

But now I ask about how people deal with organising a good studying and living space within a room with fixed furniture? Ideally I need to strike a good balance between teh two activities.

My desk is glued into the wall and is not facing towards the window which is my most preferred, I invested in a good swivel chair , again from staples.
I also probably need a form of foot rest or foot stall to keep me going for longer period of time.
I also probably should come away from the computer and "switch off" , although i find this hard because the only other sit down area is my bed. This means a lot of my time is spent glued to the computer procrastinating .

Shelving and Draws


I have waay too many draws and inconviently placed high shelves, this makes me disorganised and perhaps I should label and colour code them?

Ideas


RANT OVER!!
Tom fod
Administrator
Posts: 2947
Joined: Thu May 12, 2011 9:05 pm
Location: SW UK

Re: Discomfort in your own room

Post by Tom fod »

Welcome to our community and hope you find it useful

One could argue you cannot manage time. It keeps marching onwards and things you need to try and fit into the time always seem to end up take longer than they should because of a variety of competing factors. Obviously we have to try and do our best but it can be and is draining.

As to the room set-up I suspect it was more a case of can they fit all these things into a room within a budget and that ergonomic for some people is chaotic for others. Equally they may have been working to an assumption that people would not necessarily spend a great deal of time in their rooms? I'm assuming there is not a lot you can do and that most rooms are pretty much the same. I guess you could ask but there may be no or very flexibility as to what can change but worth asking as you may be able to get improvements to help.

Were you in the same room and block you were in last winter and is it just as much a fear of 'history repeating itself'? Are there any opportunities to change your routine a bit to help? How different is the area you moved to from your home town/village?

I'm not sure what routines are preferable to yourself but getting out for a bit of a walk during daylight and getting some fresh air is always going to be good and actually remembering to take breaks during the course of the day when and as you need them.

Try to have set places for your different things and put the things you need access to most often in or on the more accessible drawers and shelves. Must comment this is not always easy as your needs do fluctuate but try to consciously disciplined about having a place for different types of things and putting them back there once you're done. It need not be expensive solutions. You could use office paper boxes to put stuff in and label with a permanent marker or printed labels stuck on.

I hope this gives you some ideas. Self thought of solutions/strategies are likely to work out best for you.
Tom
Moderator/Administrator

With a foot full of bullets I tried to run faster but I just hobbled on to the next disaster.
(from Peter and the Test Tube Babies, Foot Full of Bullets)
MaroonedinMonkeyland
New member - welcome them!
Posts: 8
Joined: Thu Oct 09, 2014 8:59 pm

Re: Discomfort in your own room

Post by MaroonedinMonkeyland »

I appreciate your advice Tom, thanks.
To Do lists and Breaking them down into Logical Steps
Firstly I agree with your statement that I should always allow extra time for the number of tasks I seek to get done during the day(Quite often I will write up an idylic to-do list on a day off, in fact its just a regurgitation of incoherent , unassociated tasks on paper format after the act of picking my brains) . I will often over complicate the steps to the task or become entangled if something does not go to plan either. One example is planning to visit debenhams in this new city but complicating matters by trying to print a google map and plot the roads i should pass (by foot)etc. This consumes time and I will often dart off on tangents.

Ergonomics and My struggles with Reading /Concentration

Ergonomics is something I have only really considered until recently, perhaps the last 12 months. I have focused on desk ergonomics such as buying a chair with a tilt back and using a foot rest underneath the desk. ERGONOMICS also covers an array of senses. I do find myself very sensitive to light levels and also noise levels. I find standard light bulbs are very inefficient, because they do not allow me to focus on things and prefer high intensity SAD type ones. I also have myers irlen syndrome which means for "READING " purposes allegedly I find it easier to read through transparent green surfaces as opposed to reading text on white backgrounds. I do wonder if I was subscribed with specialist green glass lenses it would improve my observation concentration and focus. On the other hand maybe its not a visual thing , maybe t is just something i should seek to improve by exercises ,maybe there are other means of testing my focus and concentration. I already take efamol omega 3 and have the energy to concentrate, yet there is always something stopping me. I dont know how to explain it.

Over Sensitive to background noise

Another possibility is that because sometimes I experience low moods it might be possible to self diagnose ( self diagnosis can sometimes be stupid) myself with hyperacusis, which means my hearing is extremely sensitive to background noise. Currently I can not even think straight enough to tidy my own room, due to background chatter through the wall or someone in the corridor playing music.

Combating Isolation/ Getting to know my new Environment

Routine wise I am able to pick myself up once I settle and have a few things to look forward to in the week. I do believe I am not very good at adjusting to change generally, I did live in a detached house on a quiet road, we have woodland where Im from. I normally go for a walk in the quiet woodland for an escape there. Whilst here it is just walking towards traffic, street ambience or shouting. I should probably aim to do get hold of a map and do a bit of exploration for myself. That way I can re-asscotiate different locations with different activities and emotions etc. At the moment I come straight back to my room.

Last year I lived in Yorkshire in a university setting, I was on a one year course, unfortunately this did not work out and I am now on another one year access course, this time in the midlands. Again I am a passer by and seek to move for a third time and settle on a 4 year course next year!!

Organising Room Layout
Thank you for the input on the storage techniques! I currently have work trays ,unused calendars and boxes etc. Once I put my mind to it hopefully it wont be too hard. I still struggle to build a spatial blueprint for my new room, maybe this is partly down to lacking ability to concentrate.

So yeah. ..
*Visual concentration and observation are a weakness for me. I find reading in particular better with a green overlay. I could perhaps also try spatial reasoning exercises such as mental rotation exercises, I may discuss this with someone.

*I am also very sensitive to normal lightbulbs, I find it hard to focus on parts of the room. It all sort of glares at me all at once, like every pixel wants attention.

*Lack of ability in blocking out background noises is maybe effected by my low mood or could be from going to concerts/ playing drums and be tinnitus etc . Although I doubt I have tinnitus, this may be hyperacusis.

Even typing this out for myself is helping me to make sense of things. So excuse all of the above text.
Your input has been very helpful :D
DanAu96
Getting settled in
Posts: 40
Joined: Tue Dec 20, 2016 10:05 pm

Re: Discomfort in your own room

Post by DanAu96 »

Hello, I currently living in a house at university, I really dislike university accommodation as a tend to do everything in the same room, eat, sleep, and leisure like you (i do most of my work in the library). I am terribly disorganised my room is permanently a mess (there is barely any storage). i don't know if it's a dyspraxia thing but i much prefer to have different rooms for different purpose (bedroom to sleep, lounge for watching TV and kitchen/dining room for eating). I really find it hard to be happy in my horrible room I tend to go home every other week. it was a mistake to go in to a house for 3rd year.
morgank82
Regular Poster
Posts: 76
Joined: Tue Apr 28, 2015 9:34 pm

Re: Discomfort in your own room

Post by morgank82 »

Try to learn some tai chi , it's a great tool of meditation and energy.
Helps me a lot ;)
Post Reply