The Xenforo "Discourage" Feature

It's unfamiliar cognitive load, that'll wear you out really fast. And like. Maybe it's a serious problem, but until you can get to see a neurologist, not much you can do but say "okay this is what things are like" and work within that.

And get that nap, since that'll probably help.

 

i love picross so much

I have a 3D picross on the DS (not 3DS) that I used to do a bunch, and I've gotten whatever the star-rating time is on all but one of the puzzles, but that one is just really hard for me to be fast on for some reason.

 

Picross is my favorite thing. 5x5 is too easy across the board, 10x10 is easy for me, but not so much that's it's boring doing them. Difficulty varies not just with puzzle size but also like... Whether the end picture is more or less colored in.
If you're frustrated or stuck, just move to a different puzzle.
Also I find picross more rewarding than sudoku to the point that I don't really play sudoku anymore.

I have a couple of recs for android phones if you need them.
I've also got other types of games that might be less cognitively straining depending on the person. Puzzles involving only colors, for example

 

I have that one!!! The 3D one was a nice challenge because I felt like I had to think about it differently than the 2D version, but I can't really explain why/how it's different xD

 

That's fine. It's not actually without-thinking, it's a kind of relatively easy thinking that is sorta soothing after a while. That's what it's for. You may want to go to larger sizes, after a bit.

 

Yeah, I'd say just go up to a 10x10. It's okay if it doesn't take too much brainpower. I call these games "mindless" games. They're something that I can do that don't take too much brainpower when I'm overwhelmed, but it takes just enough to make sure that anxiety spirals can't form. Best paired with music or tv, imo. It's how I come down from panic and anxiety attacks.

What counts as "mindless" is going to vary from person to person - for example word games that involve spelling would not work for me because they would be too frustrating to helpful. :P My dad might like some arcade type games, but he'd probably avoid the fiddly puzzles ones, etc.

My current favorite is Ballz which is breakaway where the boxes have numbers and you have to hit them that many times to clear it. But, you can acquire multiple balls per shot and the numbers end up at like 50 to 25 within the first ~10 or so shots. I've gotten up to like 100+ balls and it is BEAUTIFUL C H A O S. The colors on the boxes change as they go down, and you can change the color of your ball, and it's v pretty and soothing to look at for me =3