October is ADHD awareness month! 🎉
The memory issues ADHD causes are some of the scarier and more frustrating parts of living with it - so here’s a set of reaction doodles that all my fellow ADHD peeps are welcome to use whenever anybody decides to comment on your forgetfulness ^
ADHD nukes your working memory.
If it isn’t part of a hyperfixation its hard to store the details. 😅💕
It gets especially bad for routine things, because you can’t tell if your memory of doing the thing was from today or yesterday or last week, and that can lead to some dangerous situations such as, say, skipping/overdosing on medication. I have to write down the date when I take my meds in the morning because the first time my memory messed up my medication I was terrified, I had to go with risking skipping because risking overdosing can get real bad real fast
OMG the medication thing I do that all the time.
I actually risk overdosing because I can’t drive behind the wheel without my medication.
My zone outs are more akin to black outs.
Like I’ll completely zone out and not only not remember what I did but there will be a complete time skip between when I first zoned out and when I came back to reality.
And sometimes I’ll do weird shit on auto pilot during these.
Like I once stuck a bag of lettuce in my bed, had no memory of it.
Went to sleep and my foot touched something wet and I flipped the fuck out till I realized it was lettuce.
I dont experience that when I take my ADHD meds.
The memory thing really messes with you.
HOLY SHIT THAT’S WHAT IT’S CALLED MY WORKING MEMORY IS SHIT I JUST THOUGHT I WAS STUPID IM CRYING 😭😭
Okay this is my second attempt writeing this because I accidentally reblogged it to the ectoberhaunt blog and had to delete it.
But no you are not stupid.
Your brain is wired diffrent.
ADHD is a disorder of the frontal lobe.
It affects all of these listed areas.
It’s not just “not being able to focus or being too hyper”.
It’s also a dopamine deficiency.
You can’t make tonic dopmine.
In laymen’s terms.
You can only get dopmine in short spurts by doing certain things.
This is why so many people ADHD struggle with Addictive personalities and turn to drugs or alcohol to self-medicate.
Which is bad.
This is what dopmine does.
Source.
And being fucking understimated is horrid.
You ever feel so board and so empty and helpless that you’d rather die?
That’s a classic symptom.
That’s why people with ADHD are 5 times more likely to kill themselves.
Source.
THIS is why ADHD awareness month is important.
It broke my heart that so many people with ADHD reblogged my posts not even realizing we have a month.
You deserve to understand you have a disorder that drastically impacts your life.
You deserve access to medication, and good doctors, and good resources, and managment skills.
You deserve to understand that you have probably been horribly abused or gas lit by the people in your life that dont understand your struggle because they never stopped to try too.
You deserve to understand that you are not stupid.
You were never stupid.
lest we forget the mysterious concept of Delayed Gratification and how that’s Not A Thing for ADHD
Delayed Gratification is not stimulating now therefor we will be hard pressed to work toward it. Exercise for healthier bodies? too long, don’t care. Work now, paid when you’re done? too long, don’t care. Work first, play later? No, play now, work & regret later. Do x for y minutes and then you do z as a reward? Too long, don’t care, also I can just do z now? who’s gonna stop me, me?
Honestly it was a revelation when I found out that ADHD brains just DON’T GIVE THE SAME REWARDS for doing things. Like you mean I’m not just lazy and being like this to make people’s lives harder? My brain actually works differently? It’s depressing to know that I will basically always have a brain that is jonesing for a dopamine fix, but it’s also incredibly validating.
I wish we could call it by a name that’s more accurate to what it’s like to have the disorder, rather than being named after two of the things that annoy our parents and teachers about it, but maybe someday.
