alastor has adhd. you can pry this headcanon from my cold dead hands. but first, allow me to explain.
this post is inspired by and dedicated to @alastor-insanity !!!
the dsm-5 criteria for diagnosing adhd requires five or more symptoms of inattention and/or hyperactivity in adults. i'm going to list which symptoms i think alastor exhibits along with examples of how he shows them!
"often has trouble holding attention on tasks." in season 1 especially (which i just rewatched), there are so many times where, if you look at alastor in this background of a scene, he's not looking at the focal characters. other background characters will be, but alastor will be staring off into the distance. i think specifically of the scene in season 1 where it's show and tell and angel dust is showing off his porn movie, alastor is so Checked Out the entire time. he is not paying attention to the bonding activities. i'm also rolling this into the symptom "is often easily distracted" !!
"often does not seem to listen when spoken to directly." we don't see alastor exhibit this in the show that much, mainly because he's usually Scheming and not casually chatting with people, however! when alastor and charlie are on their way to visit rosie in cannibal town, alastor doesn't seem to be listening to her talk about vaggi at all. he's staring straight ahead and only tunes back in when she asks him a question. i definitely see him as the type of person to be so in his own little world that he can't even listen to someone talking until they say something that makes him tune back in.
"often avoids, dislikes, or is reluctant to do tasks that require mental effort over a long period of time (such as schoolwork or homework)." the hotel, anyone? alastor was fine with doing it on rosie's orders for the first six months, but after he was injured and his staff was broken, grew extremely restless, and eventually quit. he always seems a little reluctant to involve himself in anything that doesn't immediately interest him, which is why we see so little of him in season 1. he isn't hanging around the hotel crew.
"often loses things necessary for tasks and activities (e.g. school materials, pencils, books, tools, wallets, keys, paperwork, eyeglasses, mobile telephones)." i feel like the only reason we don't see this more is that alastor's primary item necessary for tasks, his microphone, is attached to him magically. he can just summon that. he'd definitely be losing it 24/7 otherwise.
"is often forgetful in daily activities." we see alastor's forgetfulness with sir pentious! alastor doesn't really remember sir pentious because their battles didn't mean much to him, it doesn't impact his daily life. alastor is the type of person to be doing several things at once and not giving any of them his full attention, so things sometimes slip through the cracks if they're not attention-grabbing enough to be kept into his memory.
"often fidgets with or taps hands or feet, or squirms in seat." alastor is frequently moving, and when he isn't, he's standing so primly that i can't help but feel he's forcing it. we see how moving and flowy he is, i mean in the pilot that boy moved like liquid!! he shows so many fidgeting or stimming tendencies, him in that spinny chair was legendary, but we also see how he masks it. alastor tends to talk with his hands too, i think of the flashback scene where he see him on his radio show, talking and waving his hands.
"often runs about or climbs in situations where it is not appropriate (adolescents or adults may be limited to feeling restless)." since the dsm-5 qualifications focus on children, i'm focusing on the part in the parenthesis, which is feeling restless. i definitely get the vibe when alastor is sitting still, or unable to move much, he's certainly restless--either zoning out, or humming to himself, or moving it more subtle ways. he masks well enough that it's not immediately identifiable.
"often unable to play or take part in leisure activities quietly." we often hear alastor humming to himself. he strikes me as the type of person who needs background noise, whether that be making the noise himself or listening to music. he isn't very quite when he does things, and announces himself by being loud and bit boisterous. the only times he's actually quiet is when he's zoned out.
"is often 'on the go' acting as if 'driven by a motor.'" i see alastor as constantly running through life, he seems to move from idea to idea very quickly. when he was coming up with a plan to break his deal with rosie, we see him come up with his clever idea almost instantaneously and then immediately go off to enact it. he doesn't give himself much space to breathe between activities, and moves at his own pace, about ten times faster than everyone else's.
"often talks excessively." alastor can be quite talkative. he says what he needs to say in far more words than necessary. i would say he doesn't talk entirely "excessively" because he reels himself in, but when he gets going on something he does go off.
"often interrupts or intrudes on others (e.g., butts into conversations or games)." oh yeah. when he was kidnapped, alastor never stopped interrupting vox. he interrupts charlie plenty of times. i think he even interrupts alastor? you can just tell how his brain is moving a mile a minute, and he's ready to say his piece. when he isn't off in his own little world, of course. this ties right into another qualification, which is "often blurts out an answer before a question has been completed." i feel these two go hand in hand.
so....yeah! this is definitely over five symptoms, so i'm diagnosing alastor with my own expert adhd opinion, haha! i'm not a doctor, just a person with adhd cemself!
this was definitely rambly, but um. i'm not being paid and this isn't being graded so deal with it. :P
i'd recommend looking at @alastor-insanity's post about this, too, linked here.
