me looking at the ADHD criteria/experiences: “nah i don’t lose stuff that often or forget stuff that much”
also me when i actually am active and not stuck in my bed all day: *digs through my whole room and the whole house just to find something that was in the most simplest place ever* *has a great sense that i’m forgetting something whenever i go anywhere* *forgets where i put something two minutes ago* *retraces steps ten thousand times a day to remember where multiple somethings are* *doesn’t remember the very simple and clear instructions someone just gave me for the fifth time the minute i walk away to do them*
Impulsive/hyperactive type: This type of ADHD is the least common type of ADHD. It is characterized by impulsive and hyperactive behaviors without inattention and distractibility. For example: being excessively impulsive, interrupting conversations, impulse buying, blurting out answers instead of waiting to be called upon, taking risks without thinking before acting, fidgeting excessively, difficulty engaging in quiet activities, inability to stay on task...
[Image ID: A flag with five horizontal of the same sizes. Their colors are, from top to bottom, orange, pastel orange, white, cyan and light blue. There is a black butterfly symbol in the center of the flag.]
Flag Meaning:
Orange: Hyperactivity.
Pastel orange: Pride in being neurodivergent.
White: Variation of hyperactive symptoms and diversity of ADHD people.
Cyan: Solidarity between inattentive, hyperactive and combined adhd people.
Light blue: Impulsivity.
Butterfly Symbol: ADHD.
Inattentive/Distractible Type ADHD Pride Flag
Inattentive/distractible type: A type of ADHD characterized predominately by inattention and distractibility without hyperactivity. For example: excessive daydreaming, being easily distracted, being forgetful, making careless mistakes, losing or misplacing objects, short attention span, having poor organizational skills, difficulty attending to details...
[Image ID: A flag with five horizontal of the same sizes. Their colors are, from top to bottom, green, pastel green, white, pastel violet and violet. There is a black butterfly symbol in the center of the flag.]
Flag Meaning:
Green: Distractibility.
Pastel green: Pride in being neurodivergent.
White: Variation of inattentive symptoms and diversity of ADHD people.
Pastel violet: Solidarity between inattentive, hyperactive and combined adhd people.
Violet: Inattention.
Butterfly Symbol: ADHD.
Combined Type ADHD Pride Flag
Combined type ADHD: The most common type of ADHD. It is characterized by the combination of impulsive and hyperactive behaviors as well as inattention and distractibility behaviors.
[Image ID: A flag with five horizontal of the same sizes. Their colors are, from top to bottom, orange, pastel orange, white, pastel violet and violet. There is a black butterfly symbol in the center of the flag.]
Flag Meaning:
Orange: Hyperactivity and impulsivity.
Pastel orange: Pride in being neurodivergent.
White: Variation of combined symptoms and diversity of ADHD people.
Pastel violet: Solidarity between inattentive, hyperactive and combined adhd people.
RSD is short for Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria, which is a mental disorder that is exclusively comorbid with ADHD (though there are studies being done to see if it isn’t also a disorder that can be comorbid with autism and Borderline Personality Disorder). Around 80%-90% of folks with ADHD also suffer from RSD.
People with RSD often perceive rejection even when it’s not present. For example, you could be having a conversation with a coworker, and they’ll not laugh as much at your joke as you thought, or they’ll give you a strange look, and if you have RSD, either of these social cues will cause you I N T E N S E distress and overwhelm you with anxiety and the desire to dig a hole outside and die in it right now immediately oh god life isn’t worth living why is this happening how do i deal shit fuck SHIT—
Ab your post “some adhd things that I really really hate”, the “bad touch feeling” got me thinking ab the fact that I can’t stay barefoot (only when I’m in the shower, otherwise I’ll be wearing socks 24/7) I pretty much wear only wear sneakers, bc when my feet is dirty it annoys me so much that I can’t do anything. And “I excelled early as a child and now everything’s crashing down around me” is the story of my life, like I did great in school, when I was ten I even got a perfect score in [1]
[2] everything (I liked studying and couldn’t stop until I knew everything), then in middle school I did good (still one of the best, but my grades were dropping), but high school was a fck mess, I almost failed several times, and that’s when I started to struggle really hard with mental health issues. Do you think it could be related to ADHD? I had never thought ab it like this
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It could, yeah! A lot of people with ADHD have certain sensory things that they decide they Do Not Like. For me, that’s the sound of styrofoam and silverware dragging across plates. For you, it doesn’t have to be an auditory thing, it could very well be a touch thing or a visual thing.
As for the sudden drop in grades, I’d say only partially. High school is when I especially started struggling, both because I couldn’t keep up with the work and because I couldn’t make myself pay attention. I’m continuing under the cut, as this answer is getting rather long…
According to Understood.com, “As work becomes more rigorous and teachers expect students to become more independent, ADHD symptoms may show up in different ways in high school.” Below that, there was a list of symptoms of ADHD.
1- Continuing to show up late; ADHD kids can often have trouble keeping track of time. High school has a strict schedule in place for classes, so this can be a problem.
2- Challenging authority; ADHD kids may be speaking on impulse and forgetting who they’re speaking to. It’s easy to slip up and talk to a teacher the same way you would your friend or sibling.
3- Being “unreliable”; kids with ADHD tend to have trouble becoming organized and following through with a task.
4- “Not listening”; kids with ADHD sometimes have trouble acknowledging that there’s a conversation going on, be it that they don’t notice it or it doesn’t register in their head. I believe that’s an auditory thing.
However, I don’t believe that’s all the symptoms. Allow me to mention some more, as ADHD shows itself in a lot of different ways.
5- Not doing work; Have you ever needed to do a task, and you acknowledge that you need to do it, but you just can’t get it done? Like, for example, for me it feels like weights strapped to my entire body when I have to get up. I understand that I need to get up, and sometimes I want to get up, but I just can’t. The action doesn’t click. That’s executive dysfunction; a classic sign of ADHD.
6- Being loud/disruptive; Yes, yes, I know, Anna, you finally said it. People with ADHD tend to have trouble acknowledging that (x) should be a certain way. Sometimes we may blurt something out in the middle of class or get up to sharpen our pencil a million times or ask to go to the bathroom when we should be paying attention. We’re all little six-year-old monkey gremlins with acne and insecurities inside.
7- Being “sensitive”; ADHD commonly brings itself out in emotional sensitivity. I like to describe it as “I have too many emotions and not enough filters”. For example, whenever someone yells at me, I immediately either want to scream back or start sobbing. I attempted to help a friend once and she just got pissed off at me for bringing other people into her problem, and I felt like the bad guy. It’s really easy to make me cry or make me smile or make me angry, sometimes questionably so.
8- Hyperactivity; Hey, look, I finally pointed it out. A lot of people with ADHD are very hyper. That’s what the H is for. This can show up in foot/finger tapping nonstop like me, or rocking back and forth, or tapping a pencil on your desk, or fidgeting with something, or getting out of your chair a million times for no reason. I believe it’s technically called “stimming” (I’m like 99% sure I can use that word), especially when it comes to tapping or rocking or fidgeting. I stim by tapping my feet and fingers and by singing/listening to music; singing is a vocal stim and music is an auditory stim for me. If you seem to be way more active than other people around you, you might have ADHD.
There are a lot more to add, but those are the basic symptoms. Remember, ADHD affects everything differently, so you don’t have to check all those little boxes on the list. Some people with ADHD are more inattentive (ADHD-i) while some are more hyperactive (ADHD-h) and some of us are a chaotic mess of both, like me (ADHD-c). It’s just important to know you have a community to support you and if you do have ADHD, it doesn’t define you; it makes up a part of who you are, but you are still you.
Hyperfocus is such a strange concept to me, because like I didn't know I did it, I thought that was something I didn't get with my adhd, not often anyway, but then I explained what it was to my mum and she said that I do it literally all the time
I genuinely can't remember, outside of when I play videogames too long, a time I've hyperfocused on something, but apparently I've done it for thousands of things over the years, ever since I was a little baby
Maybe my sense of time is so screwy that I just never know how much time I've put into something
Apparently when I was younger I was a really good baby because if my mum gave me something to play with if it was the right sort of thing I would sit and play with it for all day without complaint, like to the point that she didn't know whether I needed a nappy change or feeding because I would just play with whatever it was
Idk is it like this for anyone else? I seriously don't notice whenever this supposedly happens but according to various family members I do it a lot?
