The more I deal with my ADHD, the more I realize how a lot of the big issues are related.
Below I’ve listed three difficulties caused by ADHD (1, 2 and 3) and issues that are caused by the difficulties (a to h).
These are quite simplified for the sake of explanation but the information is all correct.
(I’ve also linked my coping tips for the issues making it a kind of an ADHD masterpost, I guess).
1) ADHDers aren’t deficit in attention, but rather have a hard time controlling the subject of our attention. I call the tendency to get distracted ‘distractable energy’.
2) ADHD makes it hard for us to do thing cause the brain doesn’t find it worth it.
3) ADHD makes it hard for us to understand and deal with our emotions and also makes us hypersensitive.
a) Distractability: Issues 1 and 2. Unless things are interesting, they lose our interest and our attention easily drifts away.
b) “Driven by a motor”: Issue 1. Everyone’s brains get random impulses to do things but our minds can’t shift attention away from it so we act on them.
c) Full of energy: Issues 1 and 2. See (b). We don’t actually have more energy, rather its the ‘distractable energy’. Doing things is just just less boring than not doing things.
d) Hyperfixations/ hyperfocus: Issue 1. We can’t shift our attention away from these things.
e) Inattention: Issue 1 and 2. We have hard time keeping our attention on things that our brain doesn’t find interesting.
f) Fidgeting: Issue 1. See (c). Doing something physical uses up the ‘distractable energy’ and allows us to work on what we want to do.
g) RSD: Issue 3. Our tendency to misunderstand emotions and hypersensitivity makes us feel rejected when not and feel it harder.
h) Sleep: Issue 1. Our mind is easily distracted cause of the distractable energy so has hard time switching off.
