^^^ I was gonna add RSD, glad someone else did! Also (this is long and I know I left a lot out/probably messed up but I don’t have the brain rn to proofread and these are Important):
shit… I had some stuff to add, I promise, I can’t remember
ummm ugh I really did though
ADHD is an executive function deficit disorder (EFDD)
A lot of the below points are related/connected to executive dysfunction, bc it’s such a huge part of our brain structure, even with the help of meds. Strap in for some psychology fun, folks!
Our Limbic System: it’s like a Boggart - terrifying, in constant flux, and absolutely ridikkulus.
Amygdala chaos. Our amygdalas (part of limbic system in brain that regulates fight/flight/freeze) operate at extremes. This ties in with RSD a lot cause it can cause us to “overreact” with anger, despair, intense fear/panic, and/or a sort of paralysis that makes it near impossible to deal with difficult situations
Messed-up reward centers. We don’t “procrastinate” so much as we just don’t have the natural function to self-motivate. Also, impatience.
Hippocampus - in charge of memory & auditory processing
Wernicke’s area - responsible for speech comprehension
Broca’s area - responsible for producing speech
Basal ganglia - habit-learning and forming, schedule, routine
ADHD symptoms aren’t selective. People often say stuff like “if it was important you’d remember” or “you can focus on things you enjoy, so clearly you CAN focus and just choose not to.” Um, no. Symptoms can apply to anything. Even stuff we really care about we can forget or fail to get up the motivation for.
Hypersensitivity - we can get sensory overload easily, or have way too little stimulus, both of which impair almost all functioning
Sleep problems. Our options are insomnia, hypersomnia, or oscillating wildly between the two.
Neurotransmitters hate us! :) Too much, too little, too unregulated, synapse issues, you name it
Norepinephrine - Oh, norepinephrine… please return from the war. This is the Big One. The thing that first comes up when talking about ADHD in the brain. It’s in charge of motivation, stress/excitability/reactionary regulation, attention, memory storage and retrieval, alertness, maintaining focus and task endurance, processing sensory information, priority-setting, intentional behavior, thought-organization, executive functioning involved in reasoning, learning, and problem solving, etc.
Dopamine - our reward centers are messed up. It takes a LOT more for us to get a dopamine boost, and even then it’s much lower and duller than neurotypicals get. Exercise, food, whatever it is - it isn’t nearly as effective for us when it comes to depression/anxiety/mood problems in general. It can help, but not in the same way.
Serotonin - influences mood, social behavior, sleep, and memory.
Basically our frontal lobes are little shits (emphasis on little… they’re small) You know, the part of the brain that does that thing called ~Executive Functioning?~
Goal-oriented tasks - we often can’t just do something simply bc it needs to be done. That’s not enough.
Delayed gratification - doesn’t process unless instant results/rewards/consequences
Our perception of time is WAY off - either something is Now, or it’s Not Now and therefore waaaay in the future or past. If a project is due in a month, it will Always be a month away even the day prior to the due date. If I look at the clock and it’s 12pm, it will Be 12pm until I look at a clock again, even if I know it’s been a while since then
Impulse control - again with not understanding the concept of long-term. We also don’t inherently understand mood regulation or how to handle outbursts
Social behavior - uh, yeah. That can be hard. Sometimes we’re completely unaware of our surroundings and how we’re acting, but then sometimes RSD and social anxiety kick in and we become hyper-aware of every nugget of body language, tone, expression, etc., interpreting everything as negative (I’m making them uncomfortable, they hate me, I’m being weird, I’m stressful to be around, they coughed probably as a sign I should stop doing something. Or start? Oh no.) We blurt stuff out even if it’s totally unrelated or unhelpful, lots of times when we know we shouldn’t but we just? can’t help it??
Decision-making - hahahaha yep. remember fight/flight/freeze? Yeah this is “freeze’s” favorite place to butt in. Either our minds go blank and we cannot think of any options, or it’s exploding with Too Many possibilities to think through properly. This usually results in doing nothing, panicking, or crap what was the last one I was gonna say?? Oh right the impulse control thing again - we just do Something without foresight. Which brings us to
planning - thinking ahead is hard enough. We CAN plan and be good at it, but sticking with it is super difficult. Which is obnoxious bc being on a schedule in some way is known to be helpful for ADHD… oof.
Initiating, following through on, and switching between tasks. A lot of the time we honestly don’t know how to start something, or even how to go about thinking about starting something. I can’t think enough right now to fill this one out but you get it.
Working Memory: The ability to hold things in your mind. HAHAHA unless it’s something lodged in there for months there’s no telling if I can remember a n y t h i n g
Comorbid Disorders - Because of the way our brains are structures and how they function, ADHD has a SUPER high comorbitity rate, meaning there are often more disorders at play. For instance, ADHD nearly always comes with built-in depression and anxiety. Ppl with ADHD have higher likelihoods than the general population to also have: bipolar (type I or II, cyclothymia, dysmithia, rapid-cycling, etc.), OCD, BPD (ADHDers can have BPD as well, but it IS often misdiagnosed because of how similar it is to RSD), dyslexia, eating disorders, etc. Many ADHD symptoms are shared by/overlap with other things inherently, even without separate diagnoses, like being prone to chronic sadness or feelings of worthlessness, inability to regulate emotion, etc.
ADHD IS A REAL DISORDER THAT GOES WAY BEYOND WHAT YOU THINK
I know we ADHD peeps have trouble reading lots of text at once, so
TL;DR: AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!??!?!!!??!!!
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