#adhd102

so you relate to like every ADHD/ADD mood/feel post on your dash!

but when you look up ADHD/ADD diagnosis guidelines, you see things like:

•  ‘symptoms must have started in early childhood/by the age of 3/7/12’
• ‘symptoms must be disruptive in at least 2 out of 3 life arenas throughout life’
  

which …isn’t the case for you.

if you suffer from ADHD/ADD-esque concentration & follow-through issues as a late teen/adult, but you’re pretty sure that you weren’t having those symptoms early on/growing up: you might be dealing with burnout.

An increasingly-common affliction in the American working class, burnout is related to the brain being overworked &/or frequently or constantly flooded with stress hormones. 

things that can trigger/lead to burnout:

• having a stressful/high-stakes life/job
• working long, tedious hours doing something that does not stimulate or relax the brain (such as rote homework)
• being bombarded by new information (i.e. social media)
• constant anxiety about money/health/basic life necessities
• lacking the means for/neglecting necessary self-care (getting enough sleep & eating properly)
• having to constantly choose between too many options without meaningful ways of narrowing the choices down (i.e. shopping online)
• all of the above w/a minimal or nonexistent support network

in other words: burnout is induced by living the average life of like 90%* of American adults under the age of 40!!!!

(*not a real statistic. I’m just saying a lot of us millennials/gen z ppl are burning out.)

burnout can look a LOT like adult ADHD/ADD because it seriously fucks with executive function. some symptoms ADHD/ADD & burnout have in common:

• struggling to concentrate
• feeling paralyzed when asked to make decisions
• procrastinating on ‘simple’ or ‘nonessential’ tasks
• difficulty prioritizing work/errands/tasks

burnout also takes on depression-like symptoms such as:

• feeling tired, exhausted, &/or irritated all the time
• feeling like nothing matters/everything is ‘the same’
• isolating oneself from others
• changing appetite

the thing about burnout is: even if it looks like ADHD/ADD (or depression) to you, the treatment for burnout is nothing like the treatment for ADHD/ADD (or depression). it mostly involves getting rest & reducing stress (as if most of us have this option, but that’s a post for a different blog!) this is why it’s important to get the correct diagnosis - so the treatment can be the right one.

of course, that being said:

• people with ADHD/ADD can also get burnout. in fact, ADHD/ADD can exacerbate burnout symptoms: it’s already hard enough to make decisions when the brain is healthy, much less when it’s so stressed you can barely think!

tl;dr: 

because capitalism is a cruel mistress, a lot of people are just struggling to executive function b/c we’re burnt out by stressful, non-stop lives with no work-life separation and too many too-same buying options every time we try to buy something as simple as dish soap.

if you’re pretty sure you don’t have ADHD/ADD (or cousin developmental disorders such as ASD) but severely struggle with concentration/executive function, or you feel like you have ADHD but lack the developmental history to back it up: you might have burnout.

and your problems are still valid & still deserve treatment & management!

(part 1 of the answer to an ask i received:

• what does hyperactivity look/feel like? (this post)
• how does it feel to be on effective adhd medication?

the answer to the second question will come soon (I hope).)

disclaimer: I’m NOT an expert - I’m just a layman diagnosed with ADHD who’s read a lot & experienced a lot! also: my experiences are NOT universal! other people may experience/feel hyperactivity differently from me.**

ANYWAY

the symptoms of hyperactivity (& impulsiveness) doctors look for to diagnose ADHD (list based on DSM-V criteria, pulled from here&here) & what, ime, they actually mean/look like:

hyperactivity:

fidgeting/constantly changing position, unable to stay still/seated.for example:

• the Legg Bounce™
• chewing pens
• fussing with necklace
• body-focused repetitive behaviors like pulling hair or picking nose
• getting up to pace often

unable to play ‘quietly’

• I read this as: unable to regulate volume/contain their feelings when happy, so ends up shouting or being loud without noticing
• seriously, I have no idea how loud I’m being. I don’t hear it

constantly ‘on the go’

• once done with one thing, it’s time to do the next thing
• no waiting, no time to relax, no chill
• we’re done eating, right? so we can leave the table and do something else? right now???

talks ‘excessively’ (this is the form of hyperactivity that tends to get afab ppl &/or women diagnosed as hyperactive).

• stories tend to start way earlier than needed & end someplace other than the point
• don’t give other ppl a chance to talk … unless interrupted, which usually doesn’t bother me as long as the addition is interesting

impulsiveness:*

interrupts others in conversation/finishes sentences for them

• I read this as: ‘I’ve anticipated the end of your sentence & want to answer you before my brain bolts in another direction’
• ‘you’re taking too long to get to the point, hURRY UP’

has a hard time waiting their turn/waiting in line

• and by ‘hard time’ I mean ‘being asked to ‘wait a second’ while someone else completes a thing is nigh unbearable’
• seriously there is a 50/50 chance I will need something to do within 10 seconds of being asked to wait
• if there’s something engaging to do in the meantime, it will take my mind off the wait. hence: I bring coloring books everywhere

interrupts/intrudes on others.examples:

• interrupting conversations, even private ones, to ask questions
• ‘borrowing’ stuff without asking b/c it’s there & the hyperactive person finds it more convenient to use than looking for their own stuff
• doing things without being asked to b/c it was interesting at the moment

*In regards to ‘impulsiveness’:
imho: it’s not so much that hyperactive adhd people are ‘impulsive’ as ‘hyperactive adhd ppl have brains that are also hyperactive, which makes them do things that look impulsive to outsiders’.

hyperactive ppl physically fidget and constantly move & jump from activity to activity because their brain’s neurons are doing the same thing, but with thoughts: fussing/chewing on things at random, constantly roaming from place to place, and always thinking about SOMETHING - unable to rest or be still.

for example:

• interrupting ppl I’m conversing with: if I don’t talk right now, I’m going to lose whatever it was I was going to say - the thought going in and out of my head before it’s my turn to speak.
• waiting is hard: if I’m doing nothing, that’s time for my brain to remind me of the 27 things that are SUPER IMPORTANT that I COULD BE DOING RIGHT NOW. so I get anxious & impatient b/c I’m wasting valuable time just WAITING MY TURN.
• intrudes on others: if I think of a thing & get up to tell the relevant person & they’re busy, I know I’ll forget before they’re free - so I interrupt.
• takes things without asking: if I see a thing that belongs to my roomie that reminds me of something I want/need, I just use my roomie’s thing b/c I’ll forget if I look for my own version of the thing.
• takes over tasks inappropriately: If I do a thing without being asked & it turns out I wasn’t supposed to, I probably forgot I wasn’t supposed to or justified it to myself at lightning speed.

tl;dr my brain moves too fast for life. to compensate, sometimes I do things too fast for other people. then they say I’m impulsive for doing it.

**also: the psychiatrist evaluation I underwent found that I was ADHD-PI (primarily inattentive): that is, my ‘H’ is also (supposedly) relatively low. but now that I better understand what PI people experience - things like ‘brain fog’ - I think I’m more likely ADHD-C (combined).

the-skys-rim:

adhdpie:

adhdpie:

–the Only Mood everyone else knows about: i  wanna do THIS and THIS and THIS and THIS and THIS and–SQUIRREL

–galaxy brain: i was listening to the lecture but the prof said something that reminded me of something else and now i’m not sure how much time i was lost in thought

–the tutorial only comes in video format: i’m sorry, but you’ve thrown off the emperor’s groove *hurls product & its tutorial video into the sun*

–damn you hyperfocus: i went to bed intending to wake up and write but this morning i was possessed by a cleanliness spirit and spent the next 14 hours organizing the apartment

–i dont think u tried at all.jpg: did i seriously spend an entire free day refreshing twitter b/c i didn’t want to spend 10 minutes finishing my hw but wouldn’t let myself do anything else until i finished it???? (yes)

–patrick star: *unlocks phone* time to check the weather. *opens twitter* the weather. *opens messenger* the weather. *opens mobage game* theweather.*opens facebook* the weather. *opens twitter again* THE WEA–

–smells like depression: literally everything is too boring. i’m going back to sleep

#this is the post that made someone message me saying i was stereotyping adhders#when i have adhd and identity with all of this

cowards can come @ me, the OP, if they got a problem with this post b/c all of these are literally about me

I feel this but I’m not adhd maybe some of these cross over with autism

they do cross over with autism, yes! adhd and autism share many similar characteristics and symptoms, such as 

• hypersensitivity to stimuli/becoming overstimulated
• forms of stimming (generally to relieve hyperactivity in adhd ppl)
• failure to comprehend social cues/the emotional state of people around us, and
• periods of utter inward focus rendering us unaware of the world around us. 

also I can’t help noticing the similarity between adhd hyperfixations and autistic special interests, including the need to share about what we learn at G R E A T length! (I love this about us)

AND ALSO! autism and adhd are comorbid which means that people can have both autism and adhd! it’s actually not uncommon to have both!

adhd/autism spectrum solidarity yall 

ace-of-the-cards:

adhdpie:

adhdpie:

–the Only Mood everyone else knows about: i  wanna do THIS and THIS and THIS and THIS and THIS and–SQUIRREL

–galaxy brain: i was listening to the lecture but the prof said something that reminded me of something else and now i’m not sure how much time i was lost in thought

–the tutorial only comes in video format: i’m sorry, but you’ve thrown off the emperor’s groove *hurls product & its tutorial video into the sun*

–damn you hyperfocus: i went to bed intending to wake up and write but this morning i was possessed by a cleanliness spirit and spent the next 14 hours organizing the apartment

–i dont think u tried at all.jpg: did i seriously spend an entire free day refreshing twitter b/c i didn’t want to spend 10 minutes finishing my hw but wouldn’t let myself do anything else until i finished it???? (yes)

–patrick star: *unlocks phone* time to check the weather. *opens twitter* the weather. *opens messenger* the weather. *opens mobage game* theweather.*opens facebook* the weather. *opens twitter again* THE WEA–

–smells like depression: literally everything is too boring. i’m going back to sleep

#this is the post that made someone message me saying i was stereotyping adhders#when i have adhd and identity with all of this

cowards can come @ me, the OP, if they got a problem with this post b/c all of these are literally about me

*more proof i have adhd. i do all of these*

#i’d be more interested to see if there’s anyone who doesn’t identify with literally all of these#isn’t this just the normal human experience (via nomette)

it kind of is! but it also kind of isn’t. 

let me point you to a post I hope everybody who doesn’t have ADHD (but finds this post relateable) will read:

✨ why adhd shitposts can be pretty relatable even if you don’t have adhd ✨

tl;dr version: 

• almost everyone suffers from attention deficiency from time to time. neurotypical people daydream through class, forget why they unlocked their phone, make impulsive purchases, procrastinate on things they don’t want to do, etc.
• these lapses in self-control, attentiveness, & executive function become diagnosable as ADHD when they happen so much & so severely that it disrupts a person’s quality of life.

and PS: these ‘adhd moods’ are not the only moods adhd people have (somebody tagged this post #this is time blindness erasure and I laughed)!

also, these moods can be super relateable to people with other kinds of executive dysfunction!

also to people on the autism spectrum! (Asperger’s and ADHD in particular have very similar symptom profiles!)

neurodivergence & neurodiversity is WILD y’all, our brains go H A R D in some awesome(ly weird???) ways

adhdpie:

(the majority of this post is pulled from an older reblog I did on my main, @vantasticmess.)

it’s ADHD Awareness Month so here’s a post about it. :D

I’ve gotten sooo many ‘#not adhd but man i feel this’ tags on adhd posts i’ve made, and tbh tags of this type drive me nuts (b/c they make me doubt the validity of my diagnosis.)

but if you, a not-adhd person, see a post about adhd experiences and relate to it, please consider the following: 

• maybe you do have adhd?
  
• maybe it’s because most things that adhd people experience are things that most everyone experiences sometimes, only they experience it all the time.

at its heart, adhd is theinability to pick what your attention is locked onto, sometimes combined with a need to move constantly (hyperactivity).  This manifests as:

• lively internal life + rapid thought & intuitive leaps of cognition - good when being creative, bad when trying to make a logical decision
  
• overthinking things
• impulsive behavior
• short attention span + being easily distracted
• unnaturally long attention span + inability to notice outside stimuli
• short term memory dysfunction
• executive dysfunction
• no sense of priority (everything is equally important)
• no sense of time in relation to self (cannot effectively tell how long an activity will take or develop a sense of urgency based on a deadline until the deadline is perilously close or already passed)
• failure to follow through (leaving work incomplete)
• forgetting to remember/remembering tasks at inappropriate times
• intrusive thoughts

And pretty much everyone experiences one or all of these things at times, and these symptoms can spring from other causes than ADHD (for instance, executive dysfunction accompanies depression and anxiety as well).

But adhd people have this happen so constantlyandso intrusively that we cannot complete basic tasks, even if we want to:

• The only thing consistent about us is inconsistent results: sometimes we’re on time, sometimes we’re not. sometimes we’re reliable, sometimes we’re not. sometimes we’re studious, sometimes we’re not … (and trust me we’re not enjoying it any more than you are)
• We fail classes, we drop out of college, we lose jobs, and no matter how much we try, we cannot fix it.
• We can’t just remove distractions - our brains are a distraction.
• We can’t just ‘try harder’ - our wayward mind might be focusing on our studying today, but tomorrow it might not. The same effort level will have wildly different results on different days because our attention cooperated … or didn’t.
  
• it is literally impossible for us to choose our focus. pretty much ever.

it pisses off our friends, it pisses off our bosses, it pisses off our family, and it even pisses off ourselves. it affects every part of our life.

So adhd shitposts can be pretty relateable, even if you don’t have adhd.  But if this list sounds familiar - if the contents of it happen to you to the point that you’re getting in trouble at school or your job and you’re pissing off your friends? might be worth looking into what’s going on with you.

bringing this back b/c at least 1 of every 15 rbs of the 7 ADHD Moods post is tagged ‘#i don’t have adhd but’.