focus transitioning time is especially real when you’ve adhd. not just for kids but also adults. we need to know beforehand when we have to abandon what we’re doing in the moment to do something else. if you don’t give us enough notice, our brains oftentimes won’t be able to adjust to the sudden change of focus which usually causes us to get unnecessarily frustrated and unable to function as well as we otherwise could
Also, saying things like ‘later’ or ‘soon’. My brother has ADHD doesn’t understand when you say ‘later’ or ‘soon’. My parents will tell him something like ‘get off the PlayStation soon.’ and when they tell him to get off randomly later, he’ll be frustrated and angry. But if you tell him ‘get off in ten minutes’ or ‘you’re off at 5’, he will happily get off and do something else.
So it’s not just giving notice, it’s also giving a set time in which they have to do something
yes, this! important!
Food activates the dopamine reward center in all brains. However, especially for the more impulsive ADHD brain, it leads to a torturous daily self-regulation challenge. The low levels of dopamine interfere with focused self-regulation, increasing the likelihood that ADHD brains will be inattentive to the factors that modulate eating behaviors. In addition, ADHD brains exhibit decreased glucose metabolism compared to non-ADHD brains, resulting in less energy available to the attention center in the prefrontal cortex. As a result, ADHD brains send out distress messages demanding more glucose, and the owners of those brains suddenly crave sugary foods and carbohydrates, which can be quickly converted into glucose. Glucose increases dopamine and serotonin, so brains experience pleasure and greater calm. Many people with ADHD chide themselves for indulging in pasta and cookies, when their brains are actually demanding those foods instead of salad. Chocolate is appealing to ADHD brains because it increases glucose and has the added stimulation of caffeine.
It is no wonder that those with ADHD struggle with diet and nutrition. When they self-medicate with food, their brains enjoy a surge of dopamine, an increase in glucose-based energy that improves attention, and a serotonin-based calming of restlessness.
adhd culture is getting an idea/thinking of something while u scroll thru ur dash but continuing to scroll so u have to scroll like 6 posts up to pick up ur earlier thoughts again bc suddenly u’ve forgotten
… for some time it has been known that women and girls with ADHD are more likely to internalize their symptoms, saying things like: “I’m stupid” or “I can’t do anything right.” They are easily embarrassed and humiliated by the consequences of their ADHD symptoms and behaviors.
…
Even when a girl is hyperactive, her behaviors may often look very different than they do in a boy. A girl with ADHD may be hypertalkative or hyperreactive (crying a lot or slamming doors) – behaviors one may not typically think of being associated with ADHD.
… a girl may also demonstrate a whole host of other behaviors. She may react to distress experienced in the classroom (low self-esteem and poor academic performance) by developing avoidance behaviors exhibited by headaches or stomachaches or a true school phobia where she is unable (or refuses) to attend school. She may become shy and withdrawn within the classroom… poor organizational skills may occur in the form of messiness, disheveled appearance, and/or grooming problems. Her poor social skills exhibited by bossiness, shyness, interrupting or excessive talkativeness may result in outright peer rejection or difficulty making and keeping friends.
Patricia Quinn, 100 Questions and Answers about Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in Women and Girls (via robotslenderman)
Asperger’s and autism are the same thing. Asperger’s was a diagnosis used to separate out those who spoke before three years of age but was in practice mainly used for white boys. It has since been phased out by the DSM and incorporated under the autism spectrum. Some diagnosed with Asperger’s is autistic.
As far as the differences between ADHD and autism the following is a breakdown taken from this awesome post by autpunk:
more ADHD than autism:
impulsivity
getting distracted
constantly forgetting what you were just doing or thinking
being unable to sit still ever
hyperfocusing randomly
hyperactivity
losing every object. always
forgetting plans and appointments and everything really
addiction to distraction and entertainment
more autism than ADHD:
sensory hypersensitivities
sensory hyposensitivities
the bliss that stimming is
the overwhelm of sensory overload
auditory and visual processing difficulties
trouble with verbal communication
trouble with nonverbal communication
being unable to figure out social rules and conventions
relying on sameness, rules, schedules and rituals
both autism and ADHD:
needing to fidget or stim
special interests or hyperfixations
living in a fantasy world
trouble with socializing
appearing eccentric
appearing childlike or younger than you are
executive dysfunction
reactions to over- and understimulations
meltdowns / shutdowns
developing anxiety or depression
creativity and unconventional thinking
daydreaming and spacing out
getting caught up in a task
I hope this helps!
-Sabrina
This is a good breakdown.
It also irritates me to literally no end when doctors/teachers/parents lump ADHD and any other comorbility under Autism as if it was a giant umbrella diagnosis and then don’t properly treat the comobility as the separate diagnosis that it technically is.
Does autism influence them? Of course because autism influences literally everything. But especially when doctors and teachers do this, it confuses the heck out of parents and actual autistics on what is what.
Not every autistic has ADHD. But a lot do and many aren’t having their ADHD addressed properly.
look: if you have treatment-resistant depression (you’ve tried more than two antidepressants, from two different classes, without success[1]), please consider the following:
you actually have bipolar II, not major depressive disorder
you have ADHD instead of or in addition to major depressive disorder
get evaluated for both. both are easy to miss, because ADHD doesn’t manifest very obviously even in severe cases and because bipolar II is not as dramatic as bipolar I and gets overlooked.
[1] SSRIs and SNRIs count as two different classes. if you tried, say, prozac and effexor and neither worked, you qualify.
also, it may be that some of the symptoms you have that have been labeled depression are the result of posttraumatic stress, which often (though not necessarily) responds better to therapy and other treatments than to antidepressants alone.
v. important addition my ADHD-ass brain forgot about. PTSD hides in plain site and can majorly complicate other mental illnesses.
Listen up! I landed in the hospital for nine days with suicidal, treatment-resistant depression, only to find out that I have bipolar II and PTSD. I didn’t know that a bipolar II hypomania can manifest as incredible insomnia, irritability, distractibility, etc while still maintaining an elevated level of depression, so I didn’t recognize the mood swings for what they were. I just felt depressed all the time, but sometimes I slept all the time, and sometimes I didn’t sleep at all.
Once I was switched from an antidepressant to a mood stabilizer, I saw immediate and dramatic improvement, and began to recognize the signs of falling into a depression or hypomania. If you can’t seem to get your depression under control, ask your doctor about bipolar II!
Hypomania can also be having a lot of energy, not needing a lot of sleep and being creative and productive. It’s like mania, but toned down a whole lot. If you’re used to depression, hypomania just feels like what you think normal should be. It feels good. Except it ends and crashes back into depression, leaving you depressed and guilty about fucking up whatever it was that hypomania was letting you do.
I found this book to be really helpful. I wanted to leave my old doctor for multiple reasons, so I hunted down a doctor familiar with bipolar II and he confirmed my suspicions and got me into treatment.
Bipolar meds are not only DIFFERENT than standard depression meds, but bipolar patients can also react badly to them – they can trigger manic episodes (and usually not the fun kind).
If you have ADHD and depression and PTSD, that can also mimic Bipolar disorder. I’m not bipolar, but I was misdiagnosed for a long time because nobody really listened to me talking about abuse for a long time, and my ADHD is more of the inattentive type.
if you aren’t stimulated for even a second you’re incredibly bored
boredom is literally painful
it’s worse than death
worse than e v e r y t h i n g
feelin that sweet Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria™ any time you get teased or insulted
when you’re listening to music you always tune it out eventually
not picking up on social cues At All
actually, what are social cues?
can’t regulate attention
not interesting = not worth paying attention to
hyperfocus for hours
“wAIT ITS 4 PM WHAT THE F U C K”
did i forget to eat again
The Thoughts go from point a to point g in less than one (1) fuckin sentence
*someone says a thing* what *person repeats thing* what *person repeats thing again and you still don’t hear them but dont ask what again in case they think ur weird*
or, alternatively
*someone says a thing* what *person starts to repeat said thing; you reply less than a second after they start*
using subtitles all the time so you don’t have to go back twenty times to determine What The Fuck someone said
“sorry i tuned you out for that entire sentence can you repeat that”
needing e x t r e m e l y s p e c i f i c d i r e c t i o n s
EXTREMELY POOR VOLUME CONTROL TBH
tfw that thing u were working on falls apart and u cant redo it bc u already did it and that would be boring
long blocks of text are Extremely Hard to Read
ur fuckin brain works 12 times as fast as everyone elses. for every ADHD person it’s somethin different. for me it’s puns. ill choke on my own laughter at a pun an Entire Second before anyone else even gets it
RAMBLING
The Leg Bounce™
Disassociation
that ADHD feel when you
^^ that one is a True Marker of an ADHD person. only ADHD people understand.
Reblogging because I think this is super helpful
!!!!! PSA that the hyperactive stuff on here (always needing to Do Something, ccaann’‘tt bbee bboorreed, etc) can wind up masked almost totally by maladaptive daydreaming, which, when you think about it, is actually a marvelous way to begin INSTANTLY doing something interesting without even having to get up and go somewhere else. Once you internalize your need for stimulation and start watchin’ the ol’ headmovies, you might LOOK like a very patient person who has no trouble sitting still when it’s required or staying on-task for extended periods of time despite setbacks and delays, but only from the outside. Inside there are tabs open with music videos and etc. playing, and you’re probably glancing back at reality only when necessary. You might look at sensation-seeking symptoms like hyperactivity and think “can’t relate” when, really, you’re just ready to return to your interior hyperactivity at a moment’s notice.
@ everybody who can’t just slip out of reality when boredom threatens and who has to instead find something to entertain themselves with irl, my heart goes out to you and everyone around you because holy fuck
I wonder how many writers and other creatives are ADHD. I mean, that whole “Occupy the brain with invented narratives, characters, dialogue, and wotld-building” thing was my refuge as a child, and has become my happy place as an adult.
I’d write all day, every day, if I could arrange my life for that. Coping technique turned profession. Unfortunately, the Day Jobbe sucks up most of my creative energy, alas.
Others out there like me?
I had a teacher in high school who pulled me aside one day and thanked me for being so attentive in class, and all I could think was, “bitch I am on year three of a Harry Potter OC fanfic, I have not heard a single word you’ve said in weeks.” So, yeah, maybe.
(A couple years ago I turned up positive on an ADHD screening, but I wasn’t jittery and I don’t forget appointments so my therapist said nah, probably not. But I’m finally getting my anemia treated, and I’m starting to wonder if maybe ADHD comorbid with depression and iron deficiency, compensated for by years of refining my note-taking and planner systems, doesn’t explain an awful lot.)
Just so you know, ADHD and ADD are no longer separate diagnoses- there’s just ADHD, and subtypes (primarily inattentive, primarily hyperactive, combined). That means there’s tons of us ADHD people who aren’t hyper physically and may even struggle with fatigue and brain fog pretty badly.
Some more exciting ADHD things include:
– I have lost this thing. When did I lose it? Where did I lose it? Did I ever have it in the first place?
– ‘I’m calling because you missed yo-’ FUCK
– the overwhelming need to be stimulated combined with getting tired of everything quickly and lacking physical energy/ the ability to concentrate
– saying offensive or inappropriate things and then when people are like ‘what are you thinking?’ being like ‘i honestly could not tell you’
– your brain is like one of those shopfront windows with all the TVs playing different channels. at least one of them is a song.
– ‘okay you can’t leave the exam hall until 1PM, so if you finish early you’ll just have to sit there’ haha death would be kinder
– poor emotional regulation. feelings are Very Hard To Handle By Yourself and you might break things when angry, hurt yourself when sad etc
– step one: join club or society. step two: learn everything there is and volunteer for as much responsibility as possible. step three: lose interest completely and ghost or quit, ignoring desperate/confused emails and hating yourself
– “something i thought has distressed me, but i can’t remember what. let me sit down and unpack the last five minutes of mental conversation.”
~Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria– is an extreme emotional sensitivity and emotional pain triggered by the perception that one is being rejected, teased, or criticized. The emotional response is complete with suicidal ideation and people suffering from RSD often get misdiagnosed with serious personality disorders. RSD is only seen in people with ADHD and the emotional sensitivity/reaction is much more severe than that of a neurotypical person.
✦Some other fun ADHD things!
~inability to regulate emotions
~no concept of time
~noticeable public stimming (resulting in stares from neurotypicals)
~no impulse control
~insomnia
~listen but cannot absorb what is being said
~no volume control
~increased inability to focus when emotional
~difficulty stopping a task and transitioning to the next
~social anxiety
~higher levels on generalized anxiety
~extremely forgetful
~”all or nothing” mentality
@ neurotypicals- some things to be aware of:
– you cannothyperfixate. only people who are neurodivergent can hyperfixate. please don’t use that word when describing your latest obsession 🙂
– please don’t stare at neurodivergent people who are stimming in public
– be respectful of those who actually need fidget toys so they can subtly stim in public
– if we forget something you tell us it is not because we don’t care, we just have a million other thoughts racing through our mind and no way to filter through them.
– please be gentle with us. no don’t tip toe around us and treat us like we aren’t human, but be aware that even offhand comments can trigger RSD. no we aren’t being too sensitive, our brains are wired differently than yours.
ADHD also can have weird as heck coping mechanisms like:
– always talking in a monotone voice because expressing any high state emotional arousal (really happy, sad, excited, angry, etc) causes you to be loud and get in trouble in class
– procrastination
– seemingly crying all of a sudden for no reason, except there’s been loud noises/bright lights/whatever that neurotypicals just don’t notice
– you forget your keys, your umbrella, your wallet, and your life’s purpose in one night. Don’t worry, you know eleven things about blue lobsters. Your wall is sticky notes. Your binders are sticky notes. You always forget at least one thing.
– having a routine that is set in stone for every morning
– having an entirely different routine every morning because you always forget to do something before you leave. The time it takes to walk back to your room is factored into how long it take to get ready.
– quadruple checking everything because you forget the information your just absorbed a literal second ago
– studying way more than others or way less than others for the same results
Also:
– the reason neurotypicals don’t hyperfixate is because hyperfixation caused me to sit in my room for an entire day and a half without eating because I was doing something I needed to focus on and getting food would interrupt that. I didn’t sleep that night. Hyperfixation is a “maladaptive” behavior, and is often seen as Too Extreme and Unhealthy. Lots of people experience varying levels of it though- or not at all. If you think you’ve experienced a period of time like that, you should fill out one of those self surveys for ADHD and probably depression. Hyperfixation can cause major issues fulfilling basic life tasks and learning to deal with it can be very important.
– ADHD has three subtypes; inattentive, hyperactive, and mixed. Some ADHD people fulfill the stereotype of talking fast, getting distracted by anything, etc. Some people will space out at a moment’s notice, and information goes through their brain like it’s a sieve. A majority are mixed, which includes enough symptoms of each type to be diagnosed as both. This means ADHD people will almost never have symptoms that you expect, and you can’t really diagnose ADHD people yourself unless you have some very intimate knowledge of all their difficulties in school, home life, etc. On top of that, coping mechanisms like the ones I just listed above make it even harder to tell if someone has symptoms in the first place, and there are as many of them as people with ADHD. So please, please, don’t use “ADHD” as an adjective unless the person already identifies with it.
– “no impulse control” often leads to doing/saying things that are regretted immediately which is partially why social anxiety, higher rates of depression, feelings of isolation, and RSD exists. The thing that probably would have saved people from mountain lions or bullies actually is pretty useless in most other situations.
– sorry for the clicky pens but I actually have no regrets
no one ever talks about the part of adhd where everyone in your class has got their group of friends and you’re just there, mindlessly tagging along with anyone who is willing to put up with you for a few minutes. either you’re too loud or too quiet. if you’re lucky, it won’t affect you much. you’re a loner, so what? but then the moments come around where you find yourself yearning to be like the others. you’re not depressed, why would you be? you’re a child who just happens to be a little different. sure, you’re usually the last choice when it comes to groups and you’re rarely, if ever, invited to birthday parties but… it’s alright. everything is fine. or is it?
for the people questioning whether this really is part of adhd or not
There's a Mirror on the Wall 