this user has ADHD

when writing a character with ADD or ADHD consider the following:

never remembering to do anything

having to set multiple alarms and reminders for things that should be habit like taking a lunch or remembering your pills

trying to remember to do something and ending up hyper-focused and not getting anything else done until you do the thing

time release pills – noticing when it kicks in again/noticing when it’s wearing off

not eating – you’re never hungry on meds, having to force yourself to eat, weight loss from not eating, blood sugar problems if you take meds too early

temper fluctuation – quick to anger, then quicker to embarrassment, easily anxious

memory gaps: putting something down in a random place because you thought of something else you should be doing and not knowing where you put it down at, cereal in the fridge, leaving the water running

tired bodies but a hyper brain – can lead to the illusion of energy

needing to be occupied during tv/movies, constant stimuli is a must for concentration

putting up reminders to do things and procrastinating so much you need more reminders

listening but not absorbing what’s being said

hyper-focus on tasks, become frustrated when incomplete – if task is abandoned, it’s probably not going to get finished

ride the momentum of energy or lose it completely

fidgeting, fidgeting, fidgeting – moving, pacing, tapping – seriously use up a lot of space just existing

losing train of thought or radical tangents

sensitivity to light, sound, touch, texture, etc – especially on a bad day

too many uncompleted tasks

not wanting to start tasks that are long – guaranteed to get distracted

hard time conceptualizing time: was that last week, last month, yesterday, earlier?

that’s what I can think of off the top of my head. most people write Stiles with ADD/ADHD, but he doesn’t usually have any symptoms outside of movement and “talking a lot”, which aren’t the best indicators of ADD/ADHD in the first place. Whoo, resources!

airagorncharda:

Being a writer with A.D.D. is a very specifically difficult experience, because as soon as the story isn’t new and exciting TO ME anymore my brain becomes convinced that the story is inherently boring and no one will like it.

ADHD & capability & writing

poplitealqueen:

ashkatom:

I was talking with someone a couple weeks back about writing, as I do from time to time, when a message from them made me stop, lean back in my chair, and stare at it thoughtfully. Paraphrasing, they told me that it was encouraging to see someone with ADHD working on a big, involved project because they also had ADHD and were one of those all-over-the-place, bits-and-pieces writers.

I’ve been staring at that message in my askbox ever since.

I think this is a message a lot of ADHD people internalise. That we’re messy and unreliable and flit from one thing to another and can’t just stick with things. It’s definitely something I got a lot of, growing up, with a frustrated parent trying to explain to me about commitment and responsibility and not knowing what to do with my constant answers of, ‘I forget!’ and ‘I don’t notice!’ and ‘I don’t want to anymore.’ Because those answers weren’t good enough, because real life depends on reliability, and being an absolute spacecase happy with living in filth and only doing the things that weren’t drowning me in obligation and disappointment wasn’t good enough.

“Just do the thing,” says a baffled person without ADHD. “You just… do it. It’s not that big a deal.”

ADHD is a lack of ability to Can. ADHD is savagely informing yourself of how stupid you are for forgetting something vital for the third time in a row after informing yourself that you were going to Remember this time, you would Put it Somewhere Obvious, and you would check after walking out the door, and you forgot it again anyway. ADHD is a problem not existing if it is not in front of your eyeballs. ADHD is coming up with a complex system of putting everything in front of your eyeballs so you never forget everything and then being surprised when you are suddenly overwhelmed. ADHD is having a perfectly-laid-out plan of attack in front of you and growing to hate yourself as you spend the next six hours getting distracted by YouTube and not being able to shut it down anyway. ADHD is virtuously shutting down all distractions and then staring at the thing you need to do and crying for the next three hours. ADHD is then snapping into hyperfocus mode and getting it done in one hour and beating yourself up about how much better it would have been if you’d just done the fucking thing.

And then you do it all again anyway. Because it’s not that hard. You should just be able to do the thing, fuck.

I love writing. I’ve been doing it for long enough now that I’m tolerably decent at it, and being part of fandom means that I basically get a shit-ton of compliments for something I like doing anyway. Most of all, writing has never meant obligation, to me. I shut that shit down hard and fast if I see it, because I never want it to be an obligation. I don’t even edit, because I spend so much mental energy on just getting it Done and Out that any further obligation on my behalf would ruin it for me.

And yet.

There’s something comforting, about the fact that there are people expecting things from me. I dictate the terms of that expectation, and were anyone to get stroppy at me if I fail to give them something, I’d laugh in their fucking face, but I can’t deny that there is something very powerful about one’s skills being wanted. And in all honesty, that’s a huge part of what does it for me, with writing. My output would be much more infrequent, were there not literal hundreds of people patiently waiting on me. It’s a function of my self-esteem, and the ways people get esteem, but I’ve certainly had more than one heated conversation over my priorities when people wrap their heads around, “You’re writing for free? Instead of doing something useful?”

Look. If I have a point here that I want people to internalise about mental health, it’s this: Sometimes – a lot of the time! – Ability to Can is not transferable. My brain fails hard on the Standard Domestic Duties front, but does amazingly well on the Writing While In Lectures front. I’m gaining immeasurable value in my life, by doing my silly free internet writing. I post it because it also offers value to others, but I’d be writing anyway because it’s the kind of activity that Ability to Can will either exist or not exist for, regardless of whether I have Ability to Notice Trash Needs Emptying or Ability to Find Three Articles to Review for Assignment.

We’re all productive in our own ways. And I’m slowly learning that this isn’t an excuse – that, a lot of the time, I really don’t have the ability to pull myself together enough to start tackling my to-do list. A lot of the time, I don’t have enough Can in me to make the to-do list. It’s that Happy Naive Freeloader image from the outside, but in reality, from the inside, I’ve probably spent four hours screaming at myself to do the thing, given up, and decided to at least do something I enjoy.

That’s not a bad thing. For me, for me, the feeling of getting something Done when I publish a fic is worth the feel of the obligation from the following I gather – but the fact is? With ADHD, if you do anything, you are basically a goddamn superhero. Even if it’s worthless to the outside world. Even if its only purpose is to make you happy. The only way I’ve found to counteract my brain’s sneering and vitriol is to firmly insist that things might not be necessary – but they are necessary to me. Maybe it’s stupid of me to pour so much effort into free writing! But it’s necessary to me. Maybe you wanna beat yourself up about how the things you do never result in anything you can use for Real Purposes – but it’s necessary to you.

Which is where I come to my initial reaction to the ask. Sorry, long post, I know, but clearly I have Thoughts on the matter, and they are: Don’t ever fucking dare cheapen something you love by being the first to rage at yourself for it. Don’t ever ever ever use the parts of something you’re not working towards achieving to slam yourself. I’m good at sticking out longer works, but that’s because they provide opportunities that I love exploring. Don’t beat yourself up for being able to Write Properly or Art Properly or Anything Properly. Find the parts of the work you love, and dedicate yourself to that, because there’s more than enough eye-rolling you-can’t-even-do-the-thing in the rest of the world to bother with tainting the things you like, too. Write little snippets. Build worlds. Do sketches. Paint half your nails and leave the rest because your non-dominant hand is hard and you don’t wanna. Cook something and forget half the ingredients and decide you like it anyway. In at least one thing, please let yourself be flawed and incomplete and love it viciously anyway, because the fact that you did it at all is amazing and wonderful.

With ADHD, there is always going to be someone saying that you are not Doing Life Properly. Maybe you’re not! But that doesn’t mean you don’t get to choose how to make sure that life is worth living, beyond the framework of obligation.

I feel this post down to my atoms.

THIS!

Deities and little demons, all of this.

most people: falling into an everyday routine is the WORST POSSIBLE THING THAT CAN HAPPEN!!! If you’re going through the ”’daily grind”’ your life might as well be OVER!!!!! you need to be a FREE SPIRIT!!!!!!
my adhd ass that cant even remember what day of the week it is unless I have some sort of order and routine in my life: um

adhd Moods

wyomingsmustache:

meettheghost:

myteenangstbullshithasabodycount:

ggothclaudia:

ggothclaudia:

kandikyssis:

thequeenseal:

linkseyebrows:

woke-up-on-derse:

meettheghost:

attention deficit High Definition but only on That One Object You Cant Stop Staring At

bounce leg bounce leg bounce leg bounce leg bounce leg bounce leg bounce leg bounce leg click pen bounce leg bounce leg bounce leg bounce leg bounce le

[elevator music and/or wii menu music while u stare at a wall for a while bc u got bored of the lecture]

bounce leg part 2: electric boogaloo – now with extra foot tap

“I Got a C+ on My Midterm and Now I Feel Suicidal, but Only For Like 10 Minutes Until I Get Distracted by Something Else” the chart-topping hit single by My Brain ft. Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria

putting something in ur reminders app AND ur calendar app AND ur alarm app and somehow still not doing it

tfw u accidentally become hyperaware of your clothing and how it feels Real Bad on ur bod and u gotta wiggle around in ur chair for a good 3-8 minutes

not being able to eat food like a normal person because its the wrong temperature, texture, taste, and theres too many nerves in ur mouth

not being able to eat food like a normal person bc u forget meals ‘cause ur Just Like That AND bc ur meds are an appetite suppressant

not knowing how to socialize like a normal person because thats just how being neurodivergent is sometimes

feel free to add ur own

Walking into a room feelin guilty bc you know you forgot something important but you still don’t remember what so you can’t even apologize

Forgetting literally 10 minutes after taking your meds whether or not you took them and not wanting to overdose by taking another

“Let’s start another project I’m really passionate about right now” while a bunch of unfinished projects sit untouched until you hyperfocus on them again in a few years

not being able to eat food like a normal person because you were hyperfocused on one task for so long and suddenly it’s past dinner time where did the day go when did it get dark??

Blanking out during a conversation and not retaining a word they just said

Forgetting names, directions, instructions, and locations given verbally not even 30 seconds after you were told.

Stuttering and fumbling over words while trying to read out loud cause you’re trying to read faster than your brain is processing the words in front of you.

Not being able to defend yourself in a verbal argument right away because comebacks and rebuttals come as an afterthought when you can’t stop thinking about it long after the fact.

Walking into a room and immediately forgetting why you’re there

Remembering as soon as you walk out then forgetting again when you walk back in

Knowing what you want to do and where you’re going but automatically walking to the wrong room

zoning out while doing a task on autopilot and not realizing you fucked up til it’s too late and the world comes back into focus

One day feeling stimulated and happy talking to 20 people in individual chats all at once, another day feeling overstimulated talking to 3 people at once

Teeth grinding, nail biting, hair pulling, zit picking, lip peeling, ear popping

Being super self aware about your hunched posture for all of two seconds before eventually falling back to hunching even more than before

Running off in a videogame to chase down a wild deer with a bow and arrow rather than travel up the mountain to realize your destiny as the dragonborn

chasing down several deer and various animals on your way to realize your destiny as the dragonborn

Having more fun playing in the dirt with a stick than whatever the heck your friends are doing while on a nature walk or trip to the park

Impulsive decisions, shrug off the repercussions later. Let’s go walk across that log, oh whelp I’m knee deep in a pond now I guess there’s water here.

Hyperfocused Obsessions. That one new show you got into you can’t stop talking about and need everything involving that one character in physical form. Then it fizzles out in a month or two. BUT WHEN IT HITS IT’S STRONG

Telling someone the same story twice because you forgot how many people and who you told already

just a fractions of things I go through in my day-to-day life

@dexthecryptid

• someone tells you to do several things and by the time you finish the first you completely forgot about the other ones
• needing to write down EVERYTHING you need to do or else you WILL forget
• having to sit still and not move or talk for a long period of time and then once its over youre in FULL THROTTLE AND PEOPLE ARE TELLING YOU TO CALM DOWN BUT YOU CANT STOP MOVING
• forgetting to take your meds and being RIDICULOUSLY HUNGRY
• needing to doodle during a lecture in order to listen to it
• doing the Passion Thing but not being able to pay attention long enough to fix the details and thus being upset with the results
• trying to read in a noisy classroom is not worth the effort
• writing a post and forgetting to write the last word because you got distracted (i one time posted something on my tumblr saying “good morning i have a stomach” instead of “good morning i have a stomach ache”)

i reblogged this earlier but thought of more
• having to ask someone to leave a conversation for just a moment so you can have one moment alone so that you can actually think of what youre trying to say
• putting away laundry and doing mundane tasks are rlly hard and usually dont get completed 100% of the way
• switching between homework assignments to maximize focus abilities
• the sheer panic when you get distracted during a timed test and then can’t refocus
• random urges to do cartwheels whenever u see a vast open space
• hyperfocusing on something unimportant and then by the time you realize theres other things that need to get done you just cant focus for the life of you
• forgetting your meds and trying to sit down and do a Long Thing You Dont Want To Do is a Mess
• seriously when you switch constantly between studying and something else it kinda helps because u have tiny short bursts and then u come back and test to see how much u remember

-not being able to read 75% of this post because its a fuckn clumped up wall

@myteenangstbullshithasabodycount OP here and i would just like to say: LMAO TRUUUU

• random urges to do cartwheels whenever u see a vast open space

WHAT THE FUCk

ADHD Tipping Points: Why people with ADHD suddenly seem to fall apart, and what you can do about it

autistiel:

anarcho-shindouism:

naeril:

leahazel:

firebreathing-bookworm:

im-significant:

neurodiversitysci:

“ADHD tipping points”: what a great concept!

Tipping points occur because undiagnosed people have always had an ADHD brain with ADHD strengths and weaknesses. However, these traits may have never disabled them before because they found ways to compensate, and their physical and social environments allowed them to do so.

To the person with ADHD, a tipping point may feel like one is falling apart. It might also feel like confirmation that one wasn’t good enough and was just pretending all along–"now it’s finally caught up with me, and everyone can finally see I’m just faking being good enough.” In reality, a tipping point does not reflect a person’s intelligence, hard work, or competence. It simply reflects that new life circumstances make it impossible to compensate for, manage, and hide one’s ADHD traits. When capable adults can no longer cope, and their strategies either no longer work or actually become counterproductive, their ADHD may suddenly become obvious.

Laurie argued that the best way to deal with tipping points is to predict them in advance and head them off before they begin. Tipping points involve so much pain and confusion that it can be easier to prevent them than to cope with them.

Could tipping points happen to people with other disabilities (for example, autism) too?

I’ve definitely had this experience with my physical disabilities as well as developmental/learning ones

ahahaha aka 11th grade

Gentlebeings, my twenties.

@monocromas

holy shit the tipping point is EXACTLY what happened to me I had no idea it was a thing and it had a name

there’s a concept called autistic burnout that is very similar to this!

ADHD Tipping Points: Why people with ADHD suddenly seem to fall apart, and what you can do about it

It’s Different for Girls with ADHD

sufnlower:

“Dr. Ellen Littman, author of Understanding Girls with ADHD, has studied high IQ adults and adolescents with the disorder for more than 25 years. She attributes the under-diagnosis of girls and women—estimated to be around 4 million who are not diagnosed, or half to three-quarters of all women with ADHD—and the misunderstandings that have ensued about the disorder as it manifests in females, to the early clinical studies of ADHD in the 1970s. “These studies were based on really hyperactive young white boys who were taken to clinics,” Littman says. “The diagnostic criteria were developed based on those studies. As a result, those criteria over-represent the symptoms you see in young boys, making it difficult for girls to be diagnosed unless they behave like hyperactive boys.”

ADHD does not look the same in boys and girls. Women with the disorder tend to be less hyperactive and impulsive, more disorganized, scattered, forgetful, and introverted. “They’ve alternately been anxious or depressed for years,” Littman says. “It’s this sense of not being able to hold everything together.”

Further, while a decrease in symptoms at puberty is common for boys, the opposite is true for girls, whose symptoms intensify as estrogen increases in their system, thus complicating the general perception that ADHD is resolved by puberty. One of the criteria for ADHD long held by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, published by the American Psychiatric Association, is that symptoms appear by age 7. While this age is expected to change to 12 in the new DSM-V, symptoms may not emerge until college for many girls, when the organizing structure of home life—parents, rules, chores, and daily, mandatory school—is eliminated, and as estrogen levels increase. “Symptoms may still be present in these girls early on,” says Dr. Pat Quinn, cofounder of The National Center for Girls and Women with ADHD. “They just might not affect functioning until a girl is older.” Even if girls do outwardly express symptoms, they are less likely to receive diagnoses. A 2009 study conducted by at The University of Queenland found that girls displaying ADHD symptoms are less likely to be referred for mental health services.”

This is so important. [source]

tikkunolamorgtfo:

trans-mom:

eugthinks:

I made a chart.

“fuck” I think properly describes it

I stayed in and berated myself for not being more successful because I didn’t have the energy or focus to get dressed or make plans to go and have good time and I am honestly feeling so attacked right now?