or ADH-Wheee! if you really want to put a positive spin on it.
I like “Executive Function Disorder” as it actually describes the underlying issue and not just the symptoms that other people can see.
The problem is that there are many other mental disorders that have a profound effect on executive function as well
This is true, and suggests maybe a broader recategorisation is in order.
I’ve heard one expert suggest that while many disorders feature executive dysfunction, ADHD is executive dysfunction.
We’ve known that this isn’t true since 2005:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S000632230500171X
In addition, plenty of other disorders show worse executive function than ADHD:
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00328/full
If executive dysfunction is your primary issue, that is not indicative of ADHD. ADHD is driven by reward processing dysfunction and slower information processing:
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1087054714558872
It’s a disorder in our society, because it require you to do task you’ve been ask to do, but if you would just live your life I don’t think you would call it a disorder, more like a different way of processing tasks
(edit) I’m not saying that changing your environment would resolve the problem, since I’m under medication I can clearly do more things on my free/personal time than before. Hmmm yeah, I kinda lost the track of my thoughts now, can discard as it’s an edit. stop.
Well, in the wild, if you couldn’t concentrate on one thing long enough to hunt/gather/fish, then you wouldn’t eat, and would weed yourself out of the gene pool.
Except we would be the ones hyperfocusing on making that fucking fire that Steve gave up onto after 2h of trying, or we would stay up late to keep the tribe safe when everyone else starts to fall asleep. A lot of the disfunction is just an incompatibility with our current lifestyle.
As someone with ADHD I’d describe the experience more like profound boredem with everything in life. You seek obsession because you can’t generate excitement for normal activities on your own
There are very few videos games I can play because of this. I love gaming, but finding one that I like is extremely challenging.
If I’m playing with my friends the excitement of making jokes and having fun is enough for me. But if I’m alone no game brings me joy if it’s not my current hyper fixation.
Feel this pretty hard. I tend to like the ones with a really good tactile feedback. Anything with tight melee combat gets a gold star from me. (Fury is probably one of my favorite games of all time)
I just saw someone on Reddit who claimed this profound boredom with everything was why they didn’t have ADHD. Apparently the list of symptoms they were reading did not accurately describe the depths of ADHD boredom, and they thought their boredom was a worse breed that indicated some far worse mental problem.
Had to tell 'em.
Oh my god this is so accurate. I’m barely on the spectrum, and I can only imagine what it must feel like to have full ADHD.
I’m probably undiagnosed inattentive. I’m also not one to make a statement like that lightly. I’m notorious among my social circle for diving down rabbitholes and sending them endless mental lint articles. I wish I could turn it off sometimes.
Whenever I read a description from someone with ADHD I can almost always 100% relate to that experience, but whenever I read something from “professional” source I start thinking I might not have it and just killed my attention span with social media consumption…
Buddy if you are waiting for a Sign, this is it. It’ll never get more concrete than this message I’m typing for you right now. Having a lot of doubts is common. It wasn’t truly real for me until I started medication.
My broad advice is to find a good psychiatrist (and don’t be afraid to switch if you aren’t happy) and dig as deep as possible for evidence both for and against. Go in with confidence that you have ADHD symptoms, but keep an open mind since there are alternative explanations. A diagnosis of “no you don’t have ADHD it’s actually ____” is also important information to know, and you will regret letting it drag out if you do have ADHD.
Unrelated anecdote:
I was driving one time, and got lost in my city. I drove a church. Their billboard read:
Lost? Come in and ask for directions! As in the spiritual kind.
Anyway, I decided to drive on, and get progressively more lost. I decide to turn around. I make my way back to the church, and on the reverse side of the billboard:
Need a sign from god? This could be it!
So I stopped and asked for directions…
Sorry, that’s a shared experience with others as well, minus the obsession
The biggest impact from my adhd is actually a shorter than average short term memory span. Mine was found to be about 8.5 second, with the average humans being 18.
My long term memory is fine, probably better than most but it’s getting stuff in there that’s the issue.
Edit: short not shirt
I remember things from my early early childhood. My older sister doesn’t remember shit from back then. She has no idea what our forst apartment looked like and when we moved and all that. I remember everything.
But when i put my screwdriver somewhere, 4 seconds later, the screwdriver might as well not exist anymore.I seriously remember breastfeeding. I remember sleeping in a crib beside my brother. I can close my eyes and tour every place I spent time as a child.
And like your sister, my brother remembers none of it. I’ll bring up something that meant a lot to me and he always replies the same, “I don’t remember that time.”
Like this one weekend. We rented Turner and Hooch, We’re Back: A Dinosaur Story, and Fern Gully. We intended to stay up and watch them so we pulled out the bed from the couch and instead talked until we fell asleep. We got up early and watched all three. My brother was nuts about the character Batty and wanted everything Robin Williams was in after that. He went around all day saying “are you sure? Are you positive? Only fools are positive.” I seen the cartoons only once and I still remember character names and plot lines.
I tear up thinking about that morning. Him, “I wish I could remember it.” And that’s his answer for all of it.
Now ask me what I did two days ago. My answer will be the same as his for what we were doing then. I legit can’t remember past yesterday.
I’m in the same boat. What generally works for me is writing it down and learning from physical books. For whatever reason those two things combined help get things past the poor short term and into the long term storage
Yeah writing down is a big help, I think it’s too do with multiple things. You have to focus more on what you’re actually writing. As well as you have chance for multiple memories, the thinking itself, think of writing it, actually writing it, the muscle memory of writing it, and then reading it again afterwards.
Yea exactly. And part of it too is if you’re taking notes and get kinda distracted in the middle the “lost thought” is right there on the page so picking back up is easier
Nothing like having to constantly remind yourself about things so you don’t forget, even little things like transcribing a measurement or something, or sit immobilized over a pending event because you don’t want to do anything that might distract you from engaging in said thing. Having to re-read things several times to keep it in short term memory and then having to check that yes, indeed, you did it right, and then check a couple more times to remember that yes, you did check it, and it’s still right.
Fffuuuhhh…. hate that.
Or DDD, dopamin deficiency disorder
Yeah, I’ll call it whatever Dr. Russell Barkley says to call it.
Jesus, take the wheel!
…no, not like that!
Aka if you didn’t want me to fidgety in this box, don’t put me in a box, dipshit
Hello fellow cubicle mouse
Everyone else is boring af - syndrome
Given they are both mediated by dopamine signaling this actually makes sense?
What about just ‘Wheeeeeee!’?
La
Thanks for making fun of a disability! Really fucking ignorant.
Dude, lighten up. People with ADHD regularly make/laugh at these jokes. If you don’t believe me, check out *any ADHD memes community.
source: I have ADHD and an not about to curse at and insult someone for a silly joke
Edit: fixed a word
Take it to the adhd community then, diminishing a legitimate mental illness that wrecks havoc on millions of people isn’t cute or funny and most definitely not a shower thought. It perpetuates the belief we can’t focus for more than 10 seconds rather than having a fundamental issue with executive function. My ADHD (that you assumed I do not have) does not manifest by getting distracted, and summing it up as so is patronizing at best. This isn’t an adhd space for people with the illness to try to cope with humor, it’s for shower thoughts.
I don’t even think it should be labeled as a disorder. Or at least people should be more aware of what a disorder means. It doesn’t necessarily mean there is anything wrong with the person. The behavior just happens to not be suitable for the particular environment they are in and causes difficulties. If you change environments to one that allows that behavior to no longer be a problem then they no longer have a disorder.
You clearly don’t understand ADHD.
This is how a mental disorder is medically defined. What are you suggesting?
That you don’t understand ADHD.
You don’t understand. It’s only a mental disorder because we have built environments for people that are not suitable for everybody. It’s possible that there may not exist an environment that makes any mental disorder not be a problem, but ADD and ADHD in my opinion is not one of them. Many countries don’t recognize these as a mental disorders because they haven’t built a society that causes problems for people with ADD or ADHD.
As someone with ADD I find it a bit ridiculous that because I can’t pay absolute attention on something I’m uninterested in while stuck in a room unable to leave that I have a mental disorder. The problem doesn’t lie with me, but with the environment I am in. But alas, that is just how a mental order is defined.
So much to unpick here, and so little inclination to bother. Like many with ADHD, I’m sick of dealing with the constant disinformation and toxic positivity that surrounds this condition - and which you’re contributing to.
If you think ADHD is about attention, then you really still don’t get it. Go and watch Dr Russell Barkley’s videos on YouTube. There’s a seminar about 2.5 hours long that is well worth the time.
I might need some more education apparently, so the seminar you’re talking about is this one ?
I’m curious what you would change about (Western?) society to make ADHD manageable like it apparently already is in “many countries,” in concrete well defined terms. Not sure how society could negate the emotional regulation issues that frequently come with ADHD. I would also emphasize there’s a distinction between “a society where people with ADHD can function” and “a society perfectly suited for people with ADHD.”
I’m sensing that ADHD is a label thrust upon you, and if you feel you function fine without any sort of treatment it’s probably not accurate. It’s also now occurring to me how hilariously easy it would be to troll any sort of mental health issue. Depression isn’t a disorder it’s just SADNESS coming from MODERN SOCIETY and we just need to uncheck the CAUSE DEPRESSION box in society’s configuration.
Cool. Cool cool cool.
As someone with ADHD, I cannot regulate my attention to things I do care about or things I don’t care about. I struggle daily with doing basic tasks. I can’t maintain hobbies and have difficulty with maintaining a relationship. Finances and budgets are impacted by difficulty with regulating impulses. My working memory causes me to forget things and people quite frequently. Tasks which are not emergencies take a monumental amount of effort to begin. This impacts my work and my income.
Because you might have a specific type of ADD and are relatively well functioning doesn’t mean that others don’t struggle with it’s symptoms regularly.
100%
It more sounds that the poster has either extremely mild ADHD or a self-diagnosis, but I’m also guessing and have no medical training.
I experience exactly the same as you. Maintaining anything, be it a habit, relationship, hobby, promise or pretty much anything else is frustratingly hard.
My lack of impulse control has gotten me in some major trouble and decisions I made there were absolutely impacted by my adhd and lack of dopamine.
If it affects day to day life and as such is absolutely a disorder. For the longest time I maintained that it didn’t affect me, but the more and more I understand about how we function differently to NTs the more I realize that I have so many coping mechanisms that I manage through the day I don’t even think about them anymore.
They’re as simple as setting 2 alarms in the morning because I need the inertia of being grumpy about waking up the second time to get out of bed, or having microwaveable meals in the freezer at all times, but I’d fall apart without them.
They’re saying society is set up and engrained in a way where the best solutions for you and I are only as good as torturing ourselves with alarms and keeping a steady supply of frozen convenience fees.
They’re saying it’s only a “disorder” in a negative sense because society has failed to understand that the way things “work” and the traditional ways heavily favor the A-type extroverted morning people (sociopaths) who cannot comprehend how their routines might not be universal. Everyone is forced to live with it regardless because banking hours and business meetings exist for them.
You’re complaining about the very thing he’s saying is forcing you to be “disordered”
Environmental factors can certainly exacerbate mental disorders like ADHD, but they are not the sole cause. Just because there are countries that don’t recognize mental disorders as well as others just means they are not up to snuff.
What you described in your second paragraph is just being bored. Not being able to focus on uninteresting topics in a poor environment is standard for most people.
I’m going to support what the person you responded to said, you don’t know what ADHD is.
Environmental factors? Cause? You have completely misunderstood. This is just a discussion of semantics.
I find it a bit ridiculous that because I can’t pay absolute attention on something I’m uninterested in while stuck in a room unable to leave that I have a mental disorder.
If that’s all you think ADD and ADHD are, then I’m with the other guy…you don’t understand ADHD.
Sounds like you stopped learning about this in the 90s. It’s not even “labelled” as ADD anymore because it doesn’t truly grasp the scope of the disorder.
You’re a primitive human in the wild. You’re hunting, tracking the prey for a long time. You get distracted and start doing something else. You die. Perhaps even your entire family may starve. This is why it’s a disorder across very different environments. It can affect the person’s ability to cope across extremely different environments.
Likewise, if you have impulse control problems with your ADHD, you might not be able to prevent yourself from making a noise or movement at the wrong time, scaring off the prey or getting the attention of a predator (like a lion). Well, there goes your survival once again.
It most certainly is a disorder. Makes everything in my life more challenging.
You have misunderstood what has been said. It’s more challenging because society has built an environment that is not suitable for you and many others. This is just a matter of semantics and how to attribute fault with definitions. It’s not your fault who you are is not suitable for the way things are. It’s the way things are that are not suitable for you.
We aren’t neurotypical, that’s really all there is to it. Doesn’t really have anything to do with how society is structured.
That might the gist of it, but it definitely has everything to do with how the environment is structured. There might be no other feasible way to structure the environment though.
Not really, though. Rigid structure helps with ADHD, but only when someone else is enforcing the structure. Prepubescent kids with ADHD aren’t typically capable of maintaining their own structure. They aren’t neurotypical, it’s more than distraction and energy, they have a functioning issue. They can’t tune out all the stimulus that normal brains do, and because of it they miss a lot of social cues that help with development.
My son has ADHD and no amount of reorienting our family environment would help him - he could (and has) literally be in a bare concrete room with nothing but his thoughts and get distracted and slam his hands together making exploding/punching sounds for hours, where a typical kid would get bored in seconds.
I feel like rigid structure is when my ADHD gets worse…
By the same logic paraplegics aren’t disabled because they just aren’t in an environment suitable for physically disabled people.
While societal changes can help, there is plenty that environment can’t fix.
A set of conditions becomes a disorder when they have a significant negative impact on a person. It’s the difference between "oh I’m so OCD giggle"and “if I don’t flip the light switch exactly four times, someone will die”. Even under perfect conditions, there are still negative impacts.
Declassifying it only hurts patients as then insurance and society at large world be given no reason to cut a little slack (for lack of a faster description).
Nope, it’s definitely in my head.
It causes significant impairment on my ability to live my life, regardless of the environment I am in.
There is no change in environment that will solve ADHD.
