Question for #ADHD folks - When you realized you had ADHD for real, did it bother you *more* because you were now constantly noticing all the times it derailed you?
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Not really... I found it has been more of an enhancer and has improved my abilities in most areas of life rather than been something that derails me... It is the ability to multitask, the necessity to multitask. at least thats how I see it.
@freemo My experience is that I've been derailed by it all my life, in so many ways, but never really could pin that on anything. Just a general dissatisfaction with my state of mind.
Now that I'm aware of not only the *very* likely diagnosis (halfway through that process, currently), I'm able to pin each and every occurrence on the condition. It's accompanied by frustration that it's happening, that it's likely (~80%) medicatable, and that I had to deal with it for my entire academic and work career. I shouldn't dwell on the past, but things would have been so much better...
It's definitely not an enhancer for me. The one thing that has improved marginally is that I've learned what *really* takes me away from a task (so I can avoid those things when I need to get stuff done), and that my best approach to getting stuff done is just do whatever is in front of me. I call it the "effective, not efficient" approach. When I need to get stuff done around the house, I end up doing a lot of flights of stairs 😄
@MichaelPorter I think your experience is more the norm honestly. I sometimes wonder though if thats because it is sold as a disease holding you back so people buy it and incorporate that assumption or what...
@freemo I get your point, but in my case the revelation I had was not that I had ADHD (I had assumed for many years that I had an undiagnosed case), but that it was very treatable. I’ve always suffered from the effects, but now that I’m in the middle of the diagnostic process (and as a result, doing a lot of digging around on my own) I’ve expanded the realization of what ADHD is doing to me, and I’m taking note of whenever I’m derailed. Combine that with the frustration of knowing there’s effective medical treatment, but I’m in the waiting room for it.
Not sure disease is the right word for it, as it’s genetic and built-in… but whatever you want to call it, it did hold me back for many, many years. I have a long list now of things that could have been had I not suffered from it.
@MichaelPorter i see afhd as more of a personality trait than a disease. It makes you superior at handling some types of tasks, big picture sorta stuff, but makes it harder to do other tasks, namely boring hyper specific stuff.
Adhd people tend to make good managers, and software architects for example.
@freemo I’m sure it depends on the severity of the condition. I was interested in department headships early in my teaching career (sort of a mini-management position, and a bridge between teachers and admin), but at some point realized my weaknesses (which were ADHD induced) would make occupying the position a disservice to myself and my staff.
But I can see where the hyper focus on stuff you are interested in would really help get things done, too. Definitely a mixed bag, and very situation dependent!