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> "I'd rather cut my toenails with a rusty butter knife than write the paper." > Okay, perhaps that's a slight exaggeration. I have ADHD, this is not an exagg

> "I'd rather cut my toenails with a rusty butter knife than write the paper." > Okay, perhaps that's a slight exaggeration. I have ADHD, this is not an exaggeration. I actually really like your example. It's literally how it feels like. I remember being in school and doing things like lining up my pencil with the rays of light coming from outside, and then trying to outline the shadow of my pencil with a different pen. I would spend an entire class on that instead of listening to a single word the professor said. The worst part about it is that part of you knows the professor is sharing interesting stuff, it just that your brain tells you its boring.

mikelyons 10y ago
it's like a lack of motivation to the point of abhorring any expended effort on a task because it's _THAT_ worthless of a pursuit to you. It's like you endure pain that other people don't experience just to do normal activities if you don't find them fascinating.
coroxout 10y ago
I can relate to (what you wrote and also) "I'd rather cut my toenails with a rusty butter knife than write the paper", but even more "I'd rather cut my toenails with a rusty butter knife than be the kind of person that still isn't writing the paper even though it's 11pm on the day before the deadline but, oh, look, I'm still not writing the paper and now I'm actively running round the kitchen looking for butter knives as if they'd actually get me out of writing the paper, and now I'm cleaning the kitchen worktop for the first time in several months instead, and now I'm 10 pages deep on a Google search for what kind of spider I saw in the kitchen, and oh crap now it's midnight and I'm still the worthless jerk that hasn't started their paper" I don't know if I have ADHD, though. Admittedly I wrote the above in a fairly exaggerated-ADHD way, and it's all the kind of thing I do actually do, but... no diagnosis, maybe just anxious about failure or lazy instead.
barsonme 10y ago
> The worst part about it is that part of you knows the professor is sharing interesting stuff, it just that your brain tells you its boring. Yes! I remember sitting in class and hearing the professor say, "This is important and will be on the test" and continuing to daydream or fiddle with something else, even though I knew I needed to pay attention.

mikelyons 10y ago

it's like a lack of motivation to the point of abhorring any expended effort on a task because it's _THAT_ worthless of a pursuit to you. It's like you endure pain that other people don't experience just to do normal activities if you don't find them fascinating.

coroxout 10y ago

I can relate to (what you wrote and also) "I'd rather cut my toenails with a rusty butter knife than write the paper", but even more "I'd rather cut my toenails with a rusty butter knife than be the kind of person that still isn't writing the paper even though it's 11pm on the day before the deadline but, oh, look, I'm still not writing the paper and now I'm actively running round the kitchen looking for butter knives as if they'd actually get me out of writing the paper, and now I'm cleaning the kitchen worktop for the first time in several months instead, and now I'm 10 pages deep on a Google search for what kind of spider I saw in the kitchen, and oh crap now it's midnight and I'm still the worthless jerk that hasn't started their paper" I don't know if I have ADHD, though. Admittedly I wrote the above in a fairly exaggerated-ADHD way, and it's all the kind of thing I do actually do, but... no diagnosis, maybe just anxious about failure or lazy instead.

barsonme 10y ago

> The worst part about it is that part of you knows the professor is sharing interesting stuff, it just that your brain tells you its boring. Yes! I remember sitting in class and hearing the professor say, "This is important and will be on the test" and continuing to daydream or fiddle with something else, even though I knew I needed to pay attention.