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Honest question because you're right, I haven't talked to ADHD adults: Does it affect your life? If so, are you able to achieve goals you set for yourself or f

by zengid 9y ago

Honest question because you're right, I haven't talked to ADHD adults: Does it affect your life? If so, are you able to achieve goals you set for yourself or finish self-motivated tasks with greater ease than other tasks, or is it equally difficult to focus on completing anything?

jhayward 9y ago
You're assuming that I have ADHD. I've never been diagnosed as that. I do have several family members who are ADHD and it profoundly limits their lives when not well-treated. ADHD is a complex disorder. There are at least 7 different so-called "executive function" cognitive abilities that can be affected, each to a varying degree. But the most common one people discuss is inability to control focus. This can mean that you can't finish reading a single page of something you really want to understand, or that you can't stop reading something that's completely not what you should be doing. Hyperfocus and inability to focus are parts of the same disorder. Imagine spending a week, 8-10 hours per day, sitting at your computer trying to get a couple hour task done and never succeeding even though it is well within your skill, ability, and training, just because you can't concentrate. Also affected are things like time awareness, planning, visualizing outcomes, controlling impulses, and a few others. Many of these things fall in to what people steeped in the Western "protestant work ethic" see as moral failings; lack of effort, lack of "will", letting people down, etc. The irony is that folks with ADHD will actually work far harder to accomplish things than neurotypicals, while being labeled as lazy, worthless, unreliable, etc. ADHD is also often found with co-morbidities, that is disorders that show up together. Most frequent of these are generalized anxiety, and depression. This is why it takes a very well trained and experienced professional to be able to tease out a good diagnosis and treatment plan, because treating the underlying condition is required, not the symptoms. Once you become aware of how it can affect people it becomes rather easy to see it in folks, or at least to be aware that they could be struggling with it. That's why you see me, for instance, suggest to some folks they get evaluated by a professional when they ask for help in certain circumstances. Your ability to understand and relate to a lot of the people around you will be enhanced if you take the time and effort to understand what ADHD is, and how it affects folks, so I urge you to continue to do so.

by zengid 9y ago

jhayward 9y ago

You're assuming that I have ADHD. I've never been diagnosed as that. I do have several family members who are ADHD and it profoundly limits their lives when not well-treated. ADHD is a complex disorder. There are at least 7 different so-called "executive function" cognitive abilities that can be affected, each to a varying degree. But the most common one people discuss is inability to control focus. This can mean that you can't finish reading a single page of something you really want to understand, or that you can't stop reading something that's completely not what you should be doing. Hyperfocus and inability to focus are parts of the same disorder. Imagine spending a week, 8-10 hours per day, sitting at your computer trying to get a couple hour task done and never succeeding even though it is well within your skill, ability, and training, just because you can't concentrate. Also affected are things like time awareness, planning, visualizing outcomes, controlling impulses, and a few others. Many of these things fall in to what people steeped in the Western "protestant work ethic" see as moral failings; lack of effort, lack of "will", letting people down, etc. The irony is that folks with ADHD will actually work far harder to accomplish things than neurotypicals, while being labeled as lazy, worthless, unreliable, etc. ADHD is also often found with co-morbidities, that is disorders that show up together. Most frequent of these are generalized anxiety, and depression. This is why it takes a very well trained and experienced professional to be able to tease out a good diagnosis and treatment plan, because treating the underlying condition is required, not the symptoms. Once you become aware of how it can affect people it becomes rather easy to see it in folks, or at least to be aware that they could be struggling with it. That's why you see me, for instance, suggest to some folks they get evaluated by a professional when they ask for help in certain circumstances. Your ability to understand and relate to a lot of the people around you will be enhanced if you take the time and effort to understand what ADHD is, and how it affects folks, so I urge you to continue to do so.