> As someone diagnosed with ADHD later in life, a lot of these ADHD superpowers are just the result of taking dopaminergic stimulants. Especially the hyper focu

> As someone diagnosed with ADHD later in life, a lot of these ADHD superpowers are just the result of taking dopaminergic stimulants. Especially the hyper focus and feeling superior to people staring out the window or failing to heads-down work for several hours straight. This is the complete opposite of my experience. A lot of my life has been dominated by a hyper-focus that feels like it isn't under my control. I would stay awake reading until I can't think anymore with relentless pursuit of something that was entirely non-relevant to critical priorities in my life. I very recently (past couple of months) started taking stimulants, and one of the biggest differences for me was the feeling of desperation to pursue was greatly relaxed. Not gone, but definitely not as intense. I think a lot of the problem here is the definition of focus is overloaded. For me, there are (at least) two distinct levels of focus on different time scales. I define short-term focus as stability on task level executive function. Can you tolerate a brief interruption and go back to what you were doing? Or plan ahead for the next task? This ability is absolutely compromised relative to the population norm for me. I have essentially 0 local stability. On a longer time scale, I think a similar stability notion applies. I frequently get completely engrossed for periods of a few weeks on a topic - beyond healthy levels of interest. But one day, it's just gone - vapid. Time for some serious hand waving: my mental model of what stimulants do to me decrease the activation threshold for picking something in an executive space. By lowering this plane, it's easier for me to remain more stable as the surface is a lot more clear. I'm curious to know if what I'm saying sounds like 100% bullshit though - I haven't really talked through this mental model with anybody.