Honestly, I knew this before I knew I had ADHD. I was in a situation that at least felt “life or death” when I was ~15. In retrospect, it wasn’t that big of an

Honestly, I knew this before I knew I had ADHD. I was in a situation that at least felt “life or death” when I was ~15. In retrospect, it wasn’t that big of an issue, but for me at the time it was an absolute emergency. When the situation became apparent to me, it was like flipping a switch: my mind went completely silent, time seemed to slow, and my emotions kinda faded into the background. I knew they were there, but rather than experience them I only saw how I felt about things as data to make a decision. Since then I’ve been in a handful of situations that made me feel that way. One of those was a potential car accident where I was able to analyze and react to a dangerous situation in time to pull off a crazy maneuver where I drove up on an (empty) sidewalk at ~40MPH and get back on the pavement before hitting a culvert, with about 12” to spare. In everyday life, the sooner the deadline, the more work I have left to do, and the larger the consequences of not getting it done in time - the less I have to struggle with focus/attention.