Do I have ADHD?

I don’t know, but I certainly am distractible. I also don’t know if I’ve always been this way. I noticed my massive procrastination tendencies back in high school and my wandering mind while reading in college, but I don’t remember feeling so distractible until I started working at desk jobs toward the end of college. The Internet was always an easy click away. That’s why I work on my projects in my car so often. There are far fewer distractions there than practically anywhere else.

Part of me wishes I hadn’t been so quiet, well-behaved, and smart as a child. It might’ve motivated my parents to get me tested for something. As it is, I suspect myself of having a few low-grade conditions, but they haven’t even motivated me to get tested.

I definitely don’t have the hyperactive part of ADHD, just the attention deficit, so there’s a lot I can’t identify with in descriptions of people with the condition. I don’t have meltdowns, for example. But I don’t think I really hyperfocus either, though I can focus for long periods in the right (troublingly rare) circumstances. And I rarely lose things or forget obligations. I do, however, get a lot of ideas, and I have poor follow-through on my personal projects, though that’s more from distraction by other ideas and less from avoiding boring work.

I wrestle with my distractability daily. I wonder about ADHD occasionally. What brought on these reflections this time was finding How to ADHD’s YouTube channel via Twitter on Wednesday. She creates entertaining and helpful videos on managing ADHD in yourself or your child. I decided that even if I don’t have it, I can benefit from some of the ADHD advice people give. So the next day I searched YouTube and listened to some videos of techniques for focusing with ADHD (at work, of course). I actually got a decent amount done that day.

This has all prompted me to post on the wiki some reflections on focus I’ve collected. The article is in a rather blobby, meandering form right now, since I wrote it by basically journaling over a period of time. I’ll probably be rewriting and adding to it in the future.

Also, happy Holy Saturday!

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6 Responses to Do I have ADHD?

  1. Sumurai8 says:

    The real question is: Do you have feet? This is, likely, the real cause of your problems.

    • Andy says:

      I can neither confirm nor deny that I have feet.

      • Sumurai8 says:

        Anyway, music is what makes me concentrate the best. It drowns out other noises I shouldn’t be paying attention to, making it so much easier to focus on something I am reading, or writing.

        It sounds to me that you suffer from the chronic issue Curiosity. It can not be cured. Too many things have a name, but does it really matter in the end?

        • Andy says:

          Not even a lobotomy would help? Sigh. Maybe I really should be an academic. My rabbit trails might be more welcome. They might lead to new research.

          And yes, names matter, and everything should have one. 😛 Maybe I’ll post about it sometime.

  2. Linda W says:

    I would say no. Everyone is distractible.
    Happy Easter! The Lord is risen!

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