mercifulfuzziness
Shredder
- Messages
- 1,034
Yeah it feels blessed to be able to do it, but when I work it’s 40-50 a week and it can be rather stressful.
GAS: Doctor's ADHD video segment rings true
- Thread starter jellodog
- Start date
Yeah it feels blessed to be able to do it, but when I work it’s 40-50 a week and it can be rather stressful.
mercifulfuzziness
Shredder
- Messages
- 1,034
Oh damn I just impulsively bought an York IR
fetishfrog
Groupie
- Messages
- 90
Adult ADHD has always been here, it was just never really diagnosed in the past.
It's also worth nothing there are multiple types of ADHD. I have been formally diagnosed with the Inattentive Type ADHD, which doesn't manifest as hyperactivity and impulsivity, but as you can guess, my mind will wander if I am not hyperfocused on something.
I don't take meds for it, but have to work to maintain control over it. Hard exercise, less coffee (although some actually helps, too much is bad) and setting a schedule really helps. Cell phones are the devil.
On the plus side, I can task switch really well. In fact, I get bored when I don't.
mercifulfuzziness
Shredder
- Messages
- 1,034
It’s always funny when people mention how calm of a person I am, and yes .. I am
1. In hyper focus
2. To the outside world
JasonE
Roadie
- Messages
- 601
Consulting doesn't work that way for everyone. I have been a consultant for a period of my career. I was as tied to that job if not more than any other job I have had. There are always tight deadlines that have to be met.
Jarick
Rock Star
- Messages
- 3,534
Yeah it was a part time consulting gig for some small projects that needed to get knocked out. Pretty easy stuff.
Those major consulting jobs I would avoid like the plague. They may pay really well but the demands can be really high. The contracting company doesn't care about work life balance and burnout.
fetishfrog
Groupie
- Messages
- 90
I can relate
- Messages
- 9,889
Overall, I believe these issues/disabilities/whatever you want to call them are a product of the world we live in today. I simply don't want to pay attention to the majority of things I have to pay attention to in order to sustain my life and all the energy put into that sucks the energy out for the shit I DO want to do.
Depression/ADHD - AKA - "This is not the life I would choose for myself, but there's no other way to survive without taking part in the rat race"
Depression/ADHD - AKA - "This is not the life I would choose for myself, but there's no other way to survive without taking part in the rat race"
mercifulfuzziness
Shredder
- Messages
- 1,034
Maybe. But the world was like this then in the 90s? Because I got diagnosed around that time period.
the swede
Shredder
- Messages
- 2,107
My take is that one doesn’t have to have a diagnosis to be troubled with these things. Trust me, no adhd or other diagnoses here.
It’s about learning who you are and what you need to do to make it work for you. In my case, i just need simple things. Option paralysis and ocd and tweaking is my weakness, so i need to use the gear that doesn’t lead me to those things. Then i can find my creative side.
It’s different for everyone.
Truth to be told. I am amazed and impressed by those that do have different diagnoses and can handle things like modelers and stuff. It’s a challenge for sure.
Boudoir Guitar
Rock Star
- Messages
- 4,144
Video: ADD/ADHD | What Is Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder?
So I was watching this video of a doctor helping to explain to "normal" people what ADHD is like for those suffering from the issue.
It's only a 50 second section, then the doctor moves on to another example. He's talking about intense purchasing activity.
Timestamped link starts at 13:39 :
I am not diagnosed with the disorder, but boy did this short section seem VERY familiar concerning my intense research and GAS behaviour.
Do others here have suspicions that some of their GAS behaviours may be related to an ADHD brain, whether diagnosed or not?
Yeah, I'd say one of the diagnostic questions could be "do you spend 1 or more hours per day posting on a hobby-related Internet forum?"
Our fam is neurospicey. As with a lot of folks, diagnostics in my kids has led to some realizations in my wife and I about how this maaaaaay not have just come out of the blue in them
I talked to my doc about whether ADHD can get worse with age, or "appear" in adulthood and was told that no, that what I was experiencing was my life getting more complicated in ways that the skills I'd developed to cope with my ADHD for the previous 40 years weren't really useful with.
Since finishing college I have chosen endeavors that have me hyper focused on long extended projects (sometimes years) that don't involve much multi-tasking, and often don't require a whole lot of coordinated co-working - brainstorming sessions, yes; "let's meet to put fit what I've done and what you've done together into a single cohesive piece without feeling like we need to just redo the whole thing" not so much. My current gig involves singular projects that last at least 6 hours, often 12-18 hours, one after the other without much change-up, and very little collaboration. Very little multi-tasking. Each project is very similar to the previous one. It's a job with a fair amount of turn over rate because despite the pay-per-hour-of-life-lost and benefits being REALLY great, most people find it to be just fucking miserable after 6-12 months. Those of us that remain -- I imagine my workplace is like, laps ahead in the horse race for "most neurodivergent work place on the planet".
- Messages
- 6,753
This is an interesting topic, and possibly having ADHD is something I have considered for the better part of a decade. I've never pursued a diagnosis.
I have also experienced depression on and off since I was about 9 years old, and I just turned 40 this year. I definitely had "behavioural" problems as a kid; couldn't focus very well at school, used to run out of class and hide in the assembly hall, used to skip school all the time; that backfired one day when I came home to my dad having a heart attack (he died).
Purchasing urges; I genuinely kept myself awake for multiple nights in a row, just dreaming about the Axe FX III and what I could do with it. Then I sold it, and the same thing happened, so I bought it AGAIN less than 3 months later!
You've probably gathered, when I type on forums I am very verbose. Even this topic, I can't just go "yeah bro, I might have it lol" ... I have to kind of think in realtime, and type as I'm thinking, in order to go through the process of connecting dots.
The quote he says around 6:20 in the video: If it is something I'm interesting in, I can pay attention. If not, I can't.
That sums up MY ENTIRE BLOODY LIFE - school, homelife as a child, homelife as an adult, work, bands, etc etc.
Must be an age thing, but I often wonder how much potential I've squandered in my life; I beat myself up a lot because I'm not disciplined, don't have willpower, etc etc.
Sleep is a big issue for me. I can't turn my brain off at night.
As I say; an interesting topic to me. I see a lot of symptoms in me, and have experiences that could be accounted to ADHD across my life.
I have also experienced depression on and off since I was about 9 years old, and I just turned 40 this year. I definitely had "behavioural" problems as a kid; couldn't focus very well at school, used to run out of class and hide in the assembly hall, used to skip school all the time; that backfired one day when I came home to my dad having a heart attack (he died).
Purchasing urges; I genuinely kept myself awake for multiple nights in a row, just dreaming about the Axe FX III and what I could do with it. Then I sold it, and the same thing happened, so I bought it AGAIN less than 3 months later!
You've probably gathered, when I type on forums I am very verbose. Even this topic, I can't just go "yeah bro, I might have it lol" ... I have to kind of think in realtime, and type as I'm thinking, in order to go through the process of connecting dots.
The quote he says around 6:20 in the video: If it is something I'm interesting in, I can pay attention. If not, I can't.
That sums up MY ENTIRE BLOODY LIFE - school, homelife as a child, homelife as an adult, work, bands, etc etc.
Must be an age thing, but I often wonder how much potential I've squandered in my life; I beat myself up a lot because I'm not disciplined, don't have willpower, etc etc.
Sleep is a big issue for me. I can't turn my brain off at night.
As I say; an interesting topic to me. I see a lot of symptoms in me, and have experiences that could be accounted to ADHD across my life.
Last edited:
Boudoir Guitar
Rock Star
- Messages
- 4,144
"My resume is a list of things I never want to do again" was kind of similar meme for me recently and this explains why that meme hit me kinda hard -- resume is basically a documented trail of my life's work to outwit that guy and that process requiring several, VERY sharp turns after years of effort in one direction only to get to the point of "oh shit, this path isn't working. The lazy bum will never see this coming -- throw it in reverse!!"
Boudoir Guitar
Rock Star
- Messages
- 4,144
Something something emotional regulation and I wind up in hyper detailed steamy arguments with strangers on the internet about guitar gear where even the other weird strangers on the internet that are super invested in guitar gear stopped paying attention 25 posts ago?!? You say that might be a red flag, huh, doc?
- Messages
- 6,753
Well gee...Something something emotional regulation and I wind up in hyper detailed steamy arguments with strangers on the internet about guitar gear where even the other weird strangers on the internet that are super invested in guitar gear stopped paying attention 25 posts ago?!? You say that might be a red flag, huh, doc?
I feel seen.
Boudoir Guitar
Rock Star
- Messages
- 4,144
To be fair, I was muttering about myself. But it does take two to...Well gee...
I feel seen.
jellodog
Rock Star
- Messages
- 4,627
LOL. I ruminate on this question most days!
Neurospicey! I love it!
I'm definitely going to adopt this label for myself.
I don't know quite what I am, or what my neurological pathology officially is, but I'm definitely "different".
Fortunately, I work with a bunch of people that are either on the soft end of the autistic spectrum, or ADHD and even a genuine OCD sufferer (i.e. not in the way that people colloquially use that term when they aren't really OCD) - that's the software world for ya! So my quirks don't really seem to register as out of the ordinary with my work colleagues.
This resonates with me. For the longest time, I felt bad about not being a multitasker. As a young man, I recall my first job's appraisal process where I was rated for multi-tasking. For years afterwards I felt bad that I didn't feel I was a multitasker and that I was somehow less useful in my roles.
Then one day, I just came to the realisation that this multi-tasking yardstick was bullshit and moved on! Why should I be rated on this, when it has no value in the way that I work and I still get results?
I now tell anyone that will listen "multi-tasking is overrated" - that's my motto; and there's an implicit, "if you disagree, fight me!" tacked onto the end of my personal statement.
An odd thing I've observed though: over the years, nobody disagrees with me any more. Nobody disagrees that multi-tasking isn't a virtue and is overrated, and that I prefer to hyper focus on a task, complete it to the fullest extent and then move on, never needing to look at it again. I've brought this up with a bunch of managers in the industry and now they agree with me, which I didn't expect based on my early experiences of workplaces where they didn't.
Society seems to have moved on - maybe because of the attention span attrition attributed to mobile computing, social media etc., that has already been noted in this thread; so I'm a better fit for the world now more than I ever was before.
Last edited:
mercifulfuzziness
Shredder
- Messages
- 1,034
It’s pretty eye opening to have had adhd your whole life, learned to deal with it and then get a daughter who is neurospicey.
So many aha-moments
So many aha-moments
mercifulfuzziness
Shredder
- Messages
- 1,034
LOL. I ruminate on this question most days!
Neurospicey! I love it!
I'm definitely going to adopt this label for myself.
I don't know quite what I am, or what my neurological pathology officially is, but I'm definitely "different".
Fortunately, I work with a bunch of people that are either on the soft end of the autistic spectrum, or ADHD and even a genuine OCD sufferer (i.e. not in the way that people colloquially use that term when they aren't really OCD) - that's the software world for ya! So my quirks don't really seem to register as out of the ordinary with my work colleagues.
This resonates with me. For the longest time, I felt bad about not being a multitasker. As a young man, I recall my first job's appraisal process where I was rated for multi-tasking. For years afterwards I felt bad that I didn't feel I was a multitasker and that I was somehow less useful in my roles.
Then one day, I just came to the realisation that this multi-tasking yardstick was bullshit and moved on! Why should I be rated on this, when it has no value in the way that I work and I still get results?
I now tell anyone that will listen "multi-tasking is overrated" - that's my motto; and there's an implicit, "if you disagree, fight me!" tacked onto the end of my personal statement.
An odd thing I've observed though: over the years, nobody disagrees with me any more. Nobody disagrees that multi-tasking isn't a virtue and is overrated, and that I prefer to hyper focus on a task, complete it to the fullest extent and then move on, never needing to look at it again. I've brought this up with a bunch of managers in the industry and now they agree with me, which I didn't expect based on my early experiences of workplaces where they didn't.
Society seems to have moved on - maybe because of the attention span attrition attributed to mobile computing, social media etc., that has already been noted in this thread; so I'm a better fit for the world now more than I ever was before.
Also software here. It was really cool to meet colleagues who don’t find it weird I need to check it if I put the front door and back door on lock… even tho I knew I just did it.
At home we finally have induction. No more getting out of bed because my mind demands me to check if I put off the gas.
Boudoir Guitar
Rock Star
- Messages
- 4,144
My oldest son is diagnosed with autism (autism spectrum disorder; ASD), ADHD, and OCD. The only one of those three that feels like the "D" stands for "disability" rather than "difference" is OCD. Autism means that there are certain environments that can be disabling for him for sure, but it also means he sees/experiences the world in a really cool way and he has a wonderful ability to share what that experience is with others such that our family and his classmates also get small glimpses of the world from different angles that occasionally have pretty profound impacts on us. His position is that if anyone ever develops a "cure", he would have no interest in it.This resonates with me. For the longest time, I felt bad about not being a multitasker. As a young man, I recall my first job's appraisal process where I was rated for multi-tasking. For years afterwards I felt bad that I didn't feel I was a multitasker and that I was somehow less useful in my roles.
Then one day, I just came to the realisation that this multi-tasking yardstick was bullshit and moved on! Why should I be rated on this, when it has no value in the way that I work and I still get results?
I now tell anyone that will listen "multi-tasking is overrated" - that's my motto; and there's an implicit, "if you disagree, fight me!" tacked onto the end of my personal statement.
An odd thing I've observed though: over the years, nobody disagrees with me any more. Nobody disagrees that multi-tasking isn't a virtue and is overrated, and that I prefer to hyper focus on a task, complete it to the fullest extent and then move on, never needing to look at it again. I've brought this up with a bunch of managers in the industry and now they agree with me, which I didn't expect based on my early experiences of workplaces where they didn't.
Society seems to have moved on - maybe because of the attention span attrition attributed to mobile computing, social media etc., that has already been noted in this thread; so I'm a better fit for the world now more than I ever was before.
ADHD -- sure, it makes some aspects of meeting expectations challenging, but the ability to stay focused on something way longer than most people has huge benefits - someone recently said I must be a genius for learning to play guitar at my level by just sitting down with records and figuring it out and I replied almost in anger with "No. It's years and years of hours a day of hard work!" There are certain projects that I can knock further out of the park than anyone thought possible. But then there are other times when my "to do list" is "call around to a couple of people and see if they can help you figure out who to call to get simple answers to these three questions" and the check-in at the end of the day is "yeah, sorry, didn't get to that" when the actuality was "I sat for an hour and a half worried about who to call and how to frame a question that might make what I was looking for clear enough for them to help and also was worried they might have questions for me as to why I hadn't gotten answers tho this six months ago and so I never got started and instead picked up a guitar and played for another hour. I'm hoping to only waste 1 hour tomorrow instead of 2.5 hours before I can muster up the executive function needed for this simple thing."
OCD...just sucks. Thankfully, medication has worked wonders there for our son and while we can still see certain symptoms of a kid that struggles with uncertainty, it is no longer disabling.
Re: multitasking, due to differences in my work and my wife's, I have kind of become the primary caretaker for the kids the last 5 years in terms of the one that gets their lunches together, gets them off to school, gets them to doctors appointments (of which there have been many at times with that alphabet soup of diagnostics), orthodontist appointments, sports, theatre, music practices, and am kind of the main one that keeps up with whether they've done/doing homework, etc. I occasionally have near mental breakdowns trying to keep this going. Thankfully, it's a MUCH more tangible, real, thing than work-related multi-tasking so it's not like I can't figure out how to do it -- I just do it. But there are days I'm really REALLY exhausted from it. Thankfully my wife gets it. And understands why sometimes I come home with a 1956 Gibson ES-225T in addition to the Christmas presents I initially went shopping for
