mercifulfuzziness
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GAS: Doctor's ADHD video segment rings true
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mercifulfuzziness
Shredder
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So for those with ADHD. Can you relate?
Downloaded a game on phone yesterday. Now I am at level 17 of sim city built it. Apparently something you can do months about.
Downloaded a game on phone yesterday. Now I am at level 17 of sim city built it. Apparently something you can do months about.
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Yup. My mental health steadily has improved when I put it in my hands
and stopped lacking accountability and blaming external factors.
Obviously, being empowered is kind of a privilege, and having choices
others maybe do not is kind of a thing in and of itself. That said, when I got
serious about what I could do constructively EACH and EVERY day to
augment and protect my mental health I found that it has been more effective than
any other single thing. And this while I am going through an obstacle
course of middle-aged life passages (aging/dying parents, personal
health issues from wear and tear, child leaving home and growing up,
empty nesting, etc. and so forth).
It's my responsibility what I do and don't do---and even when I am exposed
to the culture and world we live in I can control (somewhat) the flow of
what enters my world and how much I allow it to negatively impact me. That's
why I don't watch a lot of TV. :lol
Knowing ourselves, and what lifts us up and what tears us down is vital. Maybe
nothing else is more vital for our well-being.
Can't blame the world for Eternity, can we??
TubeStack
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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?
Yes, video def seems on point with forum behaviour and GAS. I would add that many of us seem to be neuro-divergent/on the spectrum in some way. There's a LOT of fixation on specific amps, modelers, brands, UIs, etc, myself included (Electra Dyne love, anyone?
). Particularly the endless discussion of UI on modelers, it's quite remarkable, really. Seemingly an endless appetite for it.
newholland
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its funny how this stuff manifests for sure. ive never had the 'purchasing' aspect cause im just always limited on income- but if im gonna buy something, ive done TONS of asking, playing, research, etc up front. i dont think if you asked anyone who's seen how i operate if im AuDHD and they can recognize the symptoms they could possibly say 'naahhhh' 
but the way it shows up is in the obsession with auditory intangibles and finding sonic solutions to problems- which is confusing cause you cant always just BUY it.. so its another layer removed from GAS, and even more inscrutable
but the way it shows up is in the obsession with auditory intangibles and finding sonic solutions to problems- which is confusing cause you cant always just BUY it.. so its another layer removed from GAS, and even more inscrutable
mercifulfuzziness
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Hi fellow ADHDers,
The last couple of months I had a sabbatical and got really into a hyper focus with guitar. Now the hyper focus is gone and as you might now… now the motivation is also gone.
How do you deal with that? Would it be best to just pick it up anyhow for 30 minutes a day?
The last couple of months I had a sabbatical and got really into a hyper focus with guitar. Now the hyper focus is gone and as you might now… now the motivation is also gone.
How do you deal with that? Would it be best to just pick it up anyhow for 30 minutes a day?
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I'm not ADHD, but I do go through the ups and downs like everyone else. Especially the last few weeks, I've been so busy with work that playing guitar has taken a backseat. Picking it up everyday is a good habit though, only if for a little bit. The key for me is when I'm inspired and ready to write or play, I put in the time when I can and try not to make excuses.
mercifulfuzziness
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Same here, I am getting ready for my new work project.
So I am now forcing myself to play 20-30 minutes a day.
JiveTurkey
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It's amazing the stuff you just push down/bat away when you are young only to realize it was, in fact; a thing after all. Good on your for taking a look at it and addressing it!
Boudoir Guitar
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I wrote the following opening line in an email this morning, in response to a query we had made with one of my son's teachers about whether he was getting the late-in-the-day executive function check-in to make sure he understood what due dates were upcoming and whether he needed to take care of some work/studying at home, etc:
"Thanks (sp. ed. teacher) for reaching out! I had intended to email you last week, but had a little trouble figuring out the new way the school's website handles emailing teachers, instead of just listing email addresses, and tabled it for later ((son's name) comes by his executive function challenges honestly)."
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Man, the difference a year can make!
I was barely even talking about getting diagnosed myself when this thread was started, but I got diagnosed this past Spring. Along with a Major Depressive Disorder diagnosis that I wasn’t expecting. Initially I was kind of offended at the diagnosis, but once I understood what it meant I could only agree. I’m not depressed often, but when I do get it I have a pretty hard time shaking it off.
It appears the ADHD is what causes the depression in most cases, like 99.8% of it. I get behind on work, start coming down on myself and then I have this nice little world of anxiety and “You’re going to get fired!” thoughts running through my head. As long as I can stay on top of stuff, I’m fine.
We tried 2 different, non-stimulant meds before switching to Adderall, which worked immediately. (There’s a whole story about me taking adderall before this and how I knew as soon as I took it that I needed to be on it, which is why I went and saw the docs and did things the right way instead of buying it on the street). I’m on 15mg a day right now but will probably be bumping up to 20 next month.
I hate the idea of being on prescription drugs, especially this one, but it turned my entire life around the day I started taking it. My sleep is now regulated, I have an actual appetite and get hungry at the times I should be hungry and I don’t require 5 cups of coffee before leaving my house in the morning. Every few weeks I’ll stop taking the adderal to see how I respond to life without it and I can see my exit ramp much clearer as a result of that.
I intend on being on it for maybe another year and by then I should have everything in place to jump off. I’m basically building healthy habits for myself and making them stick, once I have a few things ingrained as a routine I should be good to go as long as I’m mindful of it all and don’t let my brain get away from me.
I was barely even talking about getting diagnosed myself when this thread was started, but I got diagnosed this past Spring. Along with a Major Depressive Disorder diagnosis that I wasn’t expecting. Initially I was kind of offended at the diagnosis, but once I understood what it meant I could only agree. I’m not depressed often, but when I do get it I have a pretty hard time shaking it off.
It appears the ADHD is what causes the depression in most cases, like 99.8% of it. I get behind on work, start coming down on myself and then I have this nice little world of anxiety and “You’re going to get fired!” thoughts running through my head. As long as I can stay on top of stuff, I’m fine.
We tried 2 different, non-stimulant meds before switching to Adderall, which worked immediately. (There’s a whole story about me taking adderall before this and how I knew as soon as I took it that I needed to be on it, which is why I went and saw the docs and did things the right way instead of buying it on the street). I’m on 15mg a day right now but will probably be bumping up to 20 next month.
I hate the idea of being on prescription drugs, especially this one, but it turned my entire life around the day I started taking it. My sleep is now regulated, I have an actual appetite and get hungry at the times I should be hungry and I don’t require 5 cups of coffee before leaving my house in the morning. Every few weeks I’ll stop taking the adderal to see how I respond to life without it and I can see my exit ramp much clearer as a result of that.
I intend on being on it for maybe another year and by then I should have everything in place to jump off. I’m basically building healthy habits for myself and making them stick, once I have a few things ingrained as a routine I should be good to go as long as I’m mindful of it all and don’t let my brain get away from me.
TacoParty
Groupie
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Thanks for sharing.
I was diagnosed with ADHD (in my 50s) back in January, tried a few of the other drugs too and it was adderall that finally helped. I had the major depressive diagnosis 7 months earlier. My psychiatrist is good, but never really discussed how ADHD could be the cause of my depression. Makes sense to me now and I'm doing much better.
I went down an ADHD rabbit hole on YouTube last night after stumbling on this thread, actually some good info on Youtube about dealing with it. Lead me to a few books on dealing with it, and I plan to discuss it with my psych at the next meeting.
My wife promised to watch that video to help her understand how our ADHD brains work. We have a great relationship, but she doesn't understand why it is so hard for me to accomplish certain tasks, and I struggle to explain it to her. I told her it's not an excuse, just how it is and I can't just decide not to have this, but now I am discovering the tools I need to live with it and still be productive. For the record, I am productive (for the most part) at work and the main source of income for our family.
I only take the adderall on work days, or when I feel I need the focus for something I'm not into but it has to get done, like menial but required paperwork. It's not like an SRSI that you have to take everyday with consequences to suddenly stopping. I was on one of those for a few months and noticed no help from it at all. I'm thankful for the ADHD diagnosis because now I know what I need to do and learning how to move forward with it.
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Man, if I had this diagnosis when I was married, while I’d still be divorced now I think it would have changed things considerably. All the symptoms were things on an actual list my ex-wife was keeping on me, which I didn’t even know about until after we were divorced. Apparently, to make her feel justified in her abhorrent behavior, she started keeping a list of things I did that pissed her off-
“Left cup on living room table before bed”
“Forgot to make dinner by 7PM”
“Needed to be reminded to fix the shed”
etc
….all while ignoring the fact that I had been promoted to my current position right before all this started and my full attention was on not fucking up a job I got, at her beckoning, because it was a massive opportunity people normally aren’t given. Shit, I’m STILL learning this job 6 years later!
That said, I can absolutely understand how me not even recognizing a lot of shit would be infuriating to someone with some OCD issues. I tried explaining it to my boss the other day, making an example about some boxes in my kitchen by the trash- “I have some empty boxes I need to break down and bring to recycling, I see them every single time I throw something in the trash but I never, ever think ‘Oh, I gotta take care of these boxes right now’ when it happens. I might see them, I might even think about the fact they have to go in the trash, but ‘have to go in the trash right now before I forget’ will not enter my head.
The depression aspect can make it REALLY fricken tough to navigate at times, as that diagnosis generally comes along with self-worth issues and I know I have a big thing about asking myself “is it worth it?” when it comes time to put effort into something and I’ll find allllll kinds of justifications for why something isn’t worth doing at the time it should be done. Ultimately, “Is it worth it?” actually means “Am *I* worth it?” and that’s how I’ve been pushing myself to get more shit done consistently.
A lot of times I have to think about how I’ll feel after something is done, rather than focusing on finding the motivation to just do it. IE- I really make an effort to meal prep on Sundays so I can have a week of not worrying about breakfast/lunch, if I think about going to the store to buy everything then prepping it all, I’ll talk myself out of it somehow, but if I focus on how nice it’ll be to not be starving by 12pm while ignoring hunger pangs because I’m too busy to leave work, I’ll get it done.
Good luck, man!! The bigger hurdle is already past, now it’s all the tiny little fuckers to keep stepping over!
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CONSIDERABLY!!!!!!!
And fortunately. That first half of 2025 I was paycheck to paycheck while paying off Echo’s surgery and I really didn’t have money to be blowing, I feel like had I not been medicated during much of that time I would have found a way to let compulsion get the best of me.
Also, I wrote a lot about my father in the beginning of this thread and how ADHD has affected him, well, he lost his house this year and things didn’t turn out so well for him. For the week he lasted at my place I nagged on him about getting on his meds (he has a prescription for ritalin) and he ultimately said that they make life too boring for him “and life just passes by”, which just told me “I don’t get the same rush from buying/wheeling/dealing shit when I’m medicated”. He eventually left without saying a word because he realized I wasn’t going to let him continue fucking around while living in my place, then lived in his car for 4 months before moving to Cali.
mavrick102000
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The question really is what are you hyper-focusing on now?
It's more complicated than just hyper-focus. The symptoms described as part of ADHD also cross that boundary into Autism, and also to people without either particular disorder. ADHD will have several other accompanying indicators before a diagnosis can be made.
Additionally, one of the leading Psychiatrists/Psychologists admitted to loosening the criteria for Autism under the diagnosis of Asperger's (Aspi's) to group more people into the overall group - I believe the article mentioned that it was to help people feel more connected or something of that sort, but it was also to boost counseling numbers - so a good and bad intention/outcome. When actually many people are just that way,/different and are not particularly "on the spectrum."
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In my experience, yeah, picking it up for just 30 minutes or even 5, with the mindset of “I have no goal, I just HAVE to play” is often how something will come out of it that inspires me to jump in the studio. As long as I have a fresh riff or song to dive into, I’m good to go, I just need to keep those ideas flowing regularly.
I’m kind of fortunate in that my hyper focus stuff tends to be like a garden hose- I just need to point it in a direction and it’ll do it’s thing but if I’m not mindful of where it’s pointed, it can make a mess. Work and music are where I keep it pointed. While work doesn’t thrill me as much as music does, I navigate it by finding things about a particular project that I’ll really enjoy and use that as the motivator until it’s done.
I have no passion for maintenance/construction work or the discussion of it, but I DO love getting a job completed as perfectly as it can be, love finding ways to make it easier/cost less and I love seeing people stoked about the work when it’s all done, so I try to keep that hyper focus on the end result or big picture, rather than the day to day stuff.
mavrick102000
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Oh yeah. Super hyper focus.
That's how I roll on many things, it wanes a bit earlier these days because I'm older, but it's never completely gone.
Working on stuff for the home network/personal cloud - because fuck Windows 11 Spyware bullshit, I spent a month researching my options.
I still work in IT but I haven't been the technical SME for quite a while, and I needed to get better at LINUX, NAS, firewall, ids/ips etc and all of the stuff I had forgotten or never needed to learn before moving into Project and Program Management. It was every day after work until nearly bedtime, then laying out the plan of purchase, which items and diagramming everything including a few different runs of ethernet, that didn't exist at the time.
My wife gets worried when I get quiet and seem focused on something, because she knows from history there is usually a large purchase or several coming at the end of my quiet time. Then I don't stop doing whatever it is until it's done, or I hit a roadblock and head down some other rabbit hole to solve it. Sometimes I pick up a few new ideas along the way - which may or may not include other purchases for completely unrelated items for the next new thing I want to do and the cycle continues.