Reading the web and watching the YouTube's yields a plethora of little attention hacks that apparently really help people with their ADHD, but leave me feeling completely alienated because absolutely none of them work for me. In fact, I just don't even implement them, just sort of eye them suspisciously from a distance.

It feels a little reminscent of the advice I'd get for depression in that the bulk of advice seems targetted towards people with less severe forms, and both writers and readers can say, "Wow! Thanks! This really worked for me!"

The feeling that I had earlier that, "OK, now I have a diagnosis, I can start treating the problem" is evaporating away I'm left with a despair that comes from having a version of ADHD that is seemingly not treatable and not work-aroundable and is actually and irrevocably debilitating.

Getting an eval in a week

Edit: If anyone has resources for severe ADHD instead of this Stephen Covery organizational bullshit, please drop it in the comments.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 2 points 3 days ago (1 child)

Problem is that Autism and ADHD are both just categories, not specific enough alone. But the specific ways that they manifest can be very different for each person. So not all advice is going to apply to every person. For me, the way I've figured out most things is talking to lots of other people who have the conditions and figuring out what applies to me and then trying the things they do to mitigate those specific issues.

Also, the fact that these diagnoses are often treated as "diseases" is pretty misleading. For the vast majority, they are only disabilities because society makes them disabling. Much like someone who is missing an arm could probably not have as much trouble using a computer if keyboards were made for people with one arm, much of society is designed for people who can focus at will, have the ability to form habits like getting up at a certain hour of the day and completing their daily routines and commutes without using any significant mental effort as opposed to many of us who are already tired by the time we first get to work and who get distracted constantly by open floor plans in offices, etc.

  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] [S] 1 point 2 days ago

    Yes, I'm fully on board with the social model of disability. People's need for incessant need for chitchat and constant validation is their fucking disability as far as I'm concerned, but somehow the world has managed to make it my probloem.

    But the ADHD side of things for me is where it really does feel like a disability, when an important project sits unattended on my desk, or a piano goes unplayed, or blankets unwashed, or papers un-gone-through, for weeks or months, all that start to feel like a disability because there isn't anything between me and the tasks but myself.

  • source
  • parent