Written by Jennifer Cox LCPC
People with ADHD think differently. Do you know someone that has gone through the psychological testing and been diagnosed. Talk to them and see what their day is compared to yours.
So…
What are these differences in day-to-day life?
Why do people with ADHD do what they do?
The ADHD world is curvilinear. There is no past, present, or future – Everything is now. This is why people with ADHD have a hard time learning from the past or considering consequences of the future. There is no concept of time. It is all happening now or not at all.
Their attention is never a deficit. The ADHD nervous system is rarely at rest, wanting to engage in something interesting or challenging – Constating searching for stimuli. When they aren’t hyper focused on something, they will have a handful of thoughts racing through their minds, all at once, with no particular topic and for no obvious reason. Just imagine a handful of people talking to you all at once.
Why would you create crises to generate adrenaline? To get yourself engaged, of course. If your dopamine is naturally low (like someone with ADHD), sometimes you need a fire under you to get you going. The “masters of crises, waiting to the last minute”, handling these high-intense moments with ease, only to fall apart when things become routine once again. This is where frustration may set in as one reflects on this behavior.
When interested or challenged one is super focused, but when bored there are troubles with starting and maintaining progress. This leads to not being certain if they will or can engage when needed or show up when others depend on them. This is a lifelong struggle that takes a toll on one’s core beliefs, feeling undependable and unreliable.
The ADHD mind is a vast and unorganized library. It has tons of information, but not complete, it is more of fragments, bits and pieces of the topic. There is no card catalog for this library. There is no order or organization as to how this library is put together. Information that is out of sight is out of mind.
No wonder someone with ADHD tends to be overwhelmed:
- No past, present, and future or concept of time
- No sustained attention
- Constantly putting out fires
- Not trusting their abilities
- No reliable way to store information, so they can’t pull information from their library as needed
These are the differences, an explanation of how an ADHD brain functions differently.
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