This disruption enforces the perception of the ADHD person as being odd, prickly, demanding, and high-maintenance. Individuals with ADHD have their worlds constantly disrupted by experiences of which the neurotypical is unaware. Certain smells, which others barely notice, cause people with ADHD to leave the room.Any movement, no matter how small, is distracting.The slightest sound in the house prevents falling asleep and overwhelms the ability to disregard it.In fact, the phenomenon is called hyperacusis (amplified hearing), even when the disruption comes from another of the five senses. Sometimes this is related to only one sensory realm, such as hearing. Many people with ADHD can’t screen out sensory input. Nothing gets sustained, undivided attention. When people with ADHD are not in The Zone, in hyperfocus, they have four or five things rattling around in their minds, all at once and for no obvious reason, like five people talking to you simultaneously. Attention is never “deficit.” It is always excessive, constantly occupied with internal reveries and engagements. It wants to be engaged in something interesting and challenging. The ADHD nervous system is rarely at rest. The ADHD nervous system is overwhelmed by life experiences because its intensity is so high. They have a low threshold for outside sensory experience because the day-to-day experience of their five senses and their thoughts is always on high volume. People in the ADHD world experience life more intensely, more passionately than neurotypicals.
Organization becomes an unsustainable task because organizational systems work on linearity, importance, and time. They jump into the middle of a task and work in all directions at once.
WHY DID THEY MAKE IT SO HARD TO CLOSE SKYPE ACCOUNT HOW TO
Individuals with ADHD don’t know where and how to start, since they can’t find the beginning. Tasks in the neurotypical world have a beginning, a middle, and an end. It also means that people with ADHD aren’t good at ordination - planning and doing parts of a task in order. “Acting without thinking” is the definition of impulsivity, and one of the reasons that individuals with ADHD have trouble learning from experience. People with ADHD live in a permanent present and have a hard time learning from the past or looking into the future to see the inescapable consequences of their actions. Past, present, and future are never separate and distinct.
Why People with ADHD Don’t Function Well in a Linear World For neurotypicals and adults with ADHD alike, here is a detailed portrait of why people with ADHD do what they do. The main obstacle to understanding and managing ADHD has been the unstated and incorrect assumption that individuals with ADHD could and should be like the rest of us. I would want many of the traits that people with ADHD possess. I would also choose hardworking and diligent. If I could name the qualities that would assure a person’s success in life, I would say being bright, being creative with that intelligence, and being well-liked. They have what Paul Wender called “relentless determination.” When they get hooked on a challenge, they tackle it with one approach after another until they master the problem - and they may lose interest entirely when it is no longer a challenge. They are affable, likable people with a sense of humor. They wade into problems that have stumped everyone else and jump to the answer. People with an ADHD-style nervous system tend to be great problem-solvers. It seems odd to call a condition a disorder when the condition comes with so many positive features. The only outcome would be failure, made worse by the accusation that they will never succeed because ADHD in adulthood means they didn’t try hard enough or long enough. No one revealed the bigger secret: It couldn’t be done, no matter how hard they tried. Unfortunately, no one told them how to do this. They were told by parents, teachers, employers, spouses, and friends that they did not fit the common mold and that they had better shape up in a hurry if they wanted to make something of themselves.Īs if they were immigrants, they were told to assimilate into the dominant culture and become like everyone else. Most adults with ADHD have always known that they think differently. Here is a truth that people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD or ADD) know from an early age: If you have an ADHD nervous system, you might as well have been born on a different planet.