#adhd handwriting

[la-principessa-nuova]

I was googling about ADHD and handwriting and stumbled across this tweet:

And so much so yes, but with a big asterisk and it relates to the thing I was wondering about people’s thoughts on, so I’m going to use this as a launching off point.

First to answer the question, yes, this looks like my handwriting to the point where when I saw the image before I read the text I actually felt the need to look up at who posted this to see if it was me back in my Twitter days.

There are subtle giveaways that I didn’t post write this, like that I don’t write b or f like that anymore, but note that I said anymore. This is where the story gets deeper.

The thing is, I usually don’t write like this, at least not if i intend on it being read and think to write better. But often while writing, especially if I get into it or I’m writing something long and start to think about getting through writing more so than writing neatly, this happens.

I assumed it was an ADHD thing (and searched this) because I write well as long as I’m paying full attention to my handwriting, and not to what I want to say or what someone else is saying or how much my wrist hurts from all this writing. So it feels to me like an attention issue.

Here are samples of some of my handwriting styles (keep in mind that especially the historical ones are a bit influenced by how I write now and it’s hard to intentionally not pay attention to something):

The times listed are the number of seconds on the stop watch from hitting start with my writing hand, then as fast as possible putting my hand to the page, then writing “This is very slow to write.”, then stopping the stop watch as quickly as possible.

By third grade when we learned cursive, I already had a reputation for bad handwriting. But my cursive was the best in the class. I think my teacher suggested I write in cursive so she can read what I was saying, but this might have been a teacher sometime later.

The thing was, when I wrote cursive it was usually just focusing on writing because that’s what we were learning, and even when I started using it for some other things, it didn’t come automatically, so I had to stop and focus on each letter.

But not everyone can read cursive, so I maintained writing a little of each, and eventually, in 7th grade, when I had a teacher who couldn’t read cursive, but I was embarrassed about my handwriting (getting jealous of those girls who take perfectionist notes’ handwriting), so I decided to reinvent it!

I was obsessed with Helvetica at the time (this was right around its 50th anniversary), so I decided neater meant sans-serif. It took a few weeks of science classes to workshop it (if she wanted me to pay attention she shouldn’t have complained about not being able to read my cursive), but it was initially very neat.

But over the next few years, I got lazy with that writing too, and this time thanks to a few more years of brain development, I noticed the pattern of getting sloppier with my handwriting after a few years, so I decided it was time for a major change. The serifs were back, and stronger than ever! I had so many serifs, some of my serifs had serifs.

I still have the muscle memory of rushing that handwriting, so it’s hard to make it that neat now, but it looked really cool at one point. I also started writing my lowercases a as double-story (with the little hat on top) instead of single-story (circle with a tail).

By the time that one got messy, I was in my later years of college and was able to realize the real trend that it got messy when I didn’t focus on it, so I just let things naturally change over time instead of making purposeful changes, but when I need it neat (which is usually at least somewhat true), I make a conscious effort to choose a style and write neatly, or at least sort of choose a style and sort of write neatly.

One final semi-related note is that when I write, I tend to make a few of the “careless mistakes” we often talk about in ADHD, for example:

missing letters (e.g. memory → memoy)

missing words (e.g. i don’t want to go with you → i don’t want to with you)

switching homophones even though I know the difference (e.g. there → their, right → write, know → no)

I think one of the reasons especially the missing words and homophone issues happen is that because I can’t think about writing and what to say at the same time, I think of what to say, say it in my head, and then write down the words I’m hearing. So I think about writing the sentence, “I have the right of way,” and then I go to write it down, and my brain then takes the sounds and transforms them into words, so I might get, “I have the write of way,” and not notice until I read it back.

Also if my thoughts drift while writing, either to what to say next, or to some other tangent, or especially if I start to fall asleep, like I’m doing right now, I might find myself writing the wrong word, skipping one or more words, or in some cases waking up from right on the edge of dreaming and being confronted with the reality that I have not been fully awake for some time and yet I’ve been typing the whole time and all of it is what I meant to write. I just stop coming up with new things to say, or rarely add on additional nonsense or nonsequitur words at the end.

Hopefully this is all somewhat coherent, especially the end because I suddenly got very tired while writing this and started falling asleep a couple times and my thoughts about writing this started to mix with dreaming.

[beardedmrbean]

[thatonedudeinthecorner]

Oh, to open a psychic detective agency with your boyfriend and then not only gain a second boyfriend but also a girlfriend….IN 2006?!??????

[taintedmind6669]

[concretesweetner]

random shitpost i doodled during class (also yes i changed human!swaps design again)

[slavhew]

Dupliblaze COMAGMA

[anxiouslyextroverted]

do you have any dsmp neurodivergent headcanons? I have many

YES! thank you for asking!! :D

these are how i personally view the characters + whats canonically stated and I was debating to myself for an hour whether c!Tommy should go in alexithymia or not

[complicatedconstellation-blog]

[idiototheinternet]

Ideas for something to draw?

[marieshyperf1xations]

Something a little personal:

Tw suicide attempt

Today is my second birthday. Three years ago I tried to take my own life. And while I'm still struggling and I have dark days and I'm far from "cured" of my depression, I'm finally starting to live and not just survive, at least some days.

Today I'm on holiday, laughing my ass of doing Just Dance with some friends, going to my first ever pole dance class later and on the weekend I spent the afternoon on a boat with a bunch of friends.

Life might not be perfect, but it's certainly looking a lot brighter than just 3 years ago

[adhdandcomics]

i ended up sewing a white button on the shirt.. if you care

[cyberkirbz]

Okay the difference between my handwriting before I started ADHD meds two months ago and my handwriting today is crazy?!?

I was just looking back at past notes and realized how big of a difference there is! Pretty cool!

[bigfrogdraws]

silly comic idea ive had for a while

[wanderingmind867]

I don't understand signatures. Why are they considered so important? If I'm asked to sign something, I'll sign my name. I'll print it as clearly as I can. I won't try to write in cursive for a fancy signature, because that's nearly illegible. I don't get it. Signatures are stupid. And I don't see the importance of them. Why'd I want an autograph (for example), if I can't even read the name of the person afterwards!? It's nonsense!!

[sad-emo-dip-dye]

Write on paper?

I do have a notebook where I write down vague ideas and such so yeah I might actually start drafting stuff out by hand at this point

[chessb0r3d]

so it turnd out that my incredibly inconsistent messy as fuck handwriting has something to do with ADHD. well WHO KNEW