#adhd interests

[leothecloud]

Special Interests I have that maybe if I share it we can all bond over our interests together:

•SHARKS 🦈

•MOTHMAN 🖤

•FROGS 🐸

•BANANYA ANIME 🍌

•GHOSTS/PARANORMAL 👻

•NEKO ATSUME 🐱

Its important to remember the general definition of ‘Special Interest’ which is: a specific interest in a certain topic/thing. (Not to be confused with hyperfixations which is more of focusing and taking actions regarding a specific thing which can lead to losing track of time, poor hygiene, stress, etc)

[itsaspectrumcomic]

Behold, my new favourite item

[milk-lover]

Sobbing uncontrollably reading through a dissertation about the college experience of students with ADHD. It is like reading a report about my life that just says over and over "My experiences are real. My hardships are real. I am not lazy, I am not dumb. My struggles were not my fault, and they were not a moral failing. The failure was with the system, not with me."

Here's a line that got me in particular:

"Hotez et al.(2022) compared the health, academic, and non-academic capacities of a nationally representative sample of U.S. first-year college students with ADHD and without ADHD. Students with ADHD self-reported lower academic aspirations and more feelings of depression and overwhelm, ranking themselves lower in their general emotional health. The fact that students with ADHD scored in the highest 10th percentile for many non-academic traits, such as artistic ability, computer skills, creativity, public speaking, social confidence, self-understanding and understanding of others, compassion, and risk-tasking, suggests that this population has strengths that are frequently underappreciated in academia."

(the paper is a thesis called "Understanding the Collegiate Experience for Students With ADHD" by Gia Long, 2022)

[get-grubered]

hey so just to be clear:

special interest ≠ thing you really like

special interest ≠ hyperfixation

special interest = thing pretty much your whole life revolves around, you get anxious if you don't interact with it enough, how you see the world

[zebracakesarecopingmechanisms]

ok so we know about the need to infodump, but what about the opposite? The need to absorb more information about your special interest like a sponge, but you literally can’t find any new material because you’ve already consumed every fact about it

[mx-nii]

Being neurodivergent means constantly grieving your old hyperfixations or special interests as new things come and take over, sometimes permanently replacing the old.

Coming to terms with the fact that you’re allowed to love more than one thing so wholeheartedly, so consumingly, is something I still struggle so much with.

In part because I feel guilt for “abandoning” my old interests & not spending as much time/any time on something that would keep me up at night, feeling that love fade to the background - but also because it’s exhausting to care for things so deeply. It takes an extremely heavy toll to give 150% to multiple things.

[infiniteorangethethird]

what's that saying about the cakes

[nathanbellamy]

Peter's description in X-Men: DOFP

Giffing notable moments from the xmen scripts, pt 4

(*, 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)

[vroomvroomwee]

Thinking about how special interests and hyperfixations are not so much an "unhealthy opsession" as they are a means to calm yourself down.

Is it really obsessive to think about your favourite show, movie, subject etc. all day every day and not being able to function properly? Or is it your brain recognising your anxiety from being forced to socialise and being thrown into loud uncomfortable spaces, and creates images in your head, reminding you of the thing you love so that you can calm down.

It's not unhealthy. Your brain is literally fighting to prevent an anxiety attack.

[etherealspacejelly]

i love being the person that all of my friends feel safe infodumping to

i never judge, i never interrupt, i ask questions, i listen, i say supportive shit, i do all the shit i wish someone would do for me lol

and they all come to me and tell me about shit and they are all shy and embarrassed at first but over time i get to see them open up more and get excited more and come straight to me whenever something cool happens to tell me about it

why would anyone not want this? why did my parents not want this from me? why did they have to make me feel like shit for being excited about stuff? i shouldnt feel like the most annoying person on earth every time i bring up something im passionate about for one (1) minute

[finally-got-a-diagnosis]

Black Autistic Culture is people not believing you're autistic while also critiquing you on everything you said that was "disrespectful" and "rude" as well as telling you to learn how to talk right.

[bigfatbreak]

Hello I love your art!!! I was reading through your changeling au and Felix mentions that fae are creatures of mirth. They literally need attention to survive. But what kind of attention? I guess I'm wondering because Adrien has been in the public eye for a while now, but has been personally neglected for even longer. What does that mean for him? Is he starving? Is he in danger of dying? Does he even know it? (I assume not given he doesn't even know he's Fae).

If he is starving / in danger of starving who is the first to realize this?

it depends on the mirth, on the attention, on what it is they seek. Without making things too complicated - I don't like to define everything into neat little boxes after all, there's fun in nuance - Felix is just explaining from his experience, the Fae he was with tended to be "entertained" by certain aspects of their playing, which was the mirth that kept them relevant. Relevancy more than anything is really what keeps their wheels greased.

In Adrien's case though, the reason he's cloying for so many names and to have so many thralls and attendants is because he SHOULD be a more social creature and has been kept woefully alone. He is kinda starving in the way a fae starves - he's relevant, but only in an image his father constructs OF him, which means it isn't REALLY him - and he has no one to play with. No friends, no lovers, and no rivals, makes a very sad fae

[lilybug-02]

Okay a lot more ppl here have or have suspected ADHD on here than I thought.

And ADHD is hella misrepresented in media and just in the general public conciseness. So here' s some ADHD MEMES if ur struggling and need to hear your not alone, from someone who also has it ❤️❤️❤️

Love you guys. You are very strong.

[whoisandyloam]

When my professor starts lecturing on one of my special interests

[thetisming]

"wow you must be so focused on school without crushes" incorrect! instead i am thinking about my special interest.

[empyrangel]

This is random but I absolutely hate how people assume that having something as a special interest (or hyperfixation) means that you have extensive in-depth knowledge about it. Especially since it’s mostly neurotypical people guilty of this (though I’ve seen plenty of nd do it as well.) We’ve been told an annoying amount of times that “you don’t actually have a special interest in x, you hardly know anything about it” by people who have a lot of background in the subject. Like no where in any description of a special interest does it say it makes you an expert in the subject. Some people only fixate on the idea or aesthetic of their special interest. Some only on a surface level knowledge of it. Some people just simply aren’t compelled to dig deeper. I’ve never had the urge to look much into learning more about most of my spins, and when I’ve forced myself to I end up bored and don’t pay attention to whatever I’m researching.

I just need people to understand that having a spin doesn’t require substantial knowledge in the area to be valid. We just want to casually talk about what we already know and maybe learn little tidbits from others without being told “educate yourself” or that we’re invalid.