#its been a long day my book scene database is lagging a bit and i can only skim so fast

[saesyndrome]

explanation under the cut

I will preface this by saying that a few things act as complicating factors to this interpretation, not to discredit it, but in muddying the waters where things aren't super clear-cut. The biggest example is that throughout mockingjay Katniss is suffering from the long-term effects of having two severe concussions back-to-back, so her impulse control, ability to focus, etc. are affected negatively. So while I'll use some examples from mj, I'll have other examples to supplement them.

Here's a little infographic of audhd symptoms for reference. This is the best one I found in a cursory search, especially since most of them are like. Venn diagrams of adhd and autism which are less than helpful and not actually all that accurate to audhd:

So a lot of Katniss's actions are colored by impulsivity: holding out the berries, shooting an electrified arrow into the arena forcefield, killing Coin--none of which she does with the intention of affecting the status quo and even resenting the outcome of the choices. There are also impulsive actions like pushing Peeta into the vase because of a perceived sleight despite Peeta's confession only benefiting her, taking the earpiece out when Haymitch's direction doesn't seem sufficient. Generally, autism is characterized by a strict adherence to routine, which Katniss also obviously has, but she time and time again makes impulsive decisions with no regard for how they may change that routine in the long run. Even on a smaller scale, she does things like propose that she and Gale run away together, believing that she's thought it through because she's given the bare minimum consideration to his family, but in reality she hasn't considered how Gale might respond to inviting Peeta (nor does she even think of the possibility of Peeta wanting to bring his family). Even things like deciding to move into a compartment with Johanna are done without any forethought whatsoever.

Katniss routinely avoids anything that's troubling her rather than deal with it, so she's forced into a corner at the last minute and responds without thinking. We see this in situations like how she opts to just pretend as if Peeta doesn't exist as much as she can at the beginning of catching fire because their last interaction was unpleasant, when she pretends as if nothing worth talking about happened with Gale despite it fundamentally affecting their relationship forever, deciding just to not bother writing final goodbye letters to her loved ones, when she refuses to write a speech for District 11 only to blurt one out off the cuff, etc.

I also find that her frustration and emotional dysregulation is largely based on how others interact with her rather than being based primarily on external/inanimate factors that would contribute to overstimulation (although that isn't to say that she doesn't experience overstimulation at all). For example, we have her interactions with Haymitch wherein he acts like she's stupid or lesser, which is the instigating factor for her outburst in the first book where she starts throwing plates against the wall, we have her interactions with Finnick, Chaff, and Johanna that cause her to freeze Peeta out because she feels as if she's being made fun of and Peeta's in on the joke so to speak, we have her breaking pencils in District 13 when people act like she's stupid for not immediately considering Peeta to be a traitor and starts to become irate when she can't put the pencils back in the box.

Finally, with the disinterest/trouble paying attention, this requires a little more reading between the lines, especially when referring to disinterest in contrast to her own hobbies (not being interested in fashion, not making any attempt to try and develop another hobby besides hunting, etc.). She also doesn't seem to have the attention span to make any notes about the previous games, especially not in the comprehensive way that Peeta does, and her mind and attention wanders as Peeta does the illustrations for her father's edible plant book. In general, Katniss's narration skims over anything she doesn't deem important, but there are instances where information will be referenced as if it's been a prior topic of conversation that she admits she's forgotten. The biggest instance of this is in catching fire when Haymitch brings her and Peeta up into the dome of the district 11 justice building to reveal to Peeta that Katniss was threatened by Snow, and Peeta says that he's got friends and family that will be just as affected by their combined actions as Katniss's. I mention this particular scene because the only friend of Peeta's that's ever named in Delly, whom Katniss also knows and is implied to not be a current friend of Peeta's (no one in his family is named either). There's also the implication, because she doesn't relay them at all, that she doesn't pay much attention to the stories that Peeta shares with her during the course of the first games, in the same fashion she doesn't pay much attention to what her prep team talks about while working on her appearance.

Finally, after her first games and while stuck in district 13, Katniss seems to struggle a lot with being understimulated. At least a portion of the time (a handful of times during the course of catching fire), she seems to go into the woods just to end up coming home virtually empty-handed (or at least comparatively so) because she ends up just staring into the distance. She says she ends up spending a lot of time with Madge because they both have an excess of free time and have trouble finding anything to do. And when in district 13, she holes up in behind laundry machines and in supply closets for hours at a time, partially because there's a lack of anything worth her interest until she's able to get permission to go hunting.

Anyway once again there are complicating factors like I could also postulate on Katniss having ocd and bpd but uhhhh yeah sorry theres not direct textual evidence . let me know if you do in fact want page numbers and excerpts I was just trying to keep this from being too too long and I didn't want to give page numbers from the paperback books just for it to be impossible to find on an ebook or whatever. Hopefully this is cohesive enough to actually make an argument for the interpretation lol.

Oh also also I already referenced it but I do think Peeta has a decent control over when and how long her focuses for (doing illustrations for the plant book, taking notes on the previous games, etc), and he doesn't seem to struggle with impulsivity the same way Katniss does, generally having more of a grasp of the consequences of his words and actions before he says/does them. which is why I don't personally think he has adhd. shruggies.

"katniss and peeta are autistic/adhd" WRONG! katniss has BOTH peeta has NEITHER. if you disagree i require textual evidence as to why because i will be providing textual evidence in my defense.