#the adhd inability to be concise

[fist-of-vengeance]

i have realized that there is no limit to what i'd like to see from tomgreg fanfiction. there is no au or concept too strange. in fact, the weirder the better. enough sex, let me see them as pokemon trainers. i will unironically sit down and read a fnaf au if someone writes one.

i also think i'd like to see more violence and bloodshed maybe. tomgreg is hannibal for business majors, i need more fics taking that to full extent. the more dead bodies involved, the better.

succession in general has so much potential for violence. why aren't there more fics of these characters killing each other

[mejomonster]

September 10, Aegis's birthday, and I finished my story's first draft!!!!!!!!!!!

The first original long story I managed to stick to and finish. Took a little over a year. WOOH

It ended at 103,965 words. Which was 20,000 more than I'd aimed for but thankfully way shorter than I was fearing the word count would climb.

I am collapsing now that this long term project's in a place where I can take a break, I'm going to do non project hobbies for a while like reading and games. I am so hype that I finished this draft. Past mejo would be so fucking over the moon I managed to write the story down, finallyyyyy

[do-you-know-this-adhd-character]

Would you consider adding an “I’ve heard of this character” option? Sometimes I’ve heard of a character but I haven’t seen the source material

I'll certainly consider it; the reason I didn't put it on there in the first place is... well, you can define "knowing" a character however you want - not to bring everything back to Zack, but I voted know and see as ADHD on Zack's poll, even though I hadn't played his game at that point, both because I'd seen his couple scenes in ff7 so I'd at least seen some of him and because the evidence made me feel like I knew him well. I feel like the mere presence of the "I've heard of them" option makes people apply stricter definitions of "knowing" a character, which doesn't appeal to me. When an "I've heard of them" option is present, it generally beats the "I know them" option, and besides, I'd want to add both "I've heard of and know/see as ADHD" and its opposite, which makes more work setting up the polls and interpreting the results... It feels not very useful to me.

I also feel like... if you've heard of them, but don't know enough about them to make a judgement of their ADHD, you don't know them, right? "I've heard of them" just feels like another "I don't know them" to me.

So, I personally am not inclined to add that option. But I'd be willing to be convinced, and would love to hear you guys' opinions in the replies or in my askbox - after all, I'm not just running this for myself, but for all of you lovely people! I don't want to sound like I'm completely shutting you down, I just wanted to explain - it's a valid question and deserves an honest explanation, and I think you guys probably see at this point that "inability to be concise" is definitely one of the ADHD traits I have, lol.

[22degreehalo]

TBH I truly believe that a lot of the issues with writing that people ascribe moral value to (like being overly wordy and inaccessible to lower education levels, or representing a serious and sensitive topic badly) are actually mostly just the result of lacking skill.

Writing something such that the information is summarised clearly and concisely without loss of nuance, in such a way that is also relatively easy to read, is very difficult! It requires a fuckton of practice and experience and work to do well.

Likewise, true profundity - as we’d want for serious topics - mainly relies on someone’s ability to craft poetic language and incite the correct emotional reactions in the audience. If you’re not a very good writer, of course it will end up feeling inauthentic or ridiculous, because you weren’t successfully able to communicate your own feelings and impressions.

This sorta sucks, to be honest, because lacking skill is very rarely the result of someone being a bad person. Nobody really wants to be a bad writer, and we don’t need to go into why ‘lazy’ is a very complicated label to thrust onto someone. You just can’t know for certain, without extra information, whether a harmful text was truly driven by bad premises or simply bad follow-through.

However, this harm is no less real: if education is badly conveyed, some of the population will be less educated. (Which is bad both for their financial prospects, and also the wellfare of anyone who would be relying on their education.) And we’ve all seen how badly-conveyed works can serve as rally-points for damaging real-world ideas.

Does this mean that there is a moral value associated with personal skill? To an extent, I think so: if I, as someone with ADHD, willingly volunteered myself to do something that could badly injure somebody were I to lose focus momentarily... well, I’d consider that pretty reckless of me, unless there were no other alternatives.

But what about these sensitive topics? Is it reckless of someone to try to write about a serious topic, despite knowing that they might not be able to handle it? And yet activists often insist that it is morally laudable or even necessary to include these topics. There is nuance to it (many agree that writers should include diverse characters, but not necessarily diverse plots), but sorta by definition a mediocre writer isn’t going to know how to capture that nuance.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot in relation to my own (lack of) abilities. I truly do think that when it comes to creative works, society is improved when everybody is able to contribute, rather than relying on any external source of vetting for quality (as when professional publishing is the only option). But I think that we may need to sort of change our perspective in some ways to allow for this new, ‘the consumers own the means of production [of stories]’ reality.

And I also think there are implications regarding disability. We must understand that an inability to do something well is not always a manifestation of fault. And we must accept that not only in the matter of productivity, but in terms of generosity and ‘giving back to the community’; an autistic person, say, is likely to be much worse at comforting others or being generally friendly than a non-autistic, which neither nullifies the need for that comfort nor renders Autistics less worthy as people.

[ravenousnightwind]

This is really just me talking to myself trying to work out a personal problem with someone else.

The question that keeps coming in my mind is if someone I know, a friend, ever truly accepted me at all. They claim I was different or understood things in the past, but have zero explanation for what that really was and what they want me to do about it now. They talk about how they can't be vulnerable with me when the entire time I've told them they can, but for some vague reason I make them feel uncomfortable about the things they want to talk about.

They say I'm different or things have changed, but maybe the reality is that things haven't changed that much and because I'm starting to no longer hide the things about myself and what I have to deal with or how I function or even what I'm into, they think I'm different. I think some things are different. I think maybe I wasn't as outspoken or maybe as sickly as I am now. But I've gotten older and the disease of depression and the condition of adhd and autism, I can only assume has gotten worse for me.

Especially since breaking down the walls of my past traumas and dealing with things I thought I dealt with. Perhaps when I merged myself I managed to change a critical part of my own force of will. It's hard to tell.

It's often said that I don't understand what they're talking about, and they don't know how to make me understand. Yet, they also can't seem to explain how I don't or come up with better ways to explain it to me. I think I've probably blamed my autism for a lot of this part because there are times when I just don't understand things. But I've never been really told by someone else that I don't understand, even when it sounds like they're saying it in a clear concise way.

I want to go out and say that maybe it isn't me, it's them who are having a problem with me, because I have looked over every angle of how maybe I'm misinterpreting, and when I go off and explain things about myself, suddenly I'm met with the same answer of a sort, that I'm talking about something totally different than they are. Of which I wasn't aware the subject matter had changed? Which has happened with me where I'd switch subjects before.

I can't really see how I'm being any different than before when I look back. But I do remember them saying things like they couldn't feel me or wasn't sure if I was "real" which I don't think even they totally get what they mean. But apparently it's a problem they have of being close to people.

In truth, it's probably a matter of both their personal problems and my sometimes inability to understand what people mean. But usually when I don't understand, I know I don't understand and the person either explains or they don't. But with this, I don't know and they can't tell me because it isn't like a specific thing I'm saying or doing. So our ability to communicate about serious topics has kinda just fell off because anytime we do they end up getting upset because they keep saying I'm talking about something else, or that they can't understand what I'm saying.

Lol idk, relationships are complex, and I guess I'm getting to the point where I kinda almost don't care. I guess I just feel like it's all seemingly petty or annoying because it feels like they're just anxious or concerned about something that either doesn't exist, or that they have some other psychological issue that they don't want to be seen for. Which okay fair, but idk. It happens almost every time we talk and I'm kinda at my wits end of how to deal with it. Of which makes me think that maybe they didn't like things about me before but ended up ignoring or forgetting those for some reason. Idk..

I'm just ranting or going off really. Cuz I can't really do anything about it at this point.

[romance-evil-aro]

dude your whole post on "talking to someone" being romantic made me think of some recent events that have happened, so I thought I'd share.

Also apologies in advance for the long ask, I have ADHD which apparently means I am incapable of telling a relatively short story ever

As a bit of background, I attend a conservative Christian homeschool group, and am currently in the later two years of high school. I and my small group of Secret Queers have been hanging out a lot, and while I do not have many classes with my other afab friends, there is this one guy (who might also be on the aro/ace spectrums, but he's not really sure, all he knows is that he doesn't have much interest in romance or dating in particular) who I do happen to have a handful of classes with. We've become very good friends, sort of bonding over our lack of romance enthusiasm, and we ended up dancing with each other at last year's prom. (completely platonically, it was absolutely amazing and we enjoyed it thoroughly, 100% recommend in case you are interested) and we've sat next to each other during classes, and help each other out with different topics. Last week, one of the guys in our electronics and robotics class came up to him and asked if we were dating. He said no, we were just good friends, (he may have laughed when asked but he doesn't recall, however he and I had a massive laugh over it together) and when he mentioned it to his mom, she said that he shouldn't have said that we were just friends "in case {my name} wanted to be something more. (She and my mom also were very quick to assume that we had some sort of romantic attraction after we danced at prom, because apparently teaching your friend how to dance because you want to dance with someone else to say you've done it before is clearly romantic and not at all your friend agreeing to you because we both thought it would be fun) anyway, this whole thing has been super weird, and absolutely hilarious so I thought I'd share :) have a most excellent day!

it'd so wild to me what people will interpret as romantic.

I hope you have a great day too, and thank you for sharing! /g

[star-scrambled]

What are some video essay theory ideas you have? My neurodivergent brain needs to hear this.

OKAY! SO! After sleeping on this (by that I mean taking advantage of my adhd sleep depriving me more hours than intended), I’m thinking I should probably start small and make bite-sized videos about various different aspects of my Sonic 2 theories SEPARATELY, instead of attempting to crack out an INSANELY LONG and Ramble-y essay on the bigger picture. I just need to get some experience writing concise and organized scripts first, along with proper audio recording and video editing of course :] so here’s some of my potential ideas!! (I’d love feedback or more idea suggestions adding onto these haha)

- What we know about Longclaw

- Recapping the Mad Libs spoilers

- S3&K parallels to expect

- “Tails will be fine” (not emotionally lmao but HE WILL BE WRITTEN WELL)

- The significance of Sonic and his aquaphobia/inability to swim

- Manifesting the echidna tribe is long gone lol

- Interesting details in the trailers (and not taking all of its contents at face value)

- Knuckles probably won’t stay on Earth

- My opinion on the Sonic 3 character debacle (Metal VS Shadow)

- How I view Sonic’s character arc and it’s potential

- Ice Cream Scene Stuff

- vic is petty about character design for 5+ minutes

The list can go on 🐱...but in the perfect world where I SOMEHOW do all or most of this, I would maybe be crazy enough to be able to put out my prediction on how the entire movie will play out. I highly doubt this though, which is fine cause I already have that as a WIP write-up that I’m absolutely sharing here when it’s done 😭!! Also cause I think I’d rather not rush out something like that but INSTEAD invest my plans of a bigger project into a review of the movie once it’s out!! Ideally I want to watch it two days in a row so I think that would keep my memory sharp enough (and MAYBE my emotional ass in check) to make a little something!! Idk we’ll see!! I’m being SUPER optimistic to a probably unrealistic extent here though, I’m still a busy high schooler who can’t balance hyperfixation stuff with my assignments- BUT!! The support on the idea I’ve been getting from you guys already makes me a little excited to actually bring this all to fruition 🥺

[endoftheworldasweknowit]

I've been having trouble finding tips for adults with ADHD so here's one I've managed to develop. ADHD peeps struggle with time blindness, the inability or difficulty with gauging and estimating time. For us, that means we can grossly underestimate how long a task takes to complete or not realize how much time is passing while doing a task and because we need so much stimulation, it's hard to stay on track with one thing.

Since being late is something that can impact our professional lives, here's something I hope will help make your mornings easier.

First, make a list of everything you do every morning and a rough estimate of time. Do you feed the dog? Take your meds? Make coffee? Write it all down.

Don't try to change your entire routine at once. Start with your current routine and then adjust.

If you have reminders for things (I have two to remind me to take my meds), write what time that alarm is set for.

Think about what you're constantly forgetting or looking for in the mornings. Your work ID? Shoes? Keys?

Anything you can prep the night before, DO IT. Set the coffee maker up so you don't have to in the morning. Find the bra you need so you're not digging through the laundry you haven't put away (yes, I have this problem too). Have your workout stuff by the door. Any food that doesn't have to be refrigerated, put in your lunch bag so it's ready to go.

Figure out your actual commute. Go off what your GPS says, not what you say. In fact, add an extra 5 minutes to that just in case. I have my morning leave times listed as "ideal" "on time" and "late" to remind me of my goal.

If you need stimulation (like most of us) put on something you've seen a hundred times before. It gives your brain something to listen to without getting distracted.

Have your routine listed around your home. ADHD is like having a ton of sticky notes trying to remember shit. This way it's clear and concise in one spot.

Adjust adjust adjust!

Not everyone can do things in a linear fashion. A lot of us really struggle! Figure out what works FOR YOU. This is only a framework to help you get out the door on time and keep your manager from scolding you.

[min-yunki-agustd]

Just Jam ranting ignore if you like...

I hate having ADHD 100 % and do not recommend having it. I hate having an idea and watching it being ripped apart by my own brain and my inability to not make editing mistakes. I apologize for the mistakes. I will keep work hard to get better at writing.

I want my ideas and writings to be clear and concise so that I could be understood. I apologize for the absolutely terrible amount of writing mistakes please give me.

[adhbabey]

Heyo, is struggling to write/speak concisely, rambling and struggling to get to the point in less than half a page really an ADHD thing? And do u know what it could stem from (like trouble reading stems from inability to focus, etc)? Bc that would explain... a lot about me

Yeah i think so, I mean a lot of ppl with adhd do it.

Trouble reading often comes from sensory processing, n when ur overwhelmed or understimulated.

But yeah, it's like cause our brains are so loud n overactive, and just, often having a scattered mind. Like it's an overflow of information in our heads all the time.

I think so, at least. I'm kind of running on no sleep so I'm sorry if my explanation was more confusing than it usually is, I was going to go to bed.

And it's just, disorganized brain i think.

[nellectronic]

this character analysis is going to be like 3x the word limit and i know it’s supposed to be focused on a character’s role in the witch hunt but if i don’t talk about how mary warren is gay i’m going to lose my mind

[lesbianralzarek]

on one hand, people need to stop making posts about adhd that have 2.5k words because we sure as hell aren't reading that

but on the other hand, i understand the adhd-related inability to speak in any way bordering on concise

[ghghdosfi]

when i was 6 i twisted my ankle in PE. this was perhaps my first experience with oblivion. i so consumed by physical pain i considered nothing else. i sat on the floor in the corner of the lunch hall convinced i had broken myself forever. as i tried to rationalise what had happened and what should subsequently happen, i realised one thing: no one could know. despite the swelling and my inability to walk i convinced my mother nothing was wrong. i informed her my limping was an april fools joke as my eyes water and i ground my teeth so hard to cope with the pain i was almost unable to speak. and for four years my ankle continued to hurt, likely as a result of the my medical treatment i deprived myself of at the time. the all encompassing agony of the sprain was replaced with feelings of guilt about lying. for years i wrestled with my conscience, unable to pinpoint the root of my self-indignation. the misery it caused me was inexplicable. i felt trapped and thought constantly of how i could escape the self-inflicted mental and physical torment. i knew how it felt to be suicidal before i even understood my own morality. what a funny little paradox.

when i was 7 i agonised over getting 7/10 on a spelling test. i cried as i felt the weight of failure tugging on every particle of my being. my skin stung, tears streamed down my face and i felt my micro-cosmic world crumble. i kept the extent of the defeat to myself unable to articulate why it was so significant. this was the only assessment i faced where the results were comprehendible to me. the mark out of 10 i received at the end of the academic week was the only unit by which i could rationally decipher my self-worth. in a class of 30 children and in a world of 7 billion people a 7/10 was a bad omen. it alluded to all the failure i would experience for the rest of my life. i thought i couldn’t cope with this feeling ever again, but knew i would inevitably experience it. i didn’t know how to deal with this realisation. i indulged in the same irrational form of self-pity when i achieved 2A*s and and A in my A-levels instead of 3A*s. i didn’t get out of bed for three days.

after years of being plagued by misery which i credited to a seemingly arbitrary situational unpleasantry which invariably changed over time when i realised the thing i was obsessing over was futile, i had a epiphany. these were not reasons; they were excuses i was always going to be dissatisfied and sad, i rationalised these pre-existing feelings by blaming one of the short-comings in my life. i convinced myself if one thing changed i would be happy. but i wouldn’t. the problem was internal. it was at this point i understood the meaningless and dissatisfaction of existence and finally accepted the inevitably of death. this became my new thing was think about. i was saturated with ennui and engulfed by loneliness. i was 9.

when i was 13, things got a bit more cliche. i started worrying about things normal people of my age worried about. like why i wasn’t as pretty as my friends (genetics and poor dress sense), why boys didn’t like me (genetics, poor dress sense and poor conversational skills), why i had sex dreams about girls (hormones and latent bisexuality), academic underachievement (adhd and laziness) and why my parents didn’t understand me (hormones, poor conversational skills and adhd). it was then i began my love affair with self-harm. god she was good. the most bizarre thing was this was at a time when i felt quite comfortable in my cynicism, everyone was depressed, adolescence i was warned was a struggle and i would come out the other side better off for it, with boobs.  

in fact i sit here writing this with the white lines i etched onto my forearms with the optimistic vision of self-improvement now accompanied by a trail of fresh cigarette burns. old habits die hard. to purposefully damage one’s own body defies the voice your head that prioritises survival at any cost. its the voice of your primal nature, that outlasted all of human evolution because it was what enabled your ancestors to live long enough to reproduce. it is a driving force behind every emotion we feel and every impulse we are inevitable to. the message “stay in optimum physical condition at any and all costs” plays through our minds so ferociously and so persistently, it is white noise, white noise with powerful subconscious influence we are not aware of. physically harming ones self for no reason other than for the art of self-destruction itself makes a mockery of it. it feels like a means of escape from our pathetic primality. yes i want to fuck everyone and would be somewhat satisfied to see my female friends, or in evolutionary terms my reproductive rivals, perish (if by perish you mean get fat and started wearing crocs to social events), but look! i carved the word ‘why?’ into my thigh with a razor blade so fuck you, instincts, i subvert you

i was 17 when i first encountered my new muse: ritalin. now she knew what i wanted. i was skinnier, sharper, motivated and i excelled academically. i also punched my brother in the face on a come down and broke his nose while he was recovering from a  bone marrow transplant. hey, the course of love never runs smoothly. finally i could collect my thoughts and articulate concisely and effectively, the downside was this was very addicting. not the sensation of euphoria i felt when it was kicking in or even the feeling of invicibility i experienced when i was able to work for 8 consecutive hours without eating or sleeping. i became addicted to my new found efficiency and productivity. they say ignorance is bliss and i was no longer oblivious to my potential. i never wanted to go back. and when i had to, when the pills ran out, the weight i gained seemed to me the perfect metaphor for my natural lack of self-discipline and wasted ability. with drugs i could be thin, sexy and clever, why should i deprive myself? drugs in general opened me up, alcohol, nicotine, weed, MDMA and valium showed alternative ways to perceive the illusion we call reality. brain chemistry is mutable. why not mute the bits that don’t serve me in any way? drugs are amazing and that’s why they have the power to ruin your life. people who love drugs are precisely the people for whom its best not to experience the enlightenment and mindfulness they give you. people who are inherently dissatisfied with consciousness in its standard form find it hard to step back down to reality.

i’m 19. i think i’ve changed a lot. i haven’t really. this personality has evolved and manifested at different stages in my life in the most predictable way possible. i have a confused and inconsistent relationship with sex. i have a confused and inconsistent relationship with almost every person i know. i don’t have a plan, but i do have a fairly big ego. i don't have any asperations but i do have a lot of scars. i have experienced failure and success sometimes simultaneously, love and apathy often simultaneously and happiness and melancholy always simultaneously.

what can be said for me in the long run? well ‘in the long run we are all dead’

the end seems nye, but ‘i don’t pay attention to the world ending. it has ended for me many times and began again in the morning’