I’ve started to realize that ADHD testing accommodations are also about what happens before the test itself.

[u/HardAlmond]

I used to fear that I “don’t deserve” this accommodation. But then I realized something: Most people can give up their random distractions or topics they’re uselessly obsessed about and direct their mind towards what matters if the stakes are high. And not just that, they feel accomplished if they do so. Not just relief that the world’s punishments or judgements have escaped them this time around.

But with ADHD, your mind is locked into a state of “I won’t give you any dopamine for working to prevent failure, but I will allow you to worry about the consequences of failure. You care, but I don’t, and without me, you’re not focusing on that task.” What medication does is it allows you to focus, BUT it doesn’t force your mind to normally process consequences or cause and effect.

I would say people with ADHD don’t necessarily have an external locus of control. Their locus of control is similar to someone with depression, just without the low mood of depression. They know their actions matter, and they wish they could care enough, but they just can’t.

The more exposure I got to other students, the more I realized that they weren’t necessarily less motivated than me. It’s just that when you have a mind where useless topics and interests feel so IMPORTANT and significant, but things that actually matter feel so quiet, dreadful, and empty, you’ll inevitably want to study less. How would you focus on a paper when your mind can’t filter out or stop caring about the history of toasters even for a moment?

[u/NoVaFlipFlops]

I feel you. I have it, my husband has it, and we are raising a son with it. It's so clear he needs extra time and also a quiet space because he talks to himself in order to stay focused. Which takes extra time.

If I were you, I would start taking a small amount of sugar just before any task, whether it's while in class or about to get started on homework. You must take lots of breaks and chunk your work. Spread out any big projects or papers by promising to do 5 minutes each day. The benefit to this is at those times when your stars align and you can keep going once you get started because you have the kinds of thoughts and ideas you need then fine, keep going!

If I had a chance to go to school again it wouldn't look like that much work. Honestly, adult jobs are so painfully filled with tasks that don't even feel important that it would be a break to sit down and solve math for a total of 30 or 45 minutes or get interested in bizarrely specific details from history and make a game of memorizing them or wonder about some literature that was written in another time for a whole other set of people. 

Use your schoolwork as your rabbit hole. You might surprise yourself that your efforts are worth something. 

[u/TheCuriosity → u/NoVaFlipFlops]

I would start taking a small amount of sugar just before any task

This is kind of the same vain of how many ADHDers tend to have three different drinks at once: water and coffee to help with the "engine", sweet, fun flavour drink, for the micro dopamine hits to keep going.

[u/TheCuriosity]

I originally read this last night while high, so I was really blown away haha I wish I commented then as I had soo many words to say in agreement. I never thought about these things this way, so thank you for sharing your ideas.