I would say I have decent will power, but specifying how much energy trying to concentrate on just someone talking to you face to face is spot on. So I can blend in with all of my peers the first round, but if it comes up again in a short amount of time is where the ADHD crowd stands out.
So I would describe that as running laps. We are all in gym class, and the coach tells you and your peers to run a lap. I can force myself to do it and end up with everyone else from the coaches perspective, but if when we finish the coach says "run another lap now," some of us just haven't even recovered our breath while others have. In other words, "choosing" to focus on something when needed seems to be a pure will-power issue to me. But the amount of energy it takes to do so is where the actual disorders come into play.
You're sort of on the right track (no pun intended). There are different levels of disorder. Lets say an average person could do the task you described for 10 laps. A person with a mild disorder may be able to do 5 laps. A person with a sever disorder cannot will them self to start running at all.
Yup, I am quickly learning here all the different levels and frequencies. Very interesting to hear. I really hope I didn't offend anyone by saying that starting the run is simply will-power. I know all too well those speeches from people about my specific disorder, but it is true for me. I can force myself to almost do anything, but specifically audio is something I have never been able to keep up with. I even ran a Customer Service Dept for years at a mulit-million dollar company, and it was amazing how many customers I completely converted to email instead of phone conversions, as I just solve problems from emails so much more efficiently.
Audio recollection is diminished in ADD. Personally, I would kill for the will power to do. Not even joking - if I could highlander that @!#$ I would. Without it my entire life is just one big farce
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u/HolyGuide May 30 '17
I would say I have decent will power, but specifying how much energy trying to concentrate on just someone talking to you face to face is spot on. So I can blend in with all of my peers the first round, but if it comes up again in a short amount of time is where the ADHD crowd stands out.
So I would describe that as running laps. We are all in gym class, and the coach tells you and your peers to run a lap. I can force myself to do it and end up with everyone else from the coaches perspective, but if when we finish the coach says "run another lap now," some of us just haven't even recovered our breath while others have. In other words, "choosing" to focus on something when needed seems to be a pure will-power issue to me. But the amount of energy it takes to do so is where the actual disorders come into play.