You are describing ADD the same way the video is. You see the future, you plan for the future in your head, but you don't do anything about the future. When the guys says ADHD people can't plan for the future he means you can't do things that help you in the future. The whole point is that you don't get upset. You know its going to suck if you don't get something done. You know you could start now. Maybe you plan to start tomorrow. The point is you don't. You don't feel the pressure to act until its too late or nearly too late. That is ADHD.
It's an interesting characterization of ADHD I've never considered. I absolutely have ADHD, but personally don't have this chronic problem of being able to "plan" for the future but not to follow through on my plans (provided I am sufficiently motivated toward the goal). I procrastinate like crazy, but in the end I follow through on and tend to achieve my goals.
For me, ADHD has always mainly been about 1) impulsivity and 2) lack of sustained focus (although this can fluctuate with my level of interest in what I am trying to focus on).
Impulsivity is related to "thinking about the future" because people with ADHD can often make poor decisions in the moment without seeming to consider about negative consequences for the future. But that doesn't stop them from, say, planning to get into graduate school (long term goal) and then taking the steps they need to do so.
I've always thought of the procrastination bit as being related, but definitely not the "hallmark" trait of ADHD.
What I am getting at is, I don't think that if you have the particular quality OP described necessarily means you have ADHD if you don't have some of the other classic symptoms. Procrastination and motivation issues can exist without ADHD.
For me the absolutely biggest parts of my adhd is decision fatigue, restlessness and constant anhedonia.
If I have to make many seemingly pointless decisions I'll run out of "decision making fuel" and I'll just get angry and confused and generally make bad decisions or just shut down.
I can almost never relax. I can't get home from work, feel tired and just chill out and recharge my batteries. Nope. Gotta do shit! Anything! Right now! I'm gonna.. uhh... build a soil sifter! But shit I'm tired after a long day of work. I should rest. Nah, fuck resting, that's boring. Hey that's a cool article on reddit! It's about guitars. I could learn to play guitar. Right, I already have one! I should play some guitar right now. What's that? We gotta make dinner? Again? But we ate yesterday. I don't have time for that! Etc...
And whatever I do, it's never enough. I almost never feel satisfied or "done". That's the worst part of it. Nothing ever feels very good for long. It's like a constant dopamine itch I gotta scratch. Gotta do something to get my fix, but I'm not sure what.
Then there's the whole attention and procrastination bits, but with a bit of practice and discipline anyone can get those bits under control. The other stuff I mentioned seems to be beyond my control unfortunately...
I also have the type of restlessness you're describing, but I actually never associated it with my ADHD...maybe because I have a couple close friends like this too who definitely don't have ADHD themselves. There's still so much we don't know about any of these conditions.
I directly link that to the H in my ADHD. My SO has ADD and is usually fine doing absolutely nothing all day long for the same reason I have to do things all day long. It's just not rewarding enough to do normal things like normal people. Her brain decides that means it's best not to do anything cause what's the point, while my brain decides that I should try to do as much as possible as fast as possible to make it feel stimulating.
Anyone can have basically adhd trait and not have ADHD. That's why the condition is not taken seriously by so many people. Most people can relate to at least some part of ADHD, because it's a bunch of pretty normal personality traits.
It's just that in adhd, there are many of these traits at the same time, and they're more severe than in most.
Browsing /r/adhd is a good way to get a grip on what ADHD does to people in an everyday context. It's given me so much insight about things I never would have guessed were connected to ADHD that aren't typically mentioned by psychiatrists and the like.
I've actually used other psychatric subreddits to get a good understanding on what some mental illnesses actually are. I've read several articles on borderline personality disorder, but I never really understood what it was other than some emotional disorder. I randomly decided to check out /r/borderline and it only took a few minutes of browsing to get a feel for how it actually affects people. One of the most eye opening posts there was something like "Right now I'm really angry for no reason. There must be a reason for my anger. I bet my BF cheated on me. That's a perfectly legitimate reason to be angry. What an asshole, why would he cheat on me!?". Apparently it seems you have very little control of your emotions, and you tend to adjust the facts and the world around you to fit your emotions, rather than the other way around.
I have the decision fatigue but not the H. My wife and I just put a garden in and it was suppose to be her project. So I asked her "Do you know where you are going to plant things?" She of course didn't 3 hours later I am still working on a layout that takes into account plant spacing, height, compatibility, fertilizer needs and of course how many of each. I have all these plants that were started under grow lights and they really just need to get in the ground. Luckily on my meds it only took me a few hours to come up with a plan and I was able to force myself to put the tomato plants in and that limited my choices moving forward enough to finish the task. Unmedicated I would be writing a program to figure out the optimal placement until well after the plants had died of neglect.
Lol, that sounds pretty hyper to me. It's mainly physical mostly in children.
I hate that sort of involuntary hyperfocus. When you just... can't stop. I can be doing something i don't even want to do anymore but I just can't stop. It's awful. Sometimes I have to call for my SO and ask her to sort of physically pull me away.
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u/[deleted] May 30 '17
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