Hacking ADHD.
Wired to be a hunter, forced to live in a farmer’s world.
*Standard disclaimer that nothing in this article should be used as a substitute for medical advice*
For the ones who might be unaware, ADHD stands for: Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder.
It’s a neurodevelopmental condition (there’s a difference in brain wiring) that affects how the brain regulates things such as our attention and impulse control.
To be diagnosed with it, a person needs to have:
5+ inattention symptoms such as:
-Failing to give close attention to details or making careless mistakes.
-Having difficulty sustaining attention in tasks.
-Not being able to listen when spoken to directly quite often.
-Having difficulty organizing tasks and activities (poor time management, messy work, trouble with deadlines).
-Losing things necessary for tasks or activities (keys, phone, wallet, paperwork).
-Easily distracted by extraneous stimuli (including unrelated thoughts).
-Time blindness, losing hours or missing appointments / Forgetful in daily activities (paying bills, keeping appointments, returning calls).
-Hyperfocus, can obsessively focus on interesting things for hours, but can’t force it on boring tasks.
5+ hyperactivity and impulsivity symptoms such as:
-Fidgeting with or tapping hands/feet, or squirming in the seat.
-Feeling restless or “driven by a motor”.
-Being unable to play or engage in leisure activities quietly.
-Talking excessively.
-Blurting out answers before questions have been completed, or finishing other people’s sentences.
-Having difficulty waiting their turn (lines, conversations etc).
-Restless mind (feels like having 97 tabs open in your brain at all times).
-Emotional regulation struggles (experiencing big feelings, fast).
Now if you have ADHD, these should sound very familiar and you should then further look into the diagnostic criteria, especially given the fact that to be diagnosed with ADHD, you also need to:
-Have symptoms that started before age 12.
-Have symptoms present in two or more settings ( home + school/work + social life etc).
-Having symptoms that are not better explained by another mental disorder.
and overall things that a psychiatrist can walk someone through.
Of course, if you have a few of them, that's being called being a human since all of us have dysfunctional behaviours to a certain extent.
Please also keep in mind that just because 10 people can have ADHD, it does not mean that 10/10 of them will experience it at the same severity.
Some will experience mild, others moderate and others severe.
Now how is ADHD created?
If we set aside marketing techniques that put the blame on a single root cause, ADHD is driven by a complex interplay of genetics, hormones, environmental factors and much more.
So there's no one thing that causes ADHD and if you have it, you can NOT, completely get rid of it.
You can only manage it and this is the only route a person with it can take in order to succeed in a certain field.
So ADHD is a measurable, biological difference in major systems such as: