Today I had a work call with a colleague who has been mentoring me for a few months now (nothing serious, just someone to ask now and then if I need advice). Around half way through this call, once they had answered my original question, out of the blue and unprompted they asked “wasp, have you considered that you might be neurodivergent?”

From the short conversation I then had, they have noticed that I hyperfocus, I can’t organise for shit, I regularly stop mid sentence and change the subject, and that I bounce between trains of thought rapidly which makes it hard for people to keep up. I was a bit surprised as I don’t work particularly closely with this colleague and while I’m aware that I do these things they have never really been mentioned before, and certainly not attributed to anything other than me being a bit overenthusiastic.

I won’t delve too deeply here, but today has certainly been a day of self reflection. Regardless of whether I am or am not neurodivergent, I have always felt able to pass as neurotypical and today has been the first time I have had anyone question this. Suddenly I’m thinking that maybe I should be taking the possibility of me having ADHD a lot more seriously. The penny has finally dropped that I need to get this checked out.

Any advice on what I should do next? I’ve booked in to see my doctor, but what would you all recommend to a potential ADHD newcomer?

  • Leilys@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    5·
    1 year ago

    If you’re not always on medication, like me, I try to actively do a few things:

    1. Set things up for yourself. Think of future you like a separate person you’re trying to help out.

    I generally have problems with going to bed on time (it’s still 2:30am, but I’m working on it…), and I realised that I could go to bed more immediately if I brushed my teeth when I took my shower so I wouldn’t get into task paralysis doomscrolling on my bed and either staying up way too late or falling asleep with bad oral hygiene.

    Other things is like putting out the laundry basket in the middle of your path the night before so it’s easier to grab it and bring it over to the washing machine the next morning. I use Google assistant to set a timer now so I’m more likely to remember to hang the clothes out to dry. It’s not perfect, but I’ve at least had to rewash my clothes less due to me forgetting.

    1. Setting a timer and time limit to do a thing.

    There’s still that agony of “oh god I have to do a thing”, but on days you really need to get small (but seemingly insurmountable) tasks done, I make a list of all the tasks I need to do, write a number next to the task in the order I have to do it, and then note down roughly how long it takes to do something.

    Then, I set the timer, and set it to count down. It provides just a little additional push to start doing things, even if it’s an absolute slog.

    P.S. could you tell me more about how your task paralysis and workaholism would impact you? That seems quite interesting