I think one of the hardest struggles of adhd for me is the lack of automaticity. Neurotypical people seem to be able to do things automatically. For them, get dressed consists of one step–get dressed.
But with adhd, it’s hard to do things automatically because your brain is elsewhere, both consciously and subconsciously. “Getting dressed” isn’t just one step, it’s many. It’s getting up, going to the closet, opening the closet, throwing the clothes on the bed, changing, put old clothes in the hamper, etc. etc.
And your brain can stop paying attention at any one of those steps. If you’re not careful when you get up, you might go to the kitchen instead of the closet. If you’re not paying attention, you might forget to put the old clothes in the hamper.
I think this is one of the reasons that compensating for unmedicated adhd is HIGHLY energy consuming. With anything you do, there are a million little micro steps where you can get derailed. I think this is why anxiety is often comorbid with adhd: it’s one of the only conditions that forces you to always, always stress about what step you fucked up on.
Literally so sad that you can’t get disability allowance as a sneezy pyromaniac who’s irrevocably horny
[image description: the first image is a screenshot that says, “Conditions that aren’t impairments. Some conditions aren’t disabilities under the Equality Act 2010. They include:
hayfever
voyeurism or exhibitionism
a tendency to set fire to things
a tendency to steal things”.
the next image is a screenshot of a tumblr tag that says, “god forbid women do anything”. /end id]
