[throwasquirrel]

I have been unfortunate enough to not be diagnosed with ADHD until middle age, and I'm sorry to hear about your apparent misdiagnosis but for people who actually do have the condition, it's very real and it very much sucks. It's not just "someone walked into the room and I lost my train of thought", it's "I have one simple task to do and I know exactly how to do it and it's been hours but I still can't make myself do the thing no matter how much I want to."

It's "I haven't done my taxes for 18 months even though it would only take a day, and I cannot force myself to do it no matter how hard I try."

It's "I've been unable to fold my laundry for six weeks even though I've alphabetized my cutlery drawer, twice."

It's "I have to document this project but no matter how much I want to just do it, I nevertheless continually find myself on imgur or Facebook or Hacker News or some random other website reading up about how switched-reluctance motors or Monte Carlo tree search or whatever works."

It's lack of executive function when you need it and it's the inability to think about anything else when something's grabbed your focus and it's a built-in character flaw that you can't "just choose to not have" and it's growing up thinking you're "just lazy" but "have so much potential" and it just. f*king. sucks.

If all you need in order to focus on the thing you want to focus on is for no-one to interrupt you, you don't have ADHD.

/rant

[cecilpl2]

> "I have to document this project but no matter how much I want to just do it, I nevertheless continually find myself on imgur or Facebook or Hacker News or some random other website reading up about how switched-reluctance motors or Monte Carlo tree search or whatever works."

This is why I learned more about grain bins and low-head dams this week than I did the tool I was supposed to be building.

[throwasquirrel]

Ooh did you know grain bins are super dangerous and there's a startup building a grain-bin-leveling robot so that farmers don't have to risk death in their grain bins?

Yeah that wasn't what I was meant to be doing either.

https://www.agweb.com/news/business/technology/robot-replace...

[throwaway256978]

I haven't been diagnosed and don't know where to start. One of my teachers had suggested in early grade school that I had a "developmental disability" but my parents resisted and prevented me from being assessed and prevented me from being in the special needs program. Partially because they didn't really believe in the concept and partially because they feared that it would negatively affect my social development.

I struggled throughout school, struggled even harder throughout university (it took me _many_ years to graduate) and am currently floundering in my job.

I have had the exact same experience with my taxes/laundry/reports but I have no family doctor and no way to get one. Besides a GP, the mental health options for such things in my city are limited to minors and adults in assisted living situations.

[throwasquirrel]

See a psychiatrist, if it's an option. They'll ask you to do one or more diagnostic questionnaires, I was given the Weiss functional impairment scale and the CADDRA questionnaire to fill out. Your partner or a close acquaintance will also be required to answer some questions to give an outside view. Answer as honestly as possible (there's no effort at blinding so it's embarrassingly easy to guess the 'right' answers... they really need to work on this).

I don't know about other countries but in Australia if you meet the criteria on the above questionnaires and your psychiatrist's assessment agrees with that then you'll likely be prescribed stimulant medication (Ritalin or dexamfetamine, or the long acting variants Concerta or Vyvanse). I started on dexies and while not everyone's so lucky, for me they were life changing. I can sit down and choose to do a thing... and just do the thing! It's the first time in my life I've been able to do that. I was surviving before but... life just doesn't have to be that hard.

[throwawayboise]

Being unable to do things you should be doing might be ADHD, it might also be depression. Depressed people often live in clutter, piles of laundry, papers everywhere, because they cannot find the will to get and stay organized.

[phnofive]

> "I haven't done my taxes for 18 months even though it would only take a day, and I cannot force myself to do it no matter how hard I try."

Ouch, got me with this one.