| "ADHD" is pseudo-science in my opinion. The impairment to life is certainly real. But the cause is unproven, and for ADHD and the medication, it must be present since birth...a brain defect...but we live in an incredibly distracting environment due to social media and all the societal change coupled with that. > For the case of ADHD specifically, this is translated to: “if an individual has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder it is because he is inattentive, disorganized and hyperactive-impulsive, and if an individual is inattentive, disorganized and hyperactive-impulsive it is because he has ADHD. > ADHD in the DSM-5-TR: What has changed and what has not - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9871920/ -- My take on this situation is based on common sense and personal experience. I would be interested to read the science that counters this if you have it. ADHD people tend to leave things to the last minute. But the reason they start in the first place is because of the deadline's existence and strictness - the physical reaction of stress when they finally consider the consequences. If you acknowledge they leave things to the last minute and account for that by making deadlines less strict and more forgiving, then the motivating and focusing power of the deadline decreases and they can just make excuses and don't find the deadline motivating enough to start. The key is maintaining the motivational power of the deadline. The smaller the deadline, usually the less motivating power it has and the less consequences it has to missing it. It's all a delicate psychological dance, but at some point the person needs to push up against a negative emotion now and then...which our modern culture seems to want to entirely eliminate. Its the age old: why do I only have intense motivation to do the task the night before its due...next time I just need to start earlier...without realizing its the power of the night before that is the key to it all. |
All brains have an autopilot mode, and an ADHD brain on autopilot thinks thousands of thoughts at once. When I am not medicated I can be cooking, having an imaginary conversation about politics, planning the weekend, and listening to a song playing in my head - all at the same time, and doing all of the above badly. When I am medicated I do the same thing, but after 10 or so minutes a thought pops into my head: hey, you are distracted, focus! Without meds this thought may take an hour or two to arrive.
A deadline seems to raise the baseline of executive brain activity for a similar effect to the medication, but it's not guaranteed. Now try explaining to a boss who doesn't believe that ADHD is a thing why your performance is inconsistent. Don't you care about deadlines? I do, but I can forget that a deadline is a thing that exists in this universe.
OK, you'll say, just build routines. Discipline. Of course - I couldn't survive without routines. The trouble is: I forget I have a routine when my brain is in that fuzzy state. I can get to work, not know what my tasks are for the day, and start daydreaming. Why not just look at JIRA? Because in that state I don't remember that such as thing as JIRA exists in this universe. I actually have an alarm in my phone that tells me to check JIRA around the time I get to the office. I rarely forget, but when I do - the failure is epic.