[zeidrich]

Disorder is maybe a harsh word, but my issue is that it runs counter to how I want to act.

I want to do x, but I don't do it. It's really hard to explain to someone who doesn't feel the same way. It's not just a procrastination, it's a complete inability to adhere to a rational set of priorities.

For most people task avoidance is due to stress or fear. For me it was simply that it disappeared from my head while I did something else less important. Then later I realized that I didn't do what I wanted to, and tried to understand why.

Parts of the day would disappear into nothing. I wasn't avoiding work, or even procrastinating as many people would view it, I was just unable to see that mental priority list for a time.

Then there's the periods of seeing that mental priority list, but being unable to commit to any single task to the extent that nothing gets done. If there's giant pressure or stress behind something, it could force me to act, but otherwise nothing.

"Hyperfocus" is kind of true in that when you unhinge from that mental priority list you stop feeling the distractions, but the problem is you don't exactly get to choose what you want to focus on. The other problem is, that condition only lasts for a while and then you're left listless and useless. So sure, you can spend a few hours writing responses up on HN instead of working, process all that dopamine superfast, and then sit around trying to remember what you were trying to do when you sat down at your computer in the first place, until some crisis pushes you to action.

You talk about it like it's great, but I think you're misrepresenting it. It doesn't make you an incredibly quick thinker, you don't necessarily "think through every consequence of what you just said before you finish your sentence" what is more realistic is we think through some things unrelated to what was just said, sometimes this might lead to an alternate line of reasoning, a "thinking outside the box". Sometimes it just means you have no idea of what was actually just said because you were thinking about whether when they said they had been working all last night that they maybe got Pizza when they were working last night, and whether they liked anchovies on their pizza because your Dad used to put anchovies on his pizza and you never really liked them. You know, they were so salty, and the little bones got stuck in your teeth. But it's kind of cool that you can eat those little fish almost whole, unlike Tuna, which while it comes in tiny little cans is actually a pretty big fish.

[JohnBooty]

  Then there's the periods of seeing that mental priority list,  
  but being unable to commit to any single task to the extent that 
  nothing gets done. If there's giant pressure or stress behind 
  something, it could force me to act, but otherwise nothing.

  "Hyperfocus" is kind of true in that when you unhinge from that 
  mental priority list you stop feeling the distractions, but the 
  problem is you don't exactly get to choose what you want to 
  focus on. 

Get out of my brain! Yeah. This! Eerily accurate description of how I feel a lot of the time.

  It [ADHD] doesn't make you an incredibly quick thinker, you 
  don't necessarily "think through every consequence of what you 
  just said before you finish your sentence" what is more 
  realistic is we think through some things unrelated to what was 
  just said, sometimes this might lead to an alternate line of 
  reasoning, a "thinking outside the box".

Yeah, I agree with this. I think that people with high intelligence and ADHD often conflate the effects of one with the effects of the other.

Being smart makes you think ahead; having ADHD makes you think sideways. Together, they can be a real doozy, huh?

[sizzle]

wow you articulated this really well, I'm going to start explaining it like this to people. thank you