My gorgeous sister-in-law scores very high on ADHD attributes (like 48 out of 50 high). Since being alerted to that by her son (my nephew, officially diagnosed/defined after burning out following the birth and early childcare years of his son) she has deeply researched what that means, and what it represents in her life. She did that in order to decide whether to get a formal assessment and diagnosis or choose to adapt how she tries to operate in a modern society; a society that until recently hasn't acknowledged wide diversity exists in human neuro function.
My own view, for what it's worth, is that neuro-diversity has a role in the success of humans as a species, how we adapt, survive, thrive. It should all be celebrated, but I've seen both SiL and nephew collapse under the strain of not fitting in.
SiL talks about 'executive function', something she asserts I have in spades (lots of it). I'd never heard the term until a year or so ago (SiL used it) but it's something to do with being able to organize and motivate oneself. Task orientation.
Many ADHD people struggle to get started on tasks, even ones really important to them, and among the myriad things I've learned about neuro stuff over recent months is that without knowing how where when or why I adopted or developed them, I have many habits and personality quirks that are co-related to good stress management, good mental health (and sound physical health - although mind and body should not be regarded as separate health spheres), and lack of anxiety issues. I also get stuff done.
Occasionally I resort to a list. It happens when I'm considering a huge project with many facets and am struggling to develop clear priorities. I recognize a sense of overwhelm and go into list mode. The latest version was to walk around here with a camera and photograph the things which I (a) want fixed or changed and (b) can do something about and then write on each photo a description of the activity.
As the item was completed I drew a big blue tick across the photo.
What I noticed within a week was that I had quickly done all the tasks that were discreet and complete-able. However, I struggled to even start those that were nebulous, open-ended, or ongoing.
Piles of firewood dragged out of the bush were quickly processed and stacked, a path cleared, a drain dug, potted plants now have roots in soil in the nascent landscaping beginning to take shape.
Harder to achieve were any tasks I'd described as "do something about..." Many of those were tasks I've been picking away at for 16 months - controlling gorse and blackberry, composting bio-mass, moving earth, improving the veg garden. That, or the tasks were too large to complete in a day or two - like building a gabion retaining fence along one boundary or building a 3 metre x 3 metre raised bed garden for gooseberries and blueberries. The magnitude of the idea needs breaking down into smaller discreet and do-able instructions to myself.
Having realized all that I saw a hack from one of the ADHD heroes I follow on insty-thing. She never tells herself to clean the kitchen. She starts with an instruction to self to "wipe the bench". Once started the famous ADHD hyper-focus can kick in and hours later the kitchen could be sparkling (or the bench could be wiped over half and she's moved on to some completely unrelated activity - but I get that. Distractions are everywhere and often it's not the thing you intended to do but something creative or beautiful or fulfilling has been done instead.)
Anyway I'm not on any scale ADHD - not the creativity, not the hyper-focus, not the outside-the-box problem solving... none of the super powers that go with all the pain and self-doubt and anxiety… but I have learned and continue to learn so much more from my neuro-spicy family and friends and believe that we all benefit from the part the neuro diversity of humans holds in the past and future of humanity.
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