![]() Emotion: managing and modulating emotions, especially frustration It’s only when I finish the level that I can easily shift my focus to something new. I lose track of what I originally decided was my benchmark and keep playing the game, forgetting whatever time limit I set for myself. I finish reading a study, and I decide I should give myself a short break. Focus: paying attention, sustaining focus, shifting focus I’ve thought about it every day since I got the assignment in my inbox, and I want to do it, but I can’t quite make the jump from intent to action, and now I’m writing at 2 a.m. I know I should start researching for an article on ADHD. ![]() I can’t speak to the thought process of everyone with ADHD, but I can add some anecdotal examples to different executive functions, such as: Activation: prioritizing, organizing, scheduling, getting started on tasks I have ADHD, and I include that not because it defines who I am, but because it’s part of my perspective as a writer. What does the thought process of someone with ADHD feel like? My story This inability is a result of executive dysfunction. Their brain is less able to direct attention to the task until it requires their immediate attention. It’s not that they don’t know they should get started, or that they don’t want to. They know they should start working on it, at least start doing the research, but they can’t seem to actually get started. If you ask them when it’s due, they may even know the calendar date. For example, someone with ADHD can be aware of some task, like a research paper. The ADHD thought process is not so completely unfamiliar as to be unrecognizable, but people with ADHD might encounter some complications in their thinking. The study’s authors concluded that inattention likely played a crucial role in the differences in performance. Speed of language comprehension may also be negatively impacted in children with ADHD.Ī 2018 study focusing on ADHD subtypes and the specific processing areas they affect, found that children with the inattentive subtype had slower decision speeds than children in the control group. Problems with executive function may negatively impact academic outcomes of children with ADHD. Their diminished ability to manage attention is due to issues with their brain chemistry. This is often misinterpreted as proof that they’re choosing when to be affected by their ADHD symptoms or that they lack the “will” to focus on other tasks. Some people with ADHD experience hyperfocus for hours on something enjoyable to them, like: And not because their minds work so quickly that the task is that much more boring, but because their ability to selectively focus their attention is impaired. Folks with ADHD find this significantly more difficult. People who don’t have ADHD can typically pay attention to a task, even if the task is boring. People with ADHD don’t just have a short attention span - the part of their brain that governs attention doesn’t work the same. ![]() It can also extend to an inability to consider different options before making a choice, or to agree to a commitment without considering prior engagements. This can result in someone with ADHD being more easily distracted. People with ADHD have a diminished ability to regulate their attention, to put the brakes on their attention before it leaps to something else. In short, yeah, kind of, or at least their thought processes might look a bit different. When they launch into a new story halfway through a different one, it may be because they’ve learned if they don’t, they’ll forget the new story by the time they finish the first one. People with ADHD often have issues with working memory and with regulating attention, including switching from one task to another. There’s less stopping the brain from drawing the connection between a story about a walk home and a story about a particular shirt, for example. This lack of inhibition in thought can also result in more tangential connections. Additionally, many people with ADHD report feeling more relaxed when they’re most active, so this activity stream can often be comforting. The thoughts a person with ADHD tend to jump without stopping to worry about the details. People with ADHD aren’t as able to inhibit themselves, whether it be their: What might seem like thinking more quickly is simply thinking differently. They may start a story, think of another halfway through, switch to the new one, finish their original story, and then hop into a discussion of the last movie they watched, for example. ![]() It can sometimes seem that people with ADHD think fast as they leap from one idea to the next.
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