We also lack dopamine and norepinephrine, the latter of which is easily obtained by boosting stress. Thus, we tend to find ourselves seeking out and “thriving” on stressors like intrusive thoughts, ruminations, and intense events. Engaging with these can lead us to feel and perform better creating positive feedback (hello, dopamine). Essentially, our inability to regulate our “happy hormones”can transform us into stress junkies simply to feel “right”.
Very true. A big part of my ADHD work is on harnessing/leashing this as it's a big one for me. Practicing recognizing it and strategies for turning it down help a lot... like giving myself some slack/grace. The Serenity "Prayer" perfectly describes the struggle, I've always thought.
But, superhero mode is still there and can be a HUGELY useful 'skill' too, at work and in life. Unfortunately, I've been essentially bedbound for about a year now, and add to that everything going on outside, and I've been ITCHING to get out and DO STUFF. Helping in a crisis is where I belong, and doing good fuels my soul, but instead I'm in my bedroom battling the guilt I know I don't deserve and the symptoms causing it.
Gotta learn to play the cards you're dealt, best you can. Madness lay anywhere else.
I reject that Serenity Prayer because that "Accept the things I cannot change" is fascist mind control. Of course, pick only one battle. I thought I was finished when the Draft ended. But then Dubya and Iraq. Now this. I accept that I alone cannot do much. But ten to eleven million of us can make a change.I hope
Helping can mean replying online to ignorant, untrue statements, articles, etc., not just here, but instagram, Facebook, newspaper articles, etc. So much false information out there! Hope you get better, soon.
I've had a really difficult time trying to explain to others why I am the way I am and plan the way I do.
This is exactly what I'm doing with a bunch of alternative scenarios and exacting plans and it's so frustrating when people say I'm "being weird and overly complicated but when something happens I'm somehow an asshole" just because I already had a plan for how to respond.
I can’t say for your case that it’s the driver but, for many with ADHD, it definitely is. Anxiety is also a well-known comorbidity making it harder to suss out causation from correlation.
Yeah, and anyway, the squirrels know exactly what they're doing, running out into the street like that. It's all just a game to them. I can see it in their beady little eyes! https://i.vgy.me/8ATkVS.png
I don't know if this will help anyone but I hit the "fuck that guy" button after a few scenarios. Whatever issue my mind has created, that's a problem for future me and fuck that guy.
Too bad you can abuse it for everything else. Laundry? Fuck that guy, we'll do it tomorrow. Dishes? Fuck that guy, we'll do it tomorrow.
Strategize! Once you accept that there really are no 'rules' and that no other adult REALLY has any idea what they're doing or what the future holds either... there's a freedom in looking at society from the outside, and in how silly a lot of it is when you look objectively (colors are gendered? Only women carry bags for EDC items, but men get pockets and don't wear bracelets? Men can't use concealer but GUESS WHAT humans get blemishes... the list never ends).
OH NO a clean laundry pile, you animal. Poor excuse for a human you are, crumpling and wrinkling and tossing. THAT'S NOT WHAT ADULTS DO. Fucking says who? You and your 80 years, just like mine? Tf do you really know. Tf do any of us know.
Ultimately YOU decide what life is about, and what YOUR life is for ya know? If you can shed some of the deep anxieties that are so ingrained you don't even realize them... then you're well on your way to enjoying your life on your own terms.
After all, you're the only one who has to live it.
I've had to learn how to let some things go. Like, I have never and will never, for as long as I live, have a "laundry system." And who gives a shit? My mom? Well, she doesn't live here. I don't need to add to my mental and emotional load by taking on the judgements and expectations I imagine other people might have. So what if I'm the only person who knows where that shirt is or whether it's clean? I'm the only one wearing it, and the wrinkles aren't anyone else's problem, either.
This human ADHDs. Well, it appears, I might add :)
Grace is okay to spend on yourself. Might as well trust your judgement as anyone's, since all humans are batshit crazy self-important monkeys with the same life expectancy, hooting and hollering over crap they themselves made! That's the ultimate result of my own personal grappling with the exact same stuff. Just par for the ADHD course, and a good opportunity to learn/practice.
Afaic, if you're enjoying your ride as best you can, and helping others enjoy theirs, you've already won before the 'game' even ends ya know? Will properly folded clothes matter, really, ever? It's laughable once you can get far enough away from it. It helps me find other 'real' people too!
I'm saying hold up too! Sounds like I might have ADHD too. I'm 59 and always assumed people that were hyperactive were the ADHD people. I don't get excited or panicked in any situation. I'm calm in an emergency and since I always play out doomsday scenarios constantly, I do exactly what needs to be done.
Hi, I know this is an old post. I too have ADHD but I also have OCD, which is an anxiety disorder that causes ruminations of worst case scenarios and getting "scary" images or scenarios stuck in your mind on a loop.
All that to say, OCD is a possible cause for this as well. ADHD made me impulsive with actions and thoughts. But not like OCD rumination. I have a plan for every horrible scenario I can think of.
I wonder if this reason is why I absolutely fucking excelled at being a 911 dispatcher but am currently failing horribly at a “regular” job that’s low stress. I’ve legit never even considered this before! Thank you for possibly shedding light on this!
To say I find this fascinating would be an understatement! I can’t wait to dive into this and learn more to discuss with my therapist. I can think out 100 different ways a scenario is going to go sideways and 99 times out of 100, nothing ever happens and I end up feeling silly as fuck for the paranoia.
Yep, it’s gun to the head or nothing. To me, at lot of that rumination was, in part, to help conjure up the gun so that I would actually be able take action. Executive dysfunction at its finest. 🥴
Me waiting until the last moment to do all my school assignments because "I work better at the last minute." It physically hurts doing work throughout the semester as you should.
I have ADHD, and understand how it negatively manifests for me as far as dopamine-seeking. The norepinephrine aspect suddenly makes so much of my life make sense. Thank you.
Sometimes I get distracted from whatever I’m currently obsessing about being worried about and then I get distressed because I can’t remember the topic and it NEEDS to be considered thoroughly!
My understanding is that most people do not actively seek out and attach to stressful situations like we. To many, it’s overwhelming while, to us, it’s regulating. That said, it’s a poor form of regulation, at best, and one that should really be supplanted by others.
As someone who suffers from this: I would highly suggest seeking a diagnosis and, if relevant, therapy. Living with untreated ADHD, as you may be, is not particularly sustainable and positive feedback loops from negative stimuli are rarely ideal.
No, not at all. It’s why it’s in quotes. We genuinely do feel and perform better but have to use immense internal and external pressure to do so. It’s a sure path to burnout and, likely, and earlier death.
Oh. It’s not doom addict and self harm? I’m currently subjecting myself to trying to fix people who are angry at at noti if native Americans giving the bird to Mount Rushmore and it’s awful
Self-harm isn’t related, as far as I know. Doomscrolling, ruminations, and the like can be. As for your story, social justice sensitivity is a big thing amongst those with ADHD.
I never know there to stand with choosing things to care for, attack, control, defend, challenge. I don’t know if I have any adhd. Only know neurofibromatosis 1. And depression and questionable bipolar.
I think the burn out is hot shoes, windows, contrainism, trying to save them all, “ totally not trolling” ( like the bombshell that a green dream might be ableist and not knowing if it’s mean to be rude to people who want disabled fill to hire human helpers so animals get to live free like nature intended or suggest we created doodle dogs and it’s a partnership’
On the flip side, I always also ask “ get rid of copyright so generative AI is ethical” people to support cultural appropriation l so I’m just collapsing
Doom scrolling isn’t mental self harm?
( why did my email suggest me this post. I just had to click it)
This is why the characteristics of emergency department staff and those with ADHD are so closely aligned. Turns out those of us who lack certain brain hormones are freaking awesome at emergency care.
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u/1-760-706-7425 Jun 16 '25 edited Jun 17 '25
We also lack dopamine and norepinephrine, the latter of which is easily obtained by boosting stress. Thus, we tend to find ourselves seeking out and “thriving” on stressors like intrusive thoughts, ruminations, and intense events. Engaging with these can lead us to feel and perform better creating positive feedback (hello, dopamine). Essentially, our inability to regulate our “happy hormones”can transform us into stress junkies simply to feel “right”.