@tfw-adhd / tfw-adhd.tumblr.com
It’s been a long time since I’ve shared the link to my server, so I thought I should finally do it again! This is a server for anyone either diagnosed with ADHD or suspecting they have it—it’s a good place to just talk with other likeminded people, or ask people who have ADHD about their experiences so you can see if others are having similar experiences with their symptoms.
If you’d like to join, here’s the link: https://discord.gg/kYzytJR
Oh man, I really hope the medication situation gets worked out. The shortage is giving me major stress, and I'm lucky enough to have my meds, but they need adjusting (still waiting to hear from the psychiatrists rip).
You got this. One Adhd haver to another! We're in this together
Sent 15th August~
Thank you! It’s not even a shortage of medication for me—it’s that the NHS want to do regular checkups with you when you’re on medication, and they don’t have enough time to do those checkups with anyone else. And it’s like… I get it, I guess, but come on…
I hope yours get adjusted how you need them soon!! Solidarity 💪
So is anyone else just on an eternal ADHD medication waitlist that literally involves waiting for people to die or give up meds so that they can give you their medication cause it’s frustrating and depressing
Have you heard of VAST? It's related to adhd but I've not seen it mentioned much anywhere.
Sent March 2022~
I hadn’t, until you sent this! I’ve had a quick google and it seems interesting—just that it’s an alternate name for ADHD which doesn’t present it in a negative light (by using the word disorder). It stands for Variable Attention Stimulus Trait.
I’m all for changing the names of things to get rid of negative associations, but personally that one seems like a bit of a mouthful and took me quite a few reads to get my head around that full name!
Hey! Excellent update on my life—I’ve managed to move in with my partner! Well, I’m in the process of moving… but had to pay six months advance rent to get it, and now I don’t get paid until Monday and currently have £0.97 in my bank account, when I need to buy food.
And when I do have food, I need to get actual things for the house, because it’s completely unfurnished and we have very little!
If anyone has some spare cash, my PayPal is here!
Or if you’d rather buy something for the new flat, which would still be helpful, there are a few things on my Amazon Wishlist (because my partner also has very little at the moment!)
Thanks so much for reading either way 😊
Thought I’d share some info from the booklet the doctor gave me when I was diagnosed! These two pages really helpfully explain autistic burnout and meltdowns.
YOU'RE BACK??? I'M SO HAPPY WOW!!
Sent July 2023~
Ironic that I’m replying to this a year late 😅 I come and go a little bit, when I get the inspiration to reply to more messages! A lot of them are outdated now though (people not sending me much recently because I don’t reply!) so I never know if I should reply to ones over a year old!
Hey! Excellent update on my life—I’ve managed to move in with my partner! Well, I’m in the process of moving… but had to pay six months advance rent to get it, and now I don’t get paid until Monday and currently have £0.97 in my bank account, when I need to buy food.
And when I do have food, I need to get actual things for the house, because it’s completely unfurnished and we have very little!
If anyone has some spare cash, my PayPal is here!
Or if you’d rather buy something for the new flat, which would still be helpful, there are a few things on my Amazon Wishlist (because my partner also has very little at the moment!)
Thanks so much for reading either way 😊
What do you do when you're super confused about symptom lists? I find that examples of people experiencing those symptoms in different ways makes more sense to me, though a lot of times, I can't find enough examples and get more confused. It's like I read through them and while I can relate to a LOT of things my gf states about her adhd and some of her ocd, looking online, it's like my brain refuses to decipher the medical speak and it's frustrating.
Sent 20th Sept 2023~
Ah, that’s totally understandable and something a lot of people struggle with! I wish I had advice for it—I’ve studied Biopsychology, so often I just understand the medical speak and therefore don’t have anything I can offer! I’ve tried to make my Venn Diagrams useful as symptoms lists that aren’t written quite as technically as official symptoms lists, so you could check out those if you haven’t already.
Other than that, I guess just read posts on tumblr and other sites about people’s experiences - I think that is how I picked up some of my understanding.
I don't know if I am right to ask this here.. so sorry if it isn't the right space, you don't have to answer.
I am not diagnosed with autism but I kinda think I may be on the spectrum, it isn't so important for me to know at the moment, but I have this question: Can hyperfixations be certain movies or food or stuff? I have times where I watch the same movie for like, months, everyday and I think about this movie a lot and stuff and then it goes away after some months. And also I have times where I eat the same stuff everyday and I just wanna eat this meal for weeks and it doesn't get boring at all to me. People make me feel super weird about it when I tell them this about me so I stopped to tell other people, but I was wondering if that is a hyperfixation? It seems to be one to me? I just don't know who to ask and people in real life make fun about me for that
Sent 6th June 2023~
Sorry for how long this took me to get to, but yes! Hyperfixations can be on all of those things. It’s most commonly talked about that books/movies/tv shows are the subject of hyperfixations, but anything can be! Food, certain clothes, people…
Doctor's appt was endlessly frustrating (still doesn't believe I have adhd and won't give me stimulants even tho I'm Struggling Hardcore) but the guy who took my vitals talked w me about titanfall (hyperfixation go brrrr) so it's all cool 👍
Sent 13th August~
Aw, I’m sorry! Doctors can be a pain sometimes :/ glad you got to talk about the hyperfixation though!
Oh thank God, a blog that understands this sort of thing. I know it says you're in biopsych, but I'm still extremely excited that at least someone understands this sort of thing on a more science based level. I feel like this is a topic that gets brushed off a lot. "Its a super power!" AAA. I would give anything to just function like a neurotypical person and take the stupid garbage out.
I have no idea how I managed to hold a job, go to college, pass the NCLEX, hold nursing jobs, and function even barely if it wasn't for the meds I'm on. I only got "rediagnosed" (probably the best word for it) in the last year, and these meds have literally changed and saved my life. I thought I grew out of adhd and was totally fine. I told my psychiatrist about "unrelated problems" and she's like "you were diagnosed with adhd as a kid, right?"
"Yeah"
"You've still got it though. The [xyz symptoms] are characteristic of this"
"Well ****, that explains my entire being up until now"
"Oh yeah"
Sent June 2023~
This is a super old ask, I’m so sorry - but I’m glad you found me and hope that looking at everything I’d posted helped! I have a lot of explanations for various symptoms, and hopefully they’re simplified out of the medical jargon but still useful explanations of the scientific basis there.
Hi, your blog is so cool. I made a community for neurodivergent students to share and receive resources and tips. If you're interested in joining, let me know and I'll send you an invite. It's a really nice environment.
Sent 25th July~
Aw, that’s lovely! I’m not interested in joining just because I’m not a student anymore and I’ve got a lot going on, but thanks so much for the invite!
OKAY- So here I am, with my ADHD self, I guess. So Nat, I have brought a question here today. So, would having hyperfixations/fixations on friends work? Because there's this friend that I love a lot, and if I don't see them for a day or two, I cry myself to sleep sometimes because I miss them. And another topic, do people feel like they do stuff like dramatically for attention? Thank you for answering if you did. :)
Sent 25th March~
Sorry, I know this is an old ask! But yes, hyperfixating on friends is absolutely possible, and quite common!
Hey I love you with all my heart. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve linked you for clients and used you to better understand myself. I’ve even handed off some of these to MY therapist to pass on to other people. Truly the gift that keeps on giving. I wondered if you’d thought of doing an ptsd vs ocd! I know you’ve shown symptoms of both in other ven diagrams but I trust your skills! No pressure, just love!
Sent 9th March~
Gah, I’m so sorry it’s taken me so long to answer this! I’m so glad that my resources have been so useful, it makes me so happy to hear!
I probably won’t make anymore venn diagrams now though, as they always took up a lot of time and I have a lot going on in my life - but I always love seeing people find them useful!
Idk whether I have adhd or not but most of the symptoms resonate with me a lot. The only thing that makes me uncertain was the fact that adhd symptoms must be there from early childhood and... I can't remember much of my childhood to be sure. I only remember events that mean a lot to me and even then the details get blurry. I recently heard about hyperfixations and special interests and it got me wondering. For many years I was obsessed with a play. I would spend my time thinking all about the play. Even now I still think about it even when I'm supposed to do something else. It occupies like 85% of my thoughts. My classmates were always exasperated when I gushed about this(and I took whatever opportunity to gush about this play) I'd say it might be a hyperfixation but I've been obsessing over this for more than 5 years(and I heard that they last months). So I wondered whether you would call this a special interest, a hyperfixation or simply an obsession. Sorry for this long message BTW.
Sent 25th June 2024~
No worries! That definitely sounds like a hyperfixation to me! I think generally “obsessions” are probably just a neurotypical’s derogatory way of referring to neurodivergent people’s hyperfixations, because they don’t get what it’s like to have that strong of an interest in something that it takes over massive sections of your life.
It could be a special interest, but those are associated with Autism - and are extremely long lasting, so people generally only have a few their whole lives.
As it was requested by @peculiaroptimism, I made a diagram showing the overlap between Autism, ADHD and PTSD.
( I was so surprised to realise that PTSD and Autism don’t have any overlap that isn’t also shared with ADHD! )
For some reason Tumblr won’t let me edit the original post, but since people are starting to share this again telling me I’m wrong about there being no Autism/PTSD overlap, I’d just like to remind everyone how Venn Diagrams are formatted!
The centre shows an overlap between all three - you don’t need to repeat those points anywhere else or they would be in literally every section.
The lack of symptoms in the Autism/PTSD overlap does not mean there is no overlap. It means there are no symptoms that aren’t also shared with ADHD.
If you’re not interested in seeing how it overlaps with ADHD, just ignore the word ADHD - the middle section still has the Autism and PTSD circles overlapping, so that means the symptoms in that middle section are shared by both of them.
