but for #ADHDAwarenessMonth i can toss in that my case got very complicated over the years from lack of diagnosis & any vague sense of "doing stuff is difficult" is enough reason to go talk to a doctor about the possibility

with adhd when you get adequate treatment (usually meds & life skills classes for the things neurotypicals can do naturally) you can expect to get within 1% function of a neurotypical person and people cry over how life changing it is. im not there yet but the difference is huge

i was i think 23 or 24 when i found out & by then i had developed a cool stress response to being punished all the time for things that i wasn't doing on purpose that for lack of a better term i act narcoleptic! my brain sees punishment as an inevitable result of "work" and bails

we joked in my class about how "just" is a trigger word (just get up, just do your homework); our brains genetically don't produce dopamine in response to goals or consequences we see as distant. we're made for urgent environments & can thrive as EMTs/surgeons/firefighters/etc.

if you didn't want to grow up to be a firefighter, all meds do is bump your dopamine up to neurotypical levels so you don't have to fight yourself so much.

mice who can't produce dopamine will sit in front of a pile of food and "procrastinate" eating until they starve to death.

our inability to "just do things" is more frustrating for us as it is for you watching us, trust me. if you really want to help your lazy good for nothing family get a job, "tough love" is proven to make symptoms worse. the best thing to do is help make their first appointments.

one of the most hilariously cruel ironies is that the method by which we seek treatment (making dr. appointments, handling insurance, etc) is practically designed to be impossible for ADHD people to navigate without... already being treated. we are high storage low RAM people.

(if you struggle bad with this but think you don't have someone to help you and i just really intimidated you there, starting by making an appointment with a GP is enough, they will be the one who helps you)