I find the “Attention deficit” part of it to be pretty apt for myself. Although it’s more of an attention regulation deficit to be more specific. There’s probably worse names out there.
That name is a big part what’s kept me from getting help, because until very recently I drastically misunderstood what ADHD was. “I can’t have this thing. I’m so good at paying attention that I don’t eat or pee all day.”
Imagine thinking it’s a mental disorder when you are nice to people you like. Explains a lot about the world tho.
It’s a disorder when needing people to like you, or doing things to make others happy, comes at too great an expense to your own well-being.
Another way in which I can relate to ADHD although my neurodivergence is PTSD. So many apparently overlapping symptoms I thought I had ADHD for a while.
The thing that makes me understand it’s trauma is that the dire need to please people, the hypersensitivity, and the way I freeze when I should be getting stuff done or going to bed, are all because my my brain was wired over several years of childhood to say I am in danger.
My brother does have ADHD and we’re eachothers best allies because we each have this thing that’s sort of shared but also completely different.
