The realities of living with ADHD

Brut America

"ADHD is not this fun, quirky little disability."  These people want you to know what it's really like living with ADHD …

Transcript

00:00ADHD is not like this fun and quirky little, like, disability.

00:05Your main symptoms make you look like a bad person.

00:09Tasks can be psychologically painful for you.

00:19Now the first chunk is attention deficit.

00:21A lot of us in the ADHD community don't really see it as a deficit of

00:25attention, but really as an inability to control where that attention's going.

00:30Now onto the slash hyperactivity part.

00:32Now the slash is very important because the slash means that,

00:35yes, some people have hyperactivity when it comes to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

00:41However, not everyone will have hyperactivity.

00:50Hey Mike, I'm looking for my...

00:52What are you doing?

00:53Just cutting my hair.

00:55How long have you been planning this?

00:58Yesterday.

00:59Mike, impulse check.

01:08I'm Dr. Brian, I specialize in ADHD and I have it myself.

01:11Boys are more likely to have ADHD than girls, right?

01:14Wrong.

01:14See, our research tells us that boys are much more likely to show externalizing forms of behavior,

01:19like running around and acting impulsively,

01:20whereas girls are more likely to show more internalizing forms of ADHD,

01:23like inattention and daydreaming.

01:25If you're someone that feels like they might have undiagnosed ADHD,

01:29then keep watching this video.

01:31You've always struggled with forgetfulness.

01:33You've always struggled with organization.

01:35You struggle to remember people's names and faces.

01:37Doing tasks can be psychologically painful for you.

01:42You have poor object permanence,

01:43meaning you don't remember that you have something unless it's in sight, out of sight, out of mind.

01:50Object permanence isn't just for things, it's for people too.

01:54So like, if we don't see or interact with you on a regular basis,

01:57you kind of stop existing to us.

02:01I can't think of a nicer way to say that.

02:02The way that ADHD throws your life into a spin

02:06in a way that makes it inconvenient for the people around you.

02:09Honestly, how do, how do I explain?

02:11Oh look, an email.

02:15Hey Dave, I have something that I need you to do.

02:17It's really, really important.

02:20But if it doesn't get done, it's not that big of a deal.

02:22But there is a time limit of 10 days.

02:26Do you ever have a task to do and you're kind of just sat there in your head,

02:29thinking about the task, but not getting the task started?

02:32That's ADHD paralysis.

02:33And oh my god, it's frustrating as f**k.

02:36It's not normal to have to remind yourself to pay attention when someone's talking to you.

02:40Often if someone's telling me a story halfway through,

02:43it'll sound like they're talking Simlish.

02:45In a minute, I'm gonna need another minute to figure out what the hell I was doing.

02:49There's so many people on this app that talk about ADHD and how we struggle to sleep and,

02:56you know, make it out to be this like quirky thing.

02:59Like that's not cute.

03:01It's horrific.

03:02It is, honest to god, debilitating.

03:04The last few months, I've literally been averaging maybe three, four, five hours sleep.

03:11Find a relationship you think it's all sunshine and rainbows

03:14and then bang, out of nowhere, you just don't care.

03:16You can be doing something right that you think you really love and enjoy

03:19and then out of nowhere, you can just stop enjoying it.

03:22You can struggle with rejection like to a point where even guys don't like it.

03:26It really hurts.

03:27One of my top comments is that everyone on this app has ADHD.

03:31That's not true.

03:32What's happening is now finally after years of us being undiagnosed and having absolutely no reason

03:40and no explanation as to why we were struggling,

03:43we're finding other people like ourselves and the information is widely available.

03:48If you have ADHD or you know someone, please just go easy on them.

03:52Show them love.

03:53Show them compassion because I can promise you they are literally doing their best.

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