I want to know how people deal with them.
Poorly.
More seriously, I didn’t know I had ADHD, but I’d kind of naturally contorted my world to support it as best as I could. I worked flexible, four months contracts. I only worked in low-stakes positions where leaving after a few months was expected. When I was a young kid, I was really good at convincing teachers that they didn’t need to see my homework or that I needed an extra day, because even though the work was trivial, I wouldn’t do it until the day after a deadline.
I’ve minimized obligations where I can, like autopay for every bill, I don’t drive to avoid having to take it to the shop and do maintenance, I rent so that I’m not on the hook for maintenance, and I chronically overthink purchases to avoid impulse spending most of the time, at the sacrifice of not getting things I probably need.
I’m still working on it, but I think reducing the places where you can really mess things up on a bad brain day and doing what you can to nurture an environment where you can follow your rhythms is important. Way easier said than done, of course.
I’ve largely done those things too until I got diagnosed, at 27. Since then I did adderall on and off, it works decently for me, however, the effects on my mood as it drains out of my system are not great. Mostly, I become extremely irritable. Lately I’ve been reading and watching more about ADHD, and Russell Barkley really changed the way I see the issue. I, now more than ever, see ADHD as a chemical shortcoming of my brain and I’m really pursuing the right drug or combination of drugs to deal with issues I’ve been failing to overcome for decades.
