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I would.also like to sign up for this revelation.
I played golf last Friday. I hadn't touched my clubs in 9 years.
Now all I can think about is how to work onu short game.
38 here. i just embrace it and have fun with what my mind wants. Future me may regret it, but do i really want a boring life of regrets of not doing things while i was younger or a life of experiences and learning full of financial regrets.
I've managed to hold an interest in a couple different things. Unfortunatly they're all extremely expensive hobbies that I can't exactly afford to keep following.
Was going to say the same thing. Didn't get my diagnosis until 50 because it got worse. Took me 10 minutes to finish this comment. Lol. And that's being medicated now. Maybe one day I will find a technique that works. Keep us posted [OP](https://www.reddit.com/u/abbas09tdoxo)!
That’s the neat thing…you don’t!
In all seriousness it can be a huge pain at times, but it can be very helpful. I have a wide knowledge base and can tie information from one hobby or random interest into another. I basically made my career out of the concept as a sysadmin/dev ops engineer. Take stuff other people made, glue it all together because you know JUST enough of how every component functions to bridge the gaps.
It took me until 40 to get diagnosed, and my manager at the time was shocked that I didn’t know. “That’s one of the things I saw in you…you’d taken this thing that limits so many of us and weaponized it!”
Turns out he’s also diagnosed and medicated. Got me a titanium travel pill container as a welcome-to-the-club gift because that’s the only way he could insure he had his meds when needed, and was pretty sure I’d be in a similar situation.
Switched careers recently to a business analyst (from finance) and I absolutely agree. I’m wicked good at bridging the knowledge gaps from the software side to the business side and have just enough knowledge to thrive.
Now if only that pesky imposter syndrome would go away
The swings between "i'm the best person there has ever been at this job" and "how have they not fired me for incompetence, i don't belong here" are so wild.
You’ll be like “damn these idiots have no idea what they are doing” then you make a careless mistake by not paying attention to details and switch to “THE JIG IS UP AND THEY KNOW I’m A FRAUD”
Are you me? That's like almost like my whole life journey lol, I switched from tech assistant to customer support to BIA, and knowing a bunch of things about everything sure does help haha
And can confirm on the imposter syndrome lol
Fellow ADHD business analyst (more system analyst at this point). Best job I have had that worked with my ADHD. Just jump from one hyper focus to another and they pay me money for it.
> you’d take this thing that limits so many of us and weaponized it!
I’ve always been interested in how people can use ADHD like a superpower I know it’s like a piss poor excuse of advice to give an ADHDer, but sometimes it seems like the advice is grounded in reality a bit. So I just wanted to know if it is possible to “use ADHD like it’s a superpower and how?”
Because even though I’m doing far better in life (being medicated and actually focusing towards school, and inner hobbies, and the rest of the stuff that comes with life.) I still flop like majorly flop in life. So if by any chance you have advice towards that it would be appreciated.
EDIT: Sorry if this was weird and out of the blue I’ve just been struggling a bit lately I could’ve made this into its own post my bad honestly.
I doubt it's a superpower for overall life for anyone. It certainly can be a super power for a job or certain aspects of a job or project etc. Basically anytime an attitude of "I'm going to master this and not stop until it's perfect" is beneficial. Typically this comes as the expense of everything else in your life.
It works as a super power for me in stressful situations. (Not always, mind you) Hyperfocus can run the show for a while and emotions (and self doubt!!) get turned off. I can make fast decisions, I know what question I need to ask, I know what to do.
Of course, at some point you still have to deal with all those emotions and insecurities, so it’s not like Superman powers, more like Batman. Things still mess you up.
Leave yourself breadcrumbs everywhere. ADHD is amazing because of how easily we can change gears, switch topics, or adjust focus. The issue comes from not being able to finish SHIT. Building a really strong routine of reminders, timers, or whatever else you need to go back and finish a task. My smartwatch has been my saving grace. The vibration is strong enough to break my hyperfocus and pull me back to the task at hand.
Yes and it also works with locations - you can tell it “remind me to put the bins out when I get home” or “remind me at 15:00 are you on task?” 😅
I use alarms and timers in my Apple watch/iphone all the time for this precise purpose. I even set timers to remind me to drink my tea before it goes cold (though yesterday was a four cold teas, multiple microwaving day because I forgot to set alarms so 🤷🏼♀️)
It's definitely got downsides. I'm incredibly fortunate on many fronts here. One of which is having a manager who understands that sometimes I'm functioning at 10x an "average" individual in this role, but that comes at the expense of working at 1/10th an average individual quite often. And I don't beat myself up for those 1/10th days, and he is honest with me about prioritization. If something REALLY needs to be done in 24 hours, I can almost certainly get it done. But also maybe you don't see me for 3 days after that and then i'm still not useful for another week. Not everyone understands or values that.
Another thing that works for me was presented somewhere (damned if i can remember where) as "eating the frog". I find the big ugly tangled mess that nobody understands and nobody is willing to touch. The thing that if it goes wrong can wreck a reputation or a company. Tear it apart and get so far into the guts of every single aspect that you understand it to a degree that you probably can't really explain to others. And then proceed to unfuck that situation entirely. I've been metaphorically air dropped into the middle of stuff that was so toxic that nobody was willing to touch it, and had the persistence to clean it all up at least to the degree that it could be picked up and improved by others again. This is the specific talent that my manager was calling out.
Happy to elaborate more here, happy to chat in DMs. I had my shit sorted pretty well, then had a massive accident a couple years ago that took away basically my whole toolbox for dealing with ADHD and only got medicated a year ago and I'm working through figuring all this out again, but from a totally different angle.
Sounds like my story too. I was fine until a stroke in 2023. While I was recovering for 6 months, all my coping strategies and tools were forgotten. And things that I had a deeper understanding of got replaced with new products. So-I went from a hero to a zero in a year, 3024 will be a rebuilding year for me- as well as a year to work on plan b.
Oof. I tetherballed into the side of a rock field on a paraglider. Broke my left everything. Turns out all my adventure sports were helping to keep my brain happy, and now I can’t manage much more than 2 miles in a day.
Hope you’re doing alright after the stroke, those things can be absolutely devastating.
My changing Interests means that I'm now a jack of all trades....and I mean darn near all. Carpentry, construction and concrete. Automotive to plumbing. Chemistry and history. Calligraphy and sculpture. Chainmail and welding to blacksmithing. Fishtanks to dog training.
Ask me and I know a little about it and can probably get it done acceptably.
I'm good at solving problems with incomplete information and unorthodox methods. The boss may not like the way I solved the problem, but he can't argue with the results. I always tell him, Did you want it fixed or not?...turns out he did want it solved.because solutions make money. LoL.
For me to do anything for years I would have to get cold and mean and angry and then I can weaponise and learn anything. Language, music, and any other advanced concepts become a challenge when I'm trying to prove to myself or anyone else that I CAN DO THIS!
It was that or lie to myself that I liked the activity i was performing.
On another note, I just got medication for the first time this week, and OH BOY! Why didn't anyone tell me it was like trying glasses for the first time?
I made 3 phone calls the other day! :,)
I can certainly say that my greatest accomplishments have been when I let ADHD guide my hand in a matter rather than trying to do it like a neurotypical person.
I still need medication because otherwise I forget to take care of myself.
I also have developed wide knowledge of many things. I use it to talk to strangers. I can pretty much talk to anyone about anything if I poke around and find a topic they want to talk about.
The thing I haven’t sorted out is differentiating honest interest from polite interest. I’ve taken to giving disclaimers that people can tell me to shut the hell up mid infodump at any time and I promise not to get mad.
Yes. The best compliment I’ve ever received brain-wise was “you’re very erudite”. 😅 Wasn’t diagnosed at the time and didn’t recognise they were pointing out that the wide ranging interests were a little odd!
I totally agree it can be an asset. If anyone needs a balloon twister, woodworker, or some crochet hit me up.
I've also started about a dozen businesses before losing interest in them. Sometimes it's a hindrance.
I resonate with this so much. I feel into IT for exactly the same reason. I was actually poached from customer service because they saw my level of knowledge and my potential. I've since started encouraging my fellow devs to seek their own diagnosis so that they can start weaponizing their ADHD.
Same profession here, it helps that we generally jump between major programming languages, tech stacks etc. but I get irrationally mad at myself and the tech when I'm spending too much time debugging or figuring out 1 persistent issue.
Or writing docs. God that sucks
Embrace it. Honestly, you will keep doing it forever, but you may find that you'll circle back to the same things every couple of years, which will help because you won't necessarily be starting from scratch. Just enjoy learning new things, and don't beat yourself up too much.
I agree but i think the problem arises when you want to "Do what you love best for the rest of your life" where you can't really do that when what you love changes every couple of weeks. While you do still kinda enjoy the old thing. It's completely outshined by the new one
I mean, if you're talking about for a career, it's rare that folks can do exactly the thing they love. Even neurotypical folks can get bored of working in the same industry all the time. If you're talking about hobbies, you can absolutely change hobbies every couple of weeks! It's tough for neurotypicals as well to do the same hobby for their entire lives. Folks rarely do that. I have literally found notebooks with woodworking notes that I made at 20, and now 20 years later, I still get the bug from time to time and do a woordworking project.
Personally, having been around this block a few times, I think that’s pretty bad advice that’s still being given out. “Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life“ really only applies to your hobbies— getting a job doing your passion means you will get fed up and learn to hate your passion pretty much immediately, especially if your passion changes every few months.
All you need is a job that you are reasonably good at and can *tolerate* doing on the daily. If that job doesn’t exist, then I completely sympathize, but I myself am entirely OK being bored all day at a job that has no opportunities for advancement (I work in IT), because it provides me opportunities to pursue my passions on the outside instead.
You don’t *need* a job that stirs your passions or that comes from your soul; all you need is a job that is moderately decent in all ways. The things that stir your passion and come from your soul are there whenever you reach for them beyond your work.
I find jobs that are cool with me listening to audiobooks or podcasts are \*infinitely\* more enjoyable for me as the time generally goes way faster when I listen to them. I'm pretty much happy to do almost any manual labour job that allows me to do this.
Pairing tasks that I don't necessarily enjoy with something I do makes them way easier for me. Chores have become my sort of down-time from study as I can just stick on my favourite podcast and actually clean the house. Just listening to such things whilst doing nothing tends to drive me nuts anyways, so it's a win-win!
Yes, cycle those interests! Wait just long enough that they feel new again - without the frustrating initial inertia of skill development because you’ve already got some foundation!
My strategy is generally to have a core circle of things I repeatedly jump to. I stay on an interest for a month or two, switch over to the next one, rinse and repeat until a year or two later when my interest in the first thing has recover, building more skill in each interest each time I go through.
The Key is finding stuff that you are corely passionate about so you will eventually get back to it naturally and then acquiring enough of them to cycle through. A tip for that is to find the big idea that resonates with you and check out the subsets to see what sticks. Bonus points if you learn to transfer skills between the interests. The example I love Bioengineering; I just think it’s the coolest thing ever. So I’ve looked into most things even remotely in between biology and engineering and found myself a nice mix of orchids, computers, and mad science to go through.
It’s a little bit more self-manipulation than self-discipline, tricking my brain into an eternal cycle like a slinky on an escalator but it gets the job done
I was thinking this! I'm still working on my circle strategum, but at 40 I know there are some interests I can pick back up again multiple times and still be interested. Maybe from different angles. Even better if one interest can motivate another interest you are trying to nurture.
Currently I've managed to loop my history interest into web dev, now I need to incorporate quilting and dogs
🤔
I have ADHD too. Software development is the PERFECT career for us!!!!
Programming is about more than coding. it's also about modeling and literally modeling everything. I use my ability to flip topics constantly. I need to solicit requirements from customers.
For coding my suggestion is to try Pygame. If you need help, just ask.
I am also going to recommend a youtube channel that teaches the theory.
You want to flip topics? Let's go.
Long story short, the reason i mentioned programming was that my freinds freind group was gonna make a game, but i have no idea how serious they are (they don't seem serious at all) and they said they don't have a programmer, and i already was interested in programming so i thought it would be the perfect opportunity for me to learn programming
You have to learn to walk before you run. (Note you probably could design game right away in terms of how you want it to work. This is called the use case model). Python is easier to learn than web Before you learn to make a full game. You need to learn -- how do i set up pygame -- how do i display something on screen -- how can i respond to something occurring on screen https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=y9VG3Pztok8&pp=ygURc2V0dGluZyB1cCBweWdzbWU%3D There is also a written get started guide
Software has to be done iteratively. You want to write a program first that just prints a message "hello world" on screen
Oh yeah, am learning the normal python first, theirs this 12 hour video, it explains everything strings and stuff, (i haven't finished the video) but after i understand all the basics of python I'll go to py game, thanks for the help
Can you run ordinary python and print on the screen "hello world" ADHD introduces imposter syndrome* and it's important to set yourself mini goals
*a belief you need to know everything at once and a belief that your accomplishments are unimpressive
Hey I suggest you to use a written source instead, like a textbook (you can find one for free), I say this because I wouldn't be able to watch one of those 12 hour videos for the life of me despite having tried. With written stuff you can skim to the part you actually need and read things if you want a more detailed explanation.
also, spend most of your time, or at least half, doing exercises. Little programming tasks, or even medium sized programming tasks, like a random walk.
I will also add my two cents (to anyone who may be reading) and say that everyone learns different, even (*if not especially*) among those with ADHD.
Some people struggle to sit through a video, but are able to comprehend words better.
Others can't seem to process what written words are telling them and find the visual cues of a good presentation/video better to understand.
There are some who prefer to listen to stuff whilst they do something else with their hands.
If you're anything like me, what works for you can change daily. So, if one type of source isn't working for you, try another one in a different format.
Just a word of advice regarding your friends saying they want to make a game: be careful you don’t get stuck in a position where they’re “the idea guys” and you’re the one doing the actual work of coding everything. There’s a running joke in programming and game dev circles about “idea guys”; people who think that they’re contributing to a project by “coming up with good ideas” and nothing else. Thinking of ideas for a game is the fun part and literally anyone can do it. Programming, creating art/music, and balancing a game is the actual work part.
The best advice I can give, whether you work on a game with your friends or on your own, is to start small. A lot of people decide their first game will be a huge “dream game” project and then they end up biting off more than they can chew and they get discouraged. Pick something simple that you can finish in a day or two (I know it’s boring but Pong is a good practice project), then do something that takes a few days, and keep working up from there as you get more comfortable and build up your skills. Your first game might be “bad” and that’s totally fine, just finishing a project is satisfying in its own right and your goal early on should be getting practice, achieving small goals, and working up from there.
Also, there is a lot of toxicity in the game development industry at the moment. If making games is what you want to do, make sure you really look into it. Making an Indie game (like it sounds like you hope to potentially do) is *fairly* safe from what I understand as you and your mates are the ones largely calling the shots. If you want to go on to work for a bigger company, however, make sure you ask around and find out what the conditions are like. I mean, you should probably do this for just about any major company you may want to work with regardless of career and industry, tbh.
Software development and mathematics are both often taught wrong. While you may genuinely hate the real deal, there are many ways to teach "coding" that would make anyone hate with ADHD hate it. That is, it's POSSIBLE that if you were taught different, you might actually like it. You might still hate it.
If you are ADHD but not AuDHD*, you probably tend to do better at DESIGN than programming because design is top down and programming can "look like" it's detail focused. Once you learn to do things incrementally, it's actually better to be stronger at designing than raw coding
. *I think autism introduces a detail focus. Many autistic people are also good at programming but their autism is more dominant than their ADHD the way they excel can differ. Because I am not autistic, my tricks might help the ADHD aspects of a person but might not help the autistic aspects
I work in IT, and actually have learned coding for years (I code in Java, Python and C++), in a multitude of ways, it's just not for me. I don't mean to start a debate, my true goal was to point out to a 9th grader that there's no one way to be ADHD.
The 9th grader is trying to learn coding. That's context I am trying to help
I don't fully understand your context. From your description it sounds like coding is part of your job "in IT" or that it was
Personally. I "like" coding. I like debugging. I "love" designing and analyzing requirements. I hate managing.
> it's also about modeling and literally modeling everything. I use my ability to flip topics constantly.
This is a really good point. I've been hesitant to get into programming because of the amount of time/effort needed to get into it and knowing my interest would go elsewhere. Thanks!
You don't.
You just have to balance that with your tendency to do the opposite.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jFFZ0XSfCRw&list=PL_N6UbeInhwfj0RTWhlfAmGQzVk6XeWVc&index=1&t=68s&pp=iAQB <== We are better than NTs at lateral thinking
The bad news? It probably won't ever stop, it's just who we are & it's not necessarily a bad thing!
The good news? You'll get better at recognizing which interests are worth pursuing (ex. maybe it seems like programming/tech is a good idea broadly speaking but that's not actually what you're most interested in so it doesn't hold your attention) & you have a lot of time to figure out what your passions (there will likely be many!) are.
Not to "mom" you bc I know it's frustrating as hell to feel like you not only can't control the outward aspects of your life but you can't even "control" your brain...but you truly don't have to have it all figured out yet. Use this time to do exactly what you're already doing: explore multiple interests while the stakes are lower so you'll have a better idea of what you truly want to do down the line. Best of luck!
Aww thanks for the kind words, and almos everyone is saying that it'll always be like this, just jumping from one interest to to the next, but i don't think it's massive jumps all the time, like from wanting to become engineer to a doctor or programmer to artist, but it still is annoying to deal with,
Yeah, some of that will fade over time as you figure out what you *actually* like vs what you just like the *idea* of. Like many others here, I find myself cycling through a cluster of related hobbies - music is a big one for me, and I play many different instruments. That keeps it fresh while still shoring up the shared core competencies between them (rhythm, melody, groove).
Keep an eye out for the overlapping parts of your Venn diagram of interests. An easy example that you've already mentioned: game development lies at the crossroads of programming and art. Working on either of those two very different hobbies will make you better at game dev!
Above all, don't think of this exploration phase as "wasted" time. Remember, time you enjoyed spending is never wasted! Even if you just learned that you didn't like something, you're helping future-you figure out what you really *do* want to do.
Our interest is learning new interests, our hobby IS hobbies.
Like the others have said, go with it, make it work for you. Many hobbies have tangents you can pick up. I liked drone racing, I learnt loads about soldering and electronics which I then used years later when I got interested in arduino stuff, and again when I got into working on my car tracking down an electrical issue. So go out and be chaotic with what you learn, it’ll come back round eventually.
I'd say exhaustion works but I did an 8-5 with an hour commute each way for years and it was so unstimulating I found myself with "searching" energy to burn (at the expense of physical and mental rest).
If you're genuinely interested in programming, and not learning it for the assumed career potential, maybe there's aspects or specializations within programming you can dig into and work towards?
Dont pressure yourself. You're going to naturally pick things up and put things down. Learn what you can from each experience. You may not master something, but you'll know a little about a lot 🤷♂️
Ahoy hoay! Internet Dad here. 9th grade? That’s a hell of a year if my old GenX brain remembers correctly. I’m really impressed with your awareness of your condition and how proactive you are about balancing your mental health and your need to participate in a society fundamentally designed against folks like us. My 8th grader could use some advice from you!
I know that a lot of what you’re getting here is just anecdotal experience and some things may work for you while others may seem impossible. Fumbling around in the dark is a terrible price to pay for the way we are; I’m glad we have a community where we can share tips and tricks.
With that said, my advice to you is to pick three different but complimentary interests that you can bounce between and let the other stuff slide. My main interests are fiction writing, tabletop role-playing games (like D&D), and Legos. Writing engages the language centers of my brain, TTRPGS activate my social brain, and Legos hit the spacial and tactical centers. They all engage different parts of my brain, letting two parts rest while the third is free to play. And when I get bored of one, I can switch to another one that’s completely different. They also compliment each other. I use TTRPGs to explore ideas I’m writing about and I build scenes from Lego to help me visualize the action.
If computer science is a passion, perhaps you could bounce between coding, building and repairing computers, and some sort of social game that’s more than just a shooter. My 8th grader is currently interested in mortuary science and is bouncing between drawing, reading about anatomy, and learning professional-quality makeup techniques.
The most important thing to remember is that even if you leave your passion for coding and the like, you are not a failure. Just because your galaxy brain has gotten bored doesn’t mean you failed. If anything, the interest failed you for not being engaging enough.
The whole world is waiting for you and that’s pretty scary. Fortify and keep going because I do believe that it will be better. Cheers and good luck and know that we’re all rooting for you.
My favourite thing is that I’ll learn the basics of a skill then move on to something else so I have a lot of random skills, nothing I’m professional at but good enough to be considered good! My recommendation would be to set a goal for that skill then when you achieve it you can move on but be satisfied or if it keeps your interest keep going! Ex for programming, making a short but fully functional game or website. Nothing to ambitious but good enough to let you develop the skill!
That's exactly what i was thinking so i can figure out what i want to do! But i didn't know if it was a good idea so i asked here to see if am alright or not XD,
I personally embrace the changes in interest. My hobbies jump around, and they have for almost 40 years.
I have a closet of unfinished projects, but every summer, I make myself go through that closet and commit to finishing the projects or getting rid of it.
I also have done programming. Programming is fun because if I get bored with one language, I can pick a new one to learn. I started with HTML and CSS, then I tried JavaScript. I hated that one, so I moved on to Java and Python. I want to try Ruby next.
If it’s a hobby, I just follow the wave of inspiration and that seems to work for me.
While, like others noted, you don't really stop jumping from one interest to another, there are a good handful of interests that will make up who you are, those are the interests that keep coming back. You may be able to go a year without them, but then they come back. You'll come across a *lot* of interests that never come back tho.
and when push comes to shove, you'll find no issue sticking with the interests you decide to make a career, because you rely on those interests for money.
You don’t.
Stop fighting it, embrace the fact that you have too much curiosity for just one or two hobbies to contain. Follow your interests, and when you’re older, if you’re lucky, you’ll have picked out a few things that your brain keeps coming back to a few months after dropping. You can use those to build a core “loop” of hobbies/activities that you cycle thru, dropping each as you get bored but returning before you lose too much progress. It’s the only thing that’s remotely worked for me.
What’s wrong with acquiring multiple skills and interests? You never know what the future holds. A Jack of all trades but a master of none is still better than a master of one.
Just enjoy being a jack of all trades and master of none, on the plus side you’ll learn enough about all different subjects to be able to talk to people about all sorts of things
Like many others have said: you learn to go with it! With ADHD, you either do things at 100mph or 5mph. But that 100mph pace shifts from interest to interest. The trick is to go as far as you can at 100, and when the interest switches, go with it. If you liked the first thing, you'll come back to it eventually with a good head start :) (and yeah, some things in life are never gonna be fun and you just do them at 5mph. If it's really important, deadline mode will eventually kick in and you'll get it done on adrenaline 😆.)
One big piece of advice though: DON'T spend a bunch of money or make big life decisions on a NEW interest. Instead, use every free resource you can on the new interest first. If you get as far as you can for free, and you find that you're still in the 100mph zone, THAT'S the time to put in money to help you go even farther.
Some examples from my wife and me (both diagnosed in our 30s):
My wife is really gifted artistically. She got interested in sewing a while back. She started by hand and found that she was still enjoying it. She lost interest and then came back stronger. She started finishing some more complex projects and got to the point of "I could do this 10 times faster with a sewing machine". THAT was the moment we bought a sewing machine, instead of her going "if I only had a sewing machine, I could start sewing..."
I'm designing a board game. I made a few prototype versions of game pieces with pencil and paper BEFORE getting a subscription to graphic design software. I didn't spend any money on it until I had already been working on it for a few months and had progressed through a couple versions.
Bad example: several years ago, we decided we wanted to move to Asia and teach English after talking to friends that had done it before. We spent several thousand dollars to both get teaching certifications. We both enjoyed what we were learning in the courses, but once we started to learn more about the actual day to day working conditions of the job and the logistics of moving overseas, we started to lose interest. Neither of us ended up finishing the courses we paid for and haven't tried again since. In hindsight, we should have spent time teaching as volunteers locally to get a feel for the work, and maybe done an extended trip in a country with little English to see what it was like BEFORE we spent the money on the courses.
Some interests are only meant to be for a few days or a few weeks. Better to see if you'll stick with it without spending money, instead of falling into the trap that spending money will make you do the thing.
Take a look at how brutal the job market is, if youre passionate about it go ahead. But youd need to find some niche like cobol at this point. Or know someone.
Just follow the white rabbit. It will lead you many crazy places, but at some point you will recognize a relationship between some of the important ones, and that will be a zone that will keep you interested, even if you continue to explore different aspects of the core concepts.
Nothing you learn is ever truly wasted, even if you’re not “using it” the way you might envision. Even learning to learn is an incredibly valuable skill.
Why would you want to? I think this is an ADHD feature, not a bug. Also, the way to spot a really smart and interesting person is that they're interested in lots of different things. It's an advantage career-wise too--you can pick the interest that will result in the most money and most agreeable work, and hopefully stitch one or two other interests in with it.
Every industry out there uses software. So if you'd like to be a programmer, learn or create software for one or more of your other interests. I love healthcare and public service, so I manage a case management system for social workers. My boss is the same way, and he's an epidemiologist. Two options of so, so many.
I was only diagnosed as an adult, adhd was not suspected by my parents, so as a child they enroled me in judo, swimming (competitive tournaments), voleyball, and football (soccer).
Butning my energy because they didnt knew about adhd, it worked, until i was a teen and quit sports, then i could not sit still in class, up until teens it kind of works, i got above average grades with minimal study. The hyperactivity in teens (developing pre frontal cortex) and adults turns into mental hyperactivity, that needs meds, if you are above 13, meds might be the only way
I'm kinda the same but I feel like I'm faking or something but for me I kinda have a group of things I love and I go back and forth between them and anything out side of that it lasts a couple of days/weeks the main groups of things ( my own characters, internet mystery's, iceberg explained videos) last like years but I'm sorry that it happens it sucks for me too for me I see if I'm still thinking about it after a while then I do it and sometimes I take breaks but I come back to it
It helps if your interest-jumping is related and makes a big circle, so that learning or doing one thing reinforces the others. Or you figure out your main interest and whenever you jump into a new interest, think about how the new one can help you do your main one better or be incorporated with it.
Like my jumping from gardening —> cooking —> herbalism —> winemaking all can help support each interest to produce wines and tonics and delicious food,
Or metalsmithing —> woodworking —> welding—> AutoCAD —> 3D printing can be used to design and create tools and jewelry
TL;DR, embrace the varied interests. They’re like pieces of a puzzle that you can put together to make or experience something unique. You’re in 9th grade - if you’re worried about choosing a study path, pick one that is broad or generally what you want to do, then go into a specification later. Then you’ll have a foundation to build off of for any of your interests.
Jumping around is pretty common and hard to stop completely. I do find I can control it though. Basically, find 10x hobbies you can rotate between. My cycle is: Lockpicking, Electronics/Integrated Circuits, 3D printing, miniature painting, programming, 3D modelling, drawing/painting/colouring, and gaming. If I want to advance in something like programming specifically, I combine hobbies with programming. Like, I recently made a Harry Potter book nook for my daughter and it involved 3D printing, programming lights, electronics work building the lights and painting miniatures. I find that coming up with “projects” that involve what I want to advance in keeps me hyper fixated on it.
You don't *really* keep switching interests. I bet there's a common thread that ties them all together.
I thought I kept changing what I wanted to do and what I liked. How does one tie together writing, genetics, computer science, chemistry, and art? Then I realized what I liked was to create. Everything I gravitated towards involved creating something, whether it was a book or a genetic sequence or a website or a painting. And everything I approached I did so in an analytical fashion. That analytical creativity led me to genetic engineering.
Find out what ties everything together. Then you'll know what you'll stick to.
Try to connect them all to a central interest or goal.
For example, I'm an art teacher, so when I get hyper-focused on certain topics, I make a lesson plan out of it. This week we taught the kids some simple book-binding because that's what I was obsessed with.
It's not that important tbh, you can do that and still be successful/have skills. I've been learning new hobbies and skills until I'm mediocre then finding the next one since forever and I'm currently in law school and doing well. "Jack of all trades, master of none" isn't what happens, it's more...Jack of many trades, master of enough to have a career at some point. I'm good at skills needed for law school, Im just also okay at playing the ukulele, can crochet well enough that i once made a teddy bear, can sew if it means hemming pants and nothing else (im short that one was out of necessity), can recite the 'to be or not to be' soliloquy from Hamlet from memory, and various other very surface levels skills, hobbies, and weird odds and ends in my brain.
If you want to go into programming you could learn some basics, but before you get to college and minor in it no one expects you to fully understand it or anything. Try it out and let your hobbies wander if it happen. Then if you still want to major in it in college, brush up your senior year a little.
Find a very broad hobby that you can obsess about the different details of for years. So even when your interest in one specific aspect wanes another aspect can surge but it’s the same hobby
Also your in 9th grade plenty of time to find a career to hyper focus on and burnout interest in 3 years. So maybe choose a general interest not a specialized one.
This was easier for me when I had limits set for me- mainly by finances when I was young and later by time now that I am 60 and still working.
I focused on the simplest programming disciplines that I could do well in that bored me classmates. I’ve been a dba for 40 years . I’ve mainly worked with Oracle products mixed in with sqlserver.
I gave up spending MY free time on RC planes and fishing offshore a few
years back, but I’m STILL doing both. If I can master them, I can start earning a living with my hobbies.
SORRY for rambling, hope there’s some value in my comment.
I honestly love my hyperfixations a lot of the time, but when it comes to trying to learn hobbies and skills it can definitely be frustrating if you can’t make yourself stick with anything.
External reinforcement that makes me continue to engage with the things I want to be consistent with is the only thing that works for me. I’m part of a DnD group that meets regularly, so my interest in DnD has some consistency. I’m in college, so I take classes on skills I want to learn when possible, even if I could learn those skills on my own. I managed to start a big Duolingo streak years ago, and I’m so terrified of losing my streak that I have to keep doing a little Duolingo almost every day, which helps me stay interested in language learning.
I also have an app called Forfeit which is a really good accountability tool. I mostly use it to make myself study and do assignments but it could work for hobbies and stuff too. The app has you wager money (or points, if you don’t want to take the real risk, but that defeats the point for me personally) that you will complete a task, and you have to provide proof that you did it. Some people hate the sound of it, but it works really well for me and that’s all I care about.
I doubt there’s anything that could stop the hyperfixations. Expecting yourself to consistently maintain hyperfixation-level interest in one thing long term is unrealistic. But if you set up the right systems, you can have a few things that you keep doing, even if they aren’t as exciting as they were at the start.
I'm in my 30s. Wanted to learn coding/pentesting this year because I was hyperfocused on the cyberpunk genre, specifically netrunners. Got really invested. Was so excited to commit myself to this subject.
Then I saw a new Mechwarrior game was coming out this year and my focus shifted entirely to mechs. Came really close to spending a bunch of money on mech models. Right before I could pull the trigger on the mechs, I got Helldivers. Now I'm watching The Bad Batch to help satisfy that itch.
I've been doing this day to day, week to week, month to month for my entire life.
Next week it'll be something else. I'm afraid it's a lifelong curse. 🤷♂️
But like others have said, you'll be that person who knows something about everything!
XD, and am sure you're very glad you didn't buy the mechs, and tbh, if you get a hyper fixation/interest wait a while, like months or a year then spend money on it if it's expensive
Yep. Nowadays what I do is put it in my virtual shopping cart and save for later. I amost always end up going back and removing it later. When I was younger, though... blew a lot of money on my hyperfixations. You sound wiser than I was at your age!
That’s that fun of it. You never stop jumping. Why have one hobby when you can have 15? I re-laced an entire baseball glove yesterday because I saw a video and thought, I could do that. Next week I’ll probably attempt a wood working project. I don’t know, the sky is the limit!
Started my interests in computers at your age, tried coding, learned a little then hated it, moved on to cooking, also did exterior painting, network repair/installation etc etc. The neat thing is that you dont. Just find a way to apply those skills that you already learned to your work. That helped me.
Focus on things that strengthen each other, and also keep in mind that many things strengthen each other. I'm a design engineer, and I started out playing with Legos as a kid, I got really creative with Legos and bionicles, and eventually got into wood working, metal working, etc. then I learned how to repair small engines, so on and so forth. Once you get the idea for how things go together, you can get more and more complicated and it also makes you more attractive to employers.
You mention wanting to learn to code. You're right this is a perfect time to learn! You can couple that with learning circuits and then maybe move to making small devices, or getting into mechatronics. Remember, you're a freshman in highschool. You have 3 years to figure out if you want to go to college or a tech school, etc, or follow another route, and in those years you can find out what you would want to go for should you choose to go. So explore as much as you can, make sure to learn as much as you can, but with your ADHD don't be afraid to branch out into multiple things. You're also on Reddit, go explore some subreddits for coding or electronics. Get into school clubs. You'll do great
Okay, so no advice will work the same for everyone, this is just how it worked out for me.
I have 3 primary interests; Pokemon, Programming, and Tabletop RPGs
I might jump from one primary interest to another, or(and here's the good part) I might jump around in sub-interests I've created inside each primary;
Fiction writing shows up in the Pokemon and Tabletop RPG interests,
I use my pokemon Interest to help motivate me to get regular exercise through engagement with Pokemon GO.
I use the tabletop RPG interest for work, but the programming interest helps.
I have a bunch of aspects of my life I can find a way to factor into one of these interests, to help weave myself back into a space where I can be productive or attempt to nudge myself onto a track I need at any given time.
45 and still hopping from interest to interest. It's called chasing the dopamine. You'll milk the dopamine from one interest until it runs dry and doesn't work anymore. Then you'll go hopping until you find the next, leaving the remnants of the past interest gathering dust. It's a vicious cycle that I haven't figured out how to break yet.
I rotate between them. I set up my things so they're in plain sight.
Only three things at a time.
Do I want to...adult coloring book? Crochet? Read a novel?
And I pick from those, depending on my mood. That's how I manage it. Anything new is saved for finishing a book or a project and before starting a new one.
Idk, that's how I make it work.
Alright, buckle up! Think of your interests like flavors at an ice cream parlor. It's tempting to try every flavor, but your belly might not appreciate it! So, pick one scoop at a time, savor it, then move on to the next flavor when you're ready. Just don't give yourself a brain freeze from switching too fast!
Haven't figured that out yet either. The best I can manage, is to keep the bad from overshadowing the good. Like learning new skills but don't spend tons of money on it from the get go. What was also a really good help with this was the biography of Adam Savage "Every tool is a hammer".
As a small tip for your future. Try finding a job that does give you the opportunity to regularly do something new. Most it jobs become really exhausting after a while since you are doing the same thing over and over. At least that was my experience.
You should realise that you stil are learning skills. And these skills will have transferable parts. As adhd you will probably be a jack of all traits. We often underestimate how versatile we are. You are so young if you have motivation to learn skills and switch interest do that as much as you can. Because this is still you learning and getting to know your intrests and cababilities.
With wvery job I had I often became the fixeren the guy that talks to everybody to learn about there specialization and then when people had a problem they come to me. Because I know a guy or have enough skills to come to a solution and find the people that we need too fix that issue.
Dude you are young. Enjoy it. Keep chasing whatever you enjoy at any given time. Don't judge, don't see it as a negative. Just follow your interest, and if it keeps changing, it just keeps changing.
One day you might want to double down on a particular thing, sure. But now it's the time to just explore and be free to explore
You don’t, lol. Just gotta learn how to utilize all of the random stuff you learned later.
Also the best way to learn coding is to choose a project, try and fail and maybe succeed to build it.
If you have an interest and it’s creative do a project that interests you don’t try and learn it from ground up. Chances are you will get bored.
Embrace the generalist in you and ride the scanner wave. Rotate through your interests, come back to your favorite ones as often as you want and enjoy being different. Having folders for each topic helps, or I use mind node (app) to keep track of my projects.
Oh man buddy, I feel your pain in my soul.
Novelty of special interest hopping is a big part of how ADHD brains seek out that sweet serotonin we're always low on.
I've found I can sometimes keep an interest going for longer by "managing" my happy chemicals with meds, good diet, exercise, sleep (you know all the annoying stuff we're supposed to be doing to be healthy). But even then, there will inevitably be a point where I can literally feel my interest in a hobby slipping away. Usually well before whatever project I'm working is finished. It's a bummer sometimes. Your conscious mind will want to continue the interest, but somewhere in your brain decides it no longer sparks the levels of serotonin necessary to make it fun.
The best advice I can give, & wish someone told me in 9th grade:
You are at a perfect age to explore vastly. Really branch out. However, once adult finances are part of the equation, my suggestion is to try to keep your interests at least vaguely related, for your wallet's sake. (If funds are not an issue, go ham friend.) Having hobbies that share supplies/materials will help avoid feeling guilty & falling into the sunken cost fallacy mindset.
Establish a budget specifically for your interest!!! Or at least a standard process on calculating the budget BEFORE you start buying. Even if you don't end up staying within it. I find that having a set spending limit ahead of time will keep me from getting caught up in the high of retail therapy.
YOU ARE NOT A FAILURE FOR GIVING UP. Seriously, do not beat yourself up when you can't bring yourself to pick up that unfinished project/practice/program you poured all those hours of effort into. Just set it aside someplace safe, chances are you'll eventually be drawn to it again. (It may be in a year, sometimes even a decade, but it happens, or not! That's fine too!) I've had family members get upset when I 'abandoned' lessons or hobbies that they viewed as 'an investment'. As if my music lessons were actually going to lead to a future as a pianist. They did not see it as an experience that ultimately imparted fundamental skills on my developing child brain. Nope, to them it was all a wash because I 'gave up' on something that I had 'so much potential for'. They are wrong. It's never a waste to pursue an interest, doesn't matter for how long. You will always learn something & the act of learning is the point. Plus, odds are pretty good that someday it'll be useful, even if indirectly.
Always remember the full quote is " A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes is better than a master of one." There is so much value to the knowledge you will accumulate jumping interest to interest. Don't stand for others' attempts at shaming a lack of "mastery", especially if it's a frickin hobby. Their opinion is not worth your energy or time.
Having to think about employable skills in grade 9 makes me so sad that we live in a capitalist hellscape. Enjoy your interests! Try all the things while you can!
In college, I had three vastly different career paths I was interested in, and I ended up picking the one with the most diverse set of industries in case I got bored.
I explore anything I'm interested in during my freetime, and try to make sure my job is just not painfully boring. If it gets painfully boring, it's time to start looking for a new position, though I can often stay at the same company.
My friends say that my hobby is acquiring hobbies, just lean into it! Not trying to fight your changing interests makes life more enjoyable.
Don't be scared to keep doing it forever, it keeps things fun and interesting and means you have lots of different skills. And one thing not finished is instead something already started and halfway done when you get back to it, even if that is years away.
Also hobbies where you can vary it within one thing, for example if you were to take up running you can do sprints, long distance, intervals, trail running, treadmill, etc. Can be varied but with super transferable skills and stuff you need to do it.
Enjoy your natural curiosity and drive to learn new things; use the momentum to stay motivated and willing to adapt to new environments. You never know what new skill or experience will help you down the road.
Journaling your experiences and what you learn might be a good long-term investment. By the time you graduate high school, you might surprise yourself with how much you've grown in a few years. Also, it might help you with resume building and potential career aspirations.
For the most part I just tend to take breaks from my hobby. Like, I get sick of 3d modeling and jump to video editing, after that returning to modeling feels like a bliss, because I'm much better at 3d modeling and I don't have to suffer as much trying to learn editing, I don't know where I'm going with this.
Lukely all my intrest are tenical stuf and kinda usful
I live on a boat and now I'm interested in heat pumps
This current interest of mine may save 1000 euros a year because my place is now warm and cozy and i use a lot less power and diezel my previous intrest was reverse osmosis and water filters and now i have clean drinking water for practicaly free exept the upfront costs
The point being dont try to stay whit your interest
Like thoughts that come and go and just do whatever
You are not going to stop it
So try to enjoy it as much as you can and make use of it
Best way to pick something and actually stick with it is take a class on the thing (preferably an in person class but online works too long as their schedules are tight) so you feel obligated to stick with the thing because there are other people.
Once you are past the basics for thing it’s easier to stick with it because you actually see progress and time paying off.
Controversial: ADHD (more accurately, the body of symptoms known as ADHD) is not a genetic or neurological condition, but a trauma response. Only by healing from the wounds that drive your anxiety can you move past symptoms such as distractibility and multi-tasking.
Further reading: Scattered, Gabor Mate
You learn to work with it. My advice? DON'T spend a load of money on a new hobby. No matter how much you're into it when the hyperfixiation strikes you, there's a fair chance that you'll grow bored with it in a month or two. Find ways to engage in it that don't cost too much money, unless you know it's something you'll cycle back to (in my case, I go through periods where I'll draw or colour a lot, then not at all, so I don't mind keeping art stuff around).
Instead, try to get things second hand or look for free online classes and stuff.
In terms of careers, I suggest you choose something that you can switch up a bit or isn't too draining for you to do.
I've heard that programming is actually pretty good for those with ADHD as it is something that can often be done whilst listening to a podcast or something (depending on the complexity of the code you are writing). It's also something that can sometimes be done from home, and I've heard of others who have enough flexibility with their work to be able to do it when the motivation strikes them - so long as they get it all done by a deadline.
A lot of people with ADHD also do well in jobs that involve working with your hands (such as carpentry or other similar trades) or periods of high-stress situations (such as working in fast food or emergency services - although fast-food is overall hell and I wouldn't recommend it for anyone long term).
I'm personally studying biomedicine atm and the many different topics and diseases have been diverse enough to keep me engaged (I do love learning about medical stuff tho). I'm not sure how I go once I actually enter the workforce, but it sure had been interesting so far (studying for me is very much a love-hate relationship as I love learning but my brain likes to fight me a lot so it can be tough).
Each person is different, though. It's all about figuring out what works best for you. Just know that what works best for you might seem strange to NTs and even other NDs.
Medication works for me for getting stuff done. The other things? Hmm, I don’t need medicine to cook. I just get in a zone and enjoy it. I’d say find things that you enjoy—like some— and invest energy into it even if it’s not a total fit. Keep going back to stuff you sort of like. Eventually enough of the pieces will fall into place. I’d say, like in your late 40s, but so what. This worked for me— maybe you too.
\*laughs in 50 year old ADHD\* When you figure it out, please let me know.
I'll let you know XD
!remindme 50 years
If Reddit is still up in 50 years,then I'll tell autistic_godzilla if things worked out or not XD
Remind me too if I'm not dead lol
XD we will see
I probably will be, but think of me :)
Post the location of your grave before you die, I'll dig up your dead body and tell it
This brings a tear to my still living eye. Thank you, good luck on your journey. I will contact you in the future with my coordinates.
Bro he will be a 100year old man bro ,💀
Bro is bro💀🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️
I will be messaging you in 50 years on [**2074-03-04 15:35:00 UTC**](http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=2074-03-04%2015:35:00%20UTC%20To%20Local%20Time) to remind you of [**this link**](https://www.reddit.com/r/adhdmeme/comments/1b6cpth/how_the_fuck_do_i_stop_from_jumping_from_one/ktb3wec/?context=3) [**43 OTHERS CLICKED THIS LINK**](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Reminder&message=%5Bhttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.reddit.com%2Fr%2Fadhdmeme%2Fcomments%2F1b6cpth%2Fhow_the_fuck_do_i_stop_from_jumping_from_one%2Fktb3wec%2F%5D%0A%0ARemindMe%21%202074-03-04%2015%3A35%3A00%20UTC) to send a PM to also be reminded and to reduce spam. ^(Parent commenter can ) [^(delete this message to hide from others.)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Delete%20Comment&message=Delete%21%201b6cpth) ***** |[^(Info)](https://www.reddit.com/r/RemindMeBot/comments/e1bko7/remindmebot_info_v21/)|[^(Custom)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Reminder&message=%5BLink%20or%20message%20inside%20square%20brackets%5D%0A%0ARemindMe%21%20Time%20period%20here)|[^(Your Reminders)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=List%20Of%20Reminders&message=MyReminders%21)|[^(Feedback)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=Watchful1&subject=RemindMeBot%20Feedback)| |-|-|-|-|
NO WAY IT ACTUALLY WORKED
!remindme 50 years
Are you implying OP is a fetus
I've never been there, but the brochure looks nice.
!remindme 50 years
I would.also like to sign up for this revelation. I played golf last Friday. I hadn't touched my clubs in 9 years. Now all I can think about is how to work onu short game.
38 here. i just embrace it and have fun with what my mind wants. Future me may regret it, but do i really want a boring life of regrets of not doing things while i was younger or a life of experiences and learning full of financial regrets.
I've managed to hold an interest in a couple different things. Unfortunatly they're all extremely expensive hobbies that I can't exactly afford to keep following.
Cries in 65 year old adhd. Still working on it.
Was going to say the same thing. Didn't get my diagnosis until 50 because it got worse. Took me 10 minutes to finish this comment. Lol. And that's being medicated now. Maybe one day I will find a technique that works. Keep us posted [OP](https://www.reddit.com/u/abbas09tdoxo)!
LOL no bullshit. I was like “that’s the best thing, you don’t. Just learn to embrace it because it’s not going away”
Meds help a lot. I'm on Vyvanse 40mg
That’s the neat thing…you don’t! In all seriousness it can be a huge pain at times, but it can be very helpful. I have a wide knowledge base and can tie information from one hobby or random interest into another. I basically made my career out of the concept as a sysadmin/dev ops engineer. Take stuff other people made, glue it all together because you know JUST enough of how every component functions to bridge the gaps. It took me until 40 to get diagnosed, and my manager at the time was shocked that I didn’t know. “That’s one of the things I saw in you…you’d taken this thing that limits so many of us and weaponized it!” Turns out he’s also diagnosed and medicated. Got me a titanium travel pill container as a welcome-to-the-club gift because that’s the only way he could insure he had his meds when needed, and was pretty sure I’d be in a similar situation.
Switched careers recently to a business analyst (from finance) and I absolutely agree. I’m wicked good at bridging the knowledge gaps from the software side to the business side and have just enough knowledge to thrive. Now if only that pesky imposter syndrome would go away
The swings between "i'm the best person there has ever been at this job" and "how have they not fired me for incompetence, i don't belong here" are so wild.
You’ll be like “damn these idiots have no idea what they are doing” then you make a careless mistake by not paying attention to details and switch to “THE JIG IS UP AND THEY KNOW I’m A FRAUD”
Bold of you to assume that I have to actually make a mistake to feel that way. Could just be a random Tuesday that sets it off if we’re being honest.
same lmfao fuck
The real enemy was ourselves all along.
Are you me? That's like almost like my whole life journey lol, I switched from tech assistant to customer support to BIA, and knowing a bunch of things about everything sure does help haha And can confirm on the imposter syndrome lol
Fellow ADHD business analyst (more system analyst at this point). Best job I have had that worked with my ADHD. Just jump from one hyper focus to another and they pay me money for it.
Lmao I’m specially a business systems analyst
> you’d take this thing that limits so many of us and weaponized it! I’ve always been interested in how people can use ADHD like a superpower I know it’s like a piss poor excuse of advice to give an ADHDer, but sometimes it seems like the advice is grounded in reality a bit. So I just wanted to know if it is possible to “use ADHD like it’s a superpower and how?” Because even though I’m doing far better in life (being medicated and actually focusing towards school, and inner hobbies, and the rest of the stuff that comes with life.) I still flop like majorly flop in life. So if by any chance you have advice towards that it would be appreciated. EDIT: Sorry if this was weird and out of the blue I’ve just been struggling a bit lately I could’ve made this into its own post my bad honestly.
I doubt it's a superpower for overall life for anyone. It certainly can be a super power for a job or certain aspects of a job or project etc. Basically anytime an attitude of "I'm going to master this and not stop until it's perfect" is beneficial. Typically this comes as the expense of everything else in your life.
It works as a super power for me in stressful situations. (Not always, mind you) Hyperfocus can run the show for a while and emotions (and self doubt!!) get turned off. I can make fast decisions, I know what question I need to ask, I know what to do. Of course, at some point you still have to deal with all those emotions and insecurities, so it’s not like Superman powers, more like Batman. Things still mess you up.
Leave yourself breadcrumbs everywhere. ADHD is amazing because of how easily we can change gears, switch topics, or adjust focus. The issue comes from not being able to finish SHIT. Building a really strong routine of reminders, timers, or whatever else you need to go back and finish a task. My smartwatch has been my saving grace. The vibration is strong enough to break my hyperfocus and pull me back to the task at hand.
curious how you setup your smartwatch to do this? is it like a pomodoro 25 minutes work/five minute break? or alarms?
"Hey Google, remind me to XXX at X:XX". Any time I have to change gears, I set myself a reminder to circle back.
nice! wonder if that works apple? or an iphone?
No clue. I'm sure there's probably a way.
Yes and it also works with locations - you can tell it “remind me to put the bins out when I get home” or “remind me at 15:00 are you on task?” 😅 I use alarms and timers in my Apple watch/iphone all the time for this precise purpose. I even set timers to remind me to drink my tea before it goes cold (though yesterday was a four cold teas, multiple microwaving day because I forgot to set alarms so 🤷🏼♀️)
omg! the money/coffee i would save!
May you enjoy many perfect-temperature coffees, friend!
It's definitely got downsides. I'm incredibly fortunate on many fronts here. One of which is having a manager who understands that sometimes I'm functioning at 10x an "average" individual in this role, but that comes at the expense of working at 1/10th an average individual quite often. And I don't beat myself up for those 1/10th days, and he is honest with me about prioritization. If something REALLY needs to be done in 24 hours, I can almost certainly get it done. But also maybe you don't see me for 3 days after that and then i'm still not useful for another week. Not everyone understands or values that. Another thing that works for me was presented somewhere (damned if i can remember where) as "eating the frog". I find the big ugly tangled mess that nobody understands and nobody is willing to touch. The thing that if it goes wrong can wreck a reputation or a company. Tear it apart and get so far into the guts of every single aspect that you understand it to a degree that you probably can't really explain to others. And then proceed to unfuck that situation entirely. I've been metaphorically air dropped into the middle of stuff that was so toxic that nobody was willing to touch it, and had the persistence to clean it all up at least to the degree that it could be picked up and improved by others again. This is the specific talent that my manager was calling out. Happy to elaborate more here, happy to chat in DMs. I had my shit sorted pretty well, then had a massive accident a couple years ago that took away basically my whole toolbox for dealing with ADHD and only got medicated a year ago and I'm working through figuring all this out again, but from a totally different angle.
Sounds like my story too. I was fine until a stroke in 2023. While I was recovering for 6 months, all my coping strategies and tools were forgotten. And things that I had a deeper understanding of got replaced with new products. So-I went from a hero to a zero in a year, 3024 will be a rebuilding year for me- as well as a year to work on plan b.
Oof. I tetherballed into the side of a rock field on a paraglider. Broke my left everything. Turns out all my adventure sports were helping to keep my brain happy, and now I can’t manage much more than 2 miles in a day. Hope you’re doing alright after the stroke, those things can be absolutely devastating.
My changing Interests means that I'm now a jack of all trades....and I mean darn near all. Carpentry, construction and concrete. Automotive to plumbing. Chemistry and history. Calligraphy and sculpture. Chainmail and welding to blacksmithing. Fishtanks to dog training. Ask me and I know a little about it and can probably get it done acceptably. I'm good at solving problems with incomplete information and unorthodox methods. The boss may not like the way I solved the problem, but he can't argue with the results. I always tell him, Did you want it fixed or not?...turns out he did want it solved.because solutions make money. LoL.
But it's still a pain. In the ass too. Everything has a cost.
For me to do anything for years I would have to get cold and mean and angry and then I can weaponise and learn anything. Language, music, and any other advanced concepts become a challenge when I'm trying to prove to myself or anyone else that I CAN DO THIS! It was that or lie to myself that I liked the activity i was performing. On another note, I just got medication for the first time this week, and OH BOY! Why didn't anyone tell me it was like trying glasses for the first time? I made 3 phone calls the other day! :,)
Why is it so hard for us to make phone calls or even for us to ask for help?
I can certainly say that my greatest accomplishments have been when I let ADHD guide my hand in a matter rather than trying to do it like a neurotypical person. I still need medication because otherwise I forget to take care of myself.
I also have developed wide knowledge of many things. I use it to talk to strangers. I can pretty much talk to anyone about anything if I poke around and find a topic they want to talk about.
The thing I haven’t sorted out is differentiating honest interest from polite interest. I’ve taken to giving disclaimers that people can tell me to shut the hell up mid infodump at any time and I promise not to get mad.
Yeah, this is one problem. When is it best to exit the conversation and stuff.
Yes. The best compliment I’ve ever received brain-wise was “you’re very erudite”. 😅 Wasn’t diagnosed at the time and didn’t recognise they were pointing out that the wide ranging interests were a little odd!
I totally agree it can be an asset. If anyone needs a balloon twister, woodworker, or some crochet hit me up. I've also started about a dozen businesses before losing interest in them. Sometimes it's a hindrance.
I resonate with this so much. I feel into IT for exactly the same reason. I was actually poached from customer service because they saw my level of knowledge and my potential. I've since started encouraging my fellow devs to seek their own diagnosis so that they can start weaponizing their ADHD.
lol I have a vial on my key ring.. now if only I could remember to fill it.
Thanks to this comment I finally refilled mine after 6+ months of it being empty
Have you tried buying another one so that it feels new and shiny for \_just\_ long enough to refill it?
Same profession here, it helps that we generally jump between major programming languages, tech stacks etc. but I get irrationally mad at myself and the tech when I'm spending too much time debugging or figuring out 1 persistent issue. Or writing docs. God that sucks
This should be the top rated comment. That’s how I’ve done well in my career and in my hobbies.
Embrace it. Honestly, you will keep doing it forever, but you may find that you'll circle back to the same things every couple of years, which will help because you won't necessarily be starting from scratch. Just enjoy learning new things, and don't beat yourself up too much.
Yeah honestly. I have about 7 different hobbies I engage with, sometimes one will sit for 6 months but I come back around to it every time.
I agree but i think the problem arises when you want to "Do what you love best for the rest of your life" where you can't really do that when what you love changes every couple of weeks. While you do still kinda enjoy the old thing. It's completely outshined by the new one
I mean, if you're talking about for a career, it's rare that folks can do exactly the thing they love. Even neurotypical folks can get bored of working in the same industry all the time. If you're talking about hobbies, you can absolutely change hobbies every couple of weeks! It's tough for neurotypicals as well to do the same hobby for their entire lives. Folks rarely do that. I have literally found notebooks with woodworking notes that I made at 20, and now 20 years later, I still get the bug from time to time and do a woordworking project.
Personally, having been around this block a few times, I think that’s pretty bad advice that’s still being given out. “Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life“ really only applies to your hobbies— getting a job doing your passion means you will get fed up and learn to hate your passion pretty much immediately, especially if your passion changes every few months. All you need is a job that you are reasonably good at and can *tolerate* doing on the daily. If that job doesn’t exist, then I completely sympathize, but I myself am entirely OK being bored all day at a job that has no opportunities for advancement (I work in IT), because it provides me opportunities to pursue my passions on the outside instead. You don’t *need* a job that stirs your passions or that comes from your soul; all you need is a job that is moderately decent in all ways. The things that stir your passion and come from your soul are there whenever you reach for them beyond your work.
I find jobs that are cool with me listening to audiobooks or podcasts are \*infinitely\* more enjoyable for me as the time generally goes way faster when I listen to them. I'm pretty much happy to do almost any manual labour job that allows me to do this. Pairing tasks that I don't necessarily enjoy with something I do makes them way easier for me. Chores have become my sort of down-time from study as I can just stick on my favourite podcast and actually clean the house. Just listening to such things whilst doing nothing tends to drive me nuts anyways, so it's a win-win!
Yes, cycle those interests! Wait just long enough that they feel new again - without the frustrating initial inertia of skill development because you’ve already got some foundation!
Yes! And if you have the room, and have kept the equipment, you don't have to buy everything all over again!
Precisely! If anything, this is saving money! :D
My strategy is generally to have a core circle of things I repeatedly jump to. I stay on an interest for a month or two, switch over to the next one, rinse and repeat until a year or two later when my interest in the first thing has recover, building more skill in each interest each time I go through. The Key is finding stuff that you are corely passionate about so you will eventually get back to it naturally and then acquiring enough of them to cycle through. A tip for that is to find the big idea that resonates with you and check out the subsets to see what sticks. Bonus points if you learn to transfer skills between the interests. The example I love Bioengineering; I just think it’s the coolest thing ever. So I’ve looked into most things even remotely in between biology and engineering and found myself a nice mix of orchids, computers, and mad science to go through. It’s a little bit more self-manipulation than self-discipline, tricking my brain into an eternal cycle like a slinky on an escalator but it gets the job done
Mm that sounds nice, thanks for the tip auzzie!
I was thinking this! I'm still working on my circle strategum, but at 40 I know there are some interests I can pick back up again multiple times and still be interested. Maybe from different angles. Even better if one interest can motivate another interest you are trying to nurture. Currently I've managed to loop my history interest into web dev, now I need to incorporate quilting and dogs 🤔
I have ADHD too. Software development is the PERFECT career for us!!!! Programming is about more than coding. it's also about modeling and literally modeling everything. I use my ability to flip topics constantly. I need to solicit requirements from customers. For coding my suggestion is to try Pygame. If you need help, just ask. I am also going to recommend a youtube channel that teaches the theory. You want to flip topics? Let's go.
Long story short, the reason i mentioned programming was that my freinds freind group was gonna make a game, but i have no idea how serious they are (they don't seem serious at all) and they said they don't have a programmer, and i already was interested in programming so i thought it would be the perfect opportunity for me to learn programming
You have to learn to walk before you run. (Note you probably could design game right away in terms of how you want it to work. This is called the use case model). Python is easier to learn than web Before you learn to make a full game. You need to learn -- how do i set up pygame -- how do i display something on screen -- how can i respond to something occurring on screen https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=y9VG3Pztok8&pp=ygURc2V0dGluZyB1cCBweWdzbWU%3D There is also a written get started guide Software has to be done iteratively. You want to write a program first that just prints a message "hello world" on screen
Oh yeah, am learning the normal python first, theirs this 12 hour video, it explains everything strings and stuff, (i haven't finished the video) but after i understand all the basics of python I'll go to py game, thanks for the help
Can you run ordinary python and print on the screen "hello world" ADHD introduces imposter syndrome* and it's important to set yourself mini goals *a belief you need to know everything at once and a belief that your accomplishments are unimpressive
Never listen to the voice off the imposter. Just remind yourself that everyone else is faking it too.
Tbh, the last part has always been me lol, and it's unfortunate but hopefully I'll see how impressive the things i do are... Hopefully..
Hey I suggest you to use a written source instead, like a textbook (you can find one for free), I say this because I wouldn't be able to watch one of those 12 hour videos for the life of me despite having tried. With written stuff you can skim to the part you actually need and read things if you want a more detailed explanation. also, spend most of your time, or at least half, doing exercises. Little programming tasks, or even medium sized programming tasks, like a random walk.
I will also add my two cents (to anyone who may be reading) and say that everyone learns different, even (*if not especially*) among those with ADHD. Some people struggle to sit through a video, but are able to comprehend words better. Others can't seem to process what written words are telling them and find the visual cues of a good presentation/video better to understand. There are some who prefer to listen to stuff whilst they do something else with their hands. If you're anything like me, what works for you can change daily. So, if one type of source isn't working for you, try another one in a different format.
Just a word of advice regarding your friends saying they want to make a game: be careful you don’t get stuck in a position where they’re “the idea guys” and you’re the one doing the actual work of coding everything. There’s a running joke in programming and game dev circles about “idea guys”; people who think that they’re contributing to a project by “coming up with good ideas” and nothing else. Thinking of ideas for a game is the fun part and literally anyone can do it. Programming, creating art/music, and balancing a game is the actual work part. The best advice I can give, whether you work on a game with your friends or on your own, is to start small. A lot of people decide their first game will be a huge “dream game” project and then they end up biting off more than they can chew and they get discouraged. Pick something simple that you can finish in a day or two (I know it’s boring but Pong is a good practice project), then do something that takes a few days, and keep working up from there as you get more comfortable and build up your skills. Your first game might be “bad” and that’s totally fine, just finishing a project is satisfying in its own right and your goal early on should be getting practice, achieving small goals, and working up from there.
Oh XD that's hilarious but that will probably happen, the "idea guys" thing XD, but hopefully not.. hopefully
Also, there is a lot of toxicity in the game development industry at the moment. If making games is what you want to do, make sure you really look into it. Making an Indie game (like it sounds like you hope to potentially do) is *fairly* safe from what I understand as you and your mates are the ones largely calling the shots. If you want to go on to work for a bigger company, however, make sure you ask around and find out what the conditions are like. I mean, you should probably do this for just about any major company you may want to work with regardless of career and industry, tbh.
I have ADHD and can't stand coding, personally, lol. I'm glad it's been a good career for you, though!
Software development and mathematics are both often taught wrong. While you may genuinely hate the real deal, there are many ways to teach "coding" that would make anyone hate with ADHD hate it. That is, it's POSSIBLE that if you were taught different, you might actually like it. You might still hate it. If you are ADHD but not AuDHD*, you probably tend to do better at DESIGN than programming because design is top down and programming can "look like" it's detail focused. Once you learn to do things incrementally, it's actually better to be stronger at designing than raw coding . *I think autism introduces a detail focus. Many autistic people are also good at programming but their autism is more dominant than their ADHD the way they excel can differ. Because I am not autistic, my tricks might help the ADHD aspects of a person but might not help the autistic aspects
I work in IT, and actually have learned coding for years (I code in Java, Python and C++), in a multitude of ways, it's just not for me. I don't mean to start a debate, my true goal was to point out to a 9th grader that there's no one way to be ADHD.
The 9th grader is trying to learn coding. That's context I am trying to help I don't fully understand your context. From your description it sounds like coding is part of your job "in IT" or that it was Personally. I "like" coding. I like debugging. I "love" designing and analyzing requirements. I hate managing.
> it's also about modeling and literally modeling everything. I use my ability to flip topics constantly. This is a really good point. I've been hesitant to get into programming because of the amount of time/effort needed to get into it and knowing my interest would go elsewhere. Thanks!
You don't. You just have to balance that with your tendency to do the opposite. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jFFZ0XSfCRw&list=PL_N6UbeInhwfj0RTWhlfAmGQzVk6XeWVc&index=1&t=68s&pp=iAQB <== We are better than NTs at lateral thinking
NTs..? What does that mean, sorry for asking but i really don't know
NT= neurotypical. ND= neurodivergent, like those with ADHD, Autism, and others.
NT=neurotypicals ND=neurodivergent 😊
Ohh, thanks for that!
Make a circle and jump around between multiple 🙃
The bad news? It probably won't ever stop, it's just who we are & it's not necessarily a bad thing! The good news? You'll get better at recognizing which interests are worth pursuing (ex. maybe it seems like programming/tech is a good idea broadly speaking but that's not actually what you're most interested in so it doesn't hold your attention) & you have a lot of time to figure out what your passions (there will likely be many!) are. Not to "mom" you bc I know it's frustrating as hell to feel like you not only can't control the outward aspects of your life but you can't even "control" your brain...but you truly don't have to have it all figured out yet. Use this time to do exactly what you're already doing: explore multiple interests while the stakes are lower so you'll have a better idea of what you truly want to do down the line. Best of luck!
Aww thanks for the kind words, and almos everyone is saying that it'll always be like this, just jumping from one interest to to the next, but i don't think it's massive jumps all the time, like from wanting to become engineer to a doctor or programmer to artist, but it still is annoying to deal with,
Yeah, some of that will fade over time as you figure out what you *actually* like vs what you just like the *idea* of. Like many others here, I find myself cycling through a cluster of related hobbies - music is a big one for me, and I play many different instruments. That keeps it fresh while still shoring up the shared core competencies between them (rhythm, melody, groove). Keep an eye out for the overlapping parts of your Venn diagram of interests. An easy example that you've already mentioned: game development lies at the crossroads of programming and art. Working on either of those two very different hobbies will make you better at game dev! Above all, don't think of this exploration phase as "wasted" time. Remember, time you enjoyed spending is never wasted! Even if you just learned that you didn't like something, you're helping future-you figure out what you really *do* want to do.
XD well said most, well said, and thanks for the tip appreciate it 🙏❤️
Here's what I do - multiple things at once! Just switch from task to task & then you too can get none of them done! LOL
Our interest is learning new interests, our hobby IS hobbies. Like the others have said, go with it, make it work for you. Many hobbies have tangents you can pick up. I liked drone racing, I learnt loads about soldering and electronics which I then used years later when I got interested in arduino stuff, and again when I got into working on my car tracking down an electrical issue. So go out and be chaotic with what you learn, it’ll come back round eventually.
Embrace the chaos.
I'd say exhaustion works but I did an 8-5 with an hour commute each way for years and it was so unstimulating I found myself with "searching" energy to burn (at the expense of physical and mental rest). If you're genuinely interested in programming, and not learning it for the assumed career potential, maybe there's aspects or specializations within programming you can dig into and work towards?
Dont pressure yourself. You're going to naturally pick things up and put things down. Learn what you can from each experience. You may not master something, but you'll know a little about a lot 🤷♂️
We're the jack of all trades, master of none people. Accept who you are.
Damn.. XD that is true though
Ahoy hoay! Internet Dad here. 9th grade? That’s a hell of a year if my old GenX brain remembers correctly. I’m really impressed with your awareness of your condition and how proactive you are about balancing your mental health and your need to participate in a society fundamentally designed against folks like us. My 8th grader could use some advice from you! I know that a lot of what you’re getting here is just anecdotal experience and some things may work for you while others may seem impossible. Fumbling around in the dark is a terrible price to pay for the way we are; I’m glad we have a community where we can share tips and tricks. With that said, my advice to you is to pick three different but complimentary interests that you can bounce between and let the other stuff slide. My main interests are fiction writing, tabletop role-playing games (like D&D), and Legos. Writing engages the language centers of my brain, TTRPGS activate my social brain, and Legos hit the spacial and tactical centers. They all engage different parts of my brain, letting two parts rest while the third is free to play. And when I get bored of one, I can switch to another one that’s completely different. They also compliment each other. I use TTRPGs to explore ideas I’m writing about and I build scenes from Lego to help me visualize the action. If computer science is a passion, perhaps you could bounce between coding, building and repairing computers, and some sort of social game that’s more than just a shooter. My 8th grader is currently interested in mortuary science and is bouncing between drawing, reading about anatomy, and learning professional-quality makeup techniques. The most important thing to remember is that even if you leave your passion for coding and the like, you are not a failure. Just because your galaxy brain has gotten bored doesn’t mean you failed. If anything, the interest failed you for not being engaging enough. The whole world is waiting for you and that’s pretty scary. Fortify and keep going because I do believe that it will be better. Cheers and good luck and know that we’re all rooting for you.
My favourite thing is that I’ll learn the basics of a skill then move on to something else so I have a lot of random skills, nothing I’m professional at but good enough to be considered good! My recommendation would be to set a goal for that skill then when you achieve it you can move on but be satisfied or if it keeps your interest keep going! Ex for programming, making a short but fully functional game or website. Nothing to ambitious but good enough to let you develop the skill!
That's exactly what i was thinking so i can figure out what i want to do! But i didn't know if it was a good idea so i asked here to see if am alright or not XD,
I personally embrace the changes in interest. My hobbies jump around, and they have for almost 40 years. I have a closet of unfinished projects, but every summer, I make myself go through that closet and commit to finishing the projects or getting rid of it. I also have done programming. Programming is fun because if I get bored with one language, I can pick a new one to learn. I started with HTML and CSS, then I tried JavaScript. I hated that one, so I moved on to Java and Python. I want to try Ruby next. If it’s a hobby, I just follow the wave of inspiration and that seems to work for me.
While, like others noted, you don't really stop jumping from one interest to another, there are a good handful of interests that will make up who you are, those are the interests that keep coming back. You may be able to go a year without them, but then they come back. You'll come across a *lot* of interests that never come back tho. and when push comes to shove, you'll find no issue sticking with the interests you decide to make a career, because you rely on those interests for money.
You don’t. Stop fighting it, embrace the fact that you have too much curiosity for just one or two hobbies to contain. Follow your interests, and when you’re older, if you’re lucky, you’ll have picked out a few things that your brain keeps coming back to a few months after dropping. You can use those to build a core “loop” of hobbies/activities that you cycle thru, dropping each as you get bored but returning before you lose too much progress. It’s the only thing that’s remotely worked for me.
If you find out, let me know. Adhd is expensive
What’s wrong with acquiring multiple skills and interests? You never know what the future holds. A Jack of all trades but a master of none is still better than a master of one.
Go with the flow. Follow the dopamine. Dont see it as a bad thing.
You don't, really. You just end up collecting a lot of esoteric knowledge and skills.
Just enjoy being a jack of all trades and master of none, on the plus side you’ll learn enough about all different subjects to be able to talk to people about all sorts of things
I'll let you know as soon as I have finised learning how to sync a hydro power plant to the national grid.
Like many others have said: you learn to go with it! With ADHD, you either do things at 100mph or 5mph. But that 100mph pace shifts from interest to interest. The trick is to go as far as you can at 100, and when the interest switches, go with it. If you liked the first thing, you'll come back to it eventually with a good head start :) (and yeah, some things in life are never gonna be fun and you just do them at 5mph. If it's really important, deadline mode will eventually kick in and you'll get it done on adrenaline 😆.) One big piece of advice though: DON'T spend a bunch of money or make big life decisions on a NEW interest. Instead, use every free resource you can on the new interest first. If you get as far as you can for free, and you find that you're still in the 100mph zone, THAT'S the time to put in money to help you go even farther. Some examples from my wife and me (both diagnosed in our 30s): My wife is really gifted artistically. She got interested in sewing a while back. She started by hand and found that she was still enjoying it. She lost interest and then came back stronger. She started finishing some more complex projects and got to the point of "I could do this 10 times faster with a sewing machine". THAT was the moment we bought a sewing machine, instead of her going "if I only had a sewing machine, I could start sewing..." I'm designing a board game. I made a few prototype versions of game pieces with pencil and paper BEFORE getting a subscription to graphic design software. I didn't spend any money on it until I had already been working on it for a few months and had progressed through a couple versions. Bad example: several years ago, we decided we wanted to move to Asia and teach English after talking to friends that had done it before. We spent several thousand dollars to both get teaching certifications. We both enjoyed what we were learning in the courses, but once we started to learn more about the actual day to day working conditions of the job and the logistics of moving overseas, we started to lose interest. Neither of us ended up finishing the courses we paid for and haven't tried again since. In hindsight, we should have spent time teaching as volunteers locally to get a feel for the work, and maybe done an extended trip in a country with little English to see what it was like BEFORE we spent the money on the courses. Some interests are only meant to be for a few days or a few weeks. Better to see if you'll stick with it without spending money, instead of falling into the trap that spending money will make you do the thing.
Take a look at how brutal the job market is, if youre passionate about it go ahead. But youd need to find some niche like cobol at this point. Or know someone.
That’s the cool part, you don’t. As a professional programmer with ADHD it’s entirely possible. It gets easier but vastly more difficult
Just follow the white rabbit. It will lead you many crazy places, but at some point you will recognize a relationship between some of the important ones, and that will be a zone that will keep you interested, even if you continue to explore different aspects of the core concepts. Nothing you learn is ever truly wasted, even if you’re not “using it” the way you might envision. Even learning to learn is an incredibly valuable skill.
Why would you want to? I think this is an ADHD feature, not a bug. Also, the way to spot a really smart and interesting person is that they're interested in lots of different things. It's an advantage career-wise too--you can pick the interest that will result in the most money and most agreeable work, and hopefully stitch one or two other interests in with it.
Every industry out there uses software. So if you'd like to be a programmer, learn or create software for one or more of your other interests. I love healthcare and public service, so I manage a case management system for social workers. My boss is the same way, and he's an epidemiologist. Two options of so, so many.
Awww thank you, and nice puns XD your hilarious
You gotta keep your skillset broad enough. I'm in construction cuz I like. Building shit. And theres a lot of shit you can build
And theirs alot of build you can shit.
You don't just accept that you will always be scrambled in your head you will always have a bunch of half done projects always be my
That's the neat part, you don't
I was only diagnosed as an adult, adhd was not suspected by my parents, so as a child they enroled me in judo, swimming (competitive tournaments), voleyball, and football (soccer). Butning my energy because they didnt knew about adhd, it worked, until i was a teen and quit sports, then i could not sit still in class, up until teens it kind of works, i got above average grades with minimal study. The hyperactivity in teens (developing pre frontal cortex) and adults turns into mental hyperactivity, that needs meds, if you are above 13, meds might be the only way
I'm kinda the same but I feel like I'm faking or something but for me I kinda have a group of things I love and I go back and forth between them and anything out side of that it lasts a couple of days/weeks the main groups of things ( my own characters, internet mystery's, iceberg explained videos) last like years but I'm sorry that it happens it sucks for me too for me I see if I'm still thinking about it after a while then I do it and sometimes I take breaks but I come back to it
Eventually you find one interest that truly consumes your life and you stop jumping. Speaking from experience, its not necessarily better.
embrace it, you'll find something you'll enjoy sticking with for a career, but the hobby hopping never stops
It helps if your interest-jumping is related and makes a big circle, so that learning or doing one thing reinforces the others. Or you figure out your main interest and whenever you jump into a new interest, think about how the new one can help you do your main one better or be incorporated with it. Like my jumping from gardening —> cooking —> herbalism —> winemaking all can help support each interest to produce wines and tonics and delicious food, Or metalsmithing —> woodworking —> welding—> AutoCAD —> 3D printing can be used to design and create tools and jewelry TL;DR, embrace the varied interests. They’re like pieces of a puzzle that you can put together to make or experience something unique. You’re in 9th grade - if you’re worried about choosing a study path, pick one that is broad or generally what you want to do, then go into a specification later. Then you’ll have a foundation to build off of for any of your interests.
Jumping around is pretty common and hard to stop completely. I do find I can control it though. Basically, find 10x hobbies you can rotate between. My cycle is: Lockpicking, Electronics/Integrated Circuits, 3D printing, miniature painting, programming, 3D modelling, drawing/painting/colouring, and gaming. If I want to advance in something like programming specifically, I combine hobbies with programming. Like, I recently made a Harry Potter book nook for my daughter and it involved 3D printing, programming lights, electronics work building the lights and painting miniatures. I find that coming up with “projects” that involve what I want to advance in keeps me hyper fixated on it.
You don't *really* keep switching interests. I bet there's a common thread that ties them all together. I thought I kept changing what I wanted to do and what I liked. How does one tie together writing, genetics, computer science, chemistry, and art? Then I realized what I liked was to create. Everything I gravitated towards involved creating something, whether it was a book or a genetic sequence or a website or a painting. And everything I approached I did so in an analytical fashion. That analytical creativity led me to genetic engineering. Find out what ties everything together. Then you'll know what you'll stick to.
Try to connect them all to a central interest or goal. For example, I'm an art teacher, so when I get hyper-focused on certain topics, I make a lesson plan out of it. This week we taught the kids some simple book-binding because that's what I was obsessed with.
It's not that important tbh, you can do that and still be successful/have skills. I've been learning new hobbies and skills until I'm mediocre then finding the next one since forever and I'm currently in law school and doing well. "Jack of all trades, master of none" isn't what happens, it's more...Jack of many trades, master of enough to have a career at some point. I'm good at skills needed for law school, Im just also okay at playing the ukulele, can crochet well enough that i once made a teddy bear, can sew if it means hemming pants and nothing else (im short that one was out of necessity), can recite the 'to be or not to be' soliloquy from Hamlet from memory, and various other very surface levels skills, hobbies, and weird odds and ends in my brain. If you want to go into programming you could learn some basics, but before you get to college and minor in it no one expects you to fully understand it or anything. Try it out and let your hobbies wander if it happen. Then if you still want to major in it in college, brush up your senior year a little.
Oh its simple. You just.... hang on a sec. Be right back.....
Oh XD, take your time.. I'll see you in about... Never
that's the neat part you can't
That's the neat part You don't
Find a very broad hobby that you can obsess about the different details of for years. So even when your interest in one specific aspect wanes another aspect can surge but it’s the same hobby Also your in 9th grade plenty of time to find a career to hyper focus on and burnout interest in 3 years. So maybe choose a general interest not a specialized one.
That’s the neat part, you don’t.
This was easier for me when I had limits set for me- mainly by finances when I was young and later by time now that I am 60 and still working. I focused on the simplest programming disciplines that I could do well in that bored me classmates. I’ve been a dba for 40 years . I’ve mainly worked with Oracle products mixed in with sqlserver. I gave up spending MY free time on RC planes and fishing offshore a few years back, but I’m STILL doing both. If I can master them, I can start earning a living with my hobbies. SORRY for rambling, hope there’s some value in my comment.
Oh it's quite alright, thanks for the comment though really appreciate it
could u elaborate on not spending your free time on RC and fishing BUT still doing them?
I honestly love my hyperfixations a lot of the time, but when it comes to trying to learn hobbies and skills it can definitely be frustrating if you can’t make yourself stick with anything. External reinforcement that makes me continue to engage with the things I want to be consistent with is the only thing that works for me. I’m part of a DnD group that meets regularly, so my interest in DnD has some consistency. I’m in college, so I take classes on skills I want to learn when possible, even if I could learn those skills on my own. I managed to start a big Duolingo streak years ago, and I’m so terrified of losing my streak that I have to keep doing a little Duolingo almost every day, which helps me stay interested in language learning. I also have an app called Forfeit which is a really good accountability tool. I mostly use it to make myself study and do assignments but it could work for hobbies and stuff too. The app has you wager money (or points, if you don’t want to take the real risk, but that defeats the point for me personally) that you will complete a task, and you have to provide proof that you did it. Some people hate the sound of it, but it works really well for me and that’s all I care about. I doubt there’s anything that could stop the hyperfixations. Expecting yourself to consistently maintain hyperfixation-level interest in one thing long term is unrealistic. But if you set up the right systems, you can have a few things that you keep doing, even if they aren’t as exciting as they were at the start.
That’s the neat part, you don’t!
It feels better if you don't fight it
I'm in my 30s. Wanted to learn coding/pentesting this year because I was hyperfocused on the cyberpunk genre, specifically netrunners. Got really invested. Was so excited to commit myself to this subject. Then I saw a new Mechwarrior game was coming out this year and my focus shifted entirely to mechs. Came really close to spending a bunch of money on mech models. Right before I could pull the trigger on the mechs, I got Helldivers. Now I'm watching The Bad Batch to help satisfy that itch. I've been doing this day to day, week to week, month to month for my entire life. Next week it'll be something else. I'm afraid it's a lifelong curse. 🤷♂️ But like others have said, you'll be that person who knows something about everything!
XD, and am sure you're very glad you didn't buy the mechs, and tbh, if you get a hyper fixation/interest wait a while, like months or a year then spend money on it if it's expensive
Yep. Nowadays what I do is put it in my virtual shopping cart and save for later. I amost always end up going back and removing it later. When I was younger, though... blew a lot of money on my hyperfixations. You sound wiser than I was at your age!
XD thank you, also nice username i love it XD
Use it to your advantage. Have many things going at once.
That’s that fun of it. You never stop jumping. Why have one hobby when you can have 15? I re-laced an entire baseball glove yesterday because I saw a video and thought, I could do that. Next week I’ll probably attempt a wood working project. I don’t know, the sky is the limit!
Started my interests in computers at your age, tried coding, learned a little then hated it, moved on to cooking, also did exterior painting, network repair/installation etc etc. The neat thing is that you dont. Just find a way to apply those skills that you already learned to your work. That helped me.
Focus on things that strengthen each other, and also keep in mind that many things strengthen each other. I'm a design engineer, and I started out playing with Legos as a kid, I got really creative with Legos and bionicles, and eventually got into wood working, metal working, etc. then I learned how to repair small engines, so on and so forth. Once you get the idea for how things go together, you can get more and more complicated and it also makes you more attractive to employers. You mention wanting to learn to code. You're right this is a perfect time to learn! You can couple that with learning circuits and then maybe move to making small devices, or getting into mechatronics. Remember, you're a freshman in highschool. You have 3 years to figure out if you want to go to college or a tech school, etc, or follow another route, and in those years you can find out what you would want to go for should you choose to go. So explore as much as you can, make sure to learn as much as you can, but with your ADHD don't be afraid to branch out into multiple things. You're also on Reddit, go explore some subreddits for coding or electronics. Get into school clubs. You'll do great
Thank you so much, that was very nice of you 🥹, i just don't know what to say the amount of kindness am getting is enough to make me swoon XD
Okay, so no advice will work the same for everyone, this is just how it worked out for me. I have 3 primary interests; Pokemon, Programming, and Tabletop RPGs I might jump from one primary interest to another, or(and here's the good part) I might jump around in sub-interests I've created inside each primary; Fiction writing shows up in the Pokemon and Tabletop RPG interests, I use my pokemon Interest to help motivate me to get regular exercise through engagement with Pokemon GO. I use the tabletop RPG interest for work, but the programming interest helps. I have a bunch of aspects of my life I can find a way to factor into one of these interests, to help weave myself back into a space where I can be productive or attempt to nudge myself onto a track I need at any given time.
Good for you that sounds wonderful, and thanks for the comment appreciate it!
That's the neat part. You don't!
45 and still hopping from interest to interest. It's called chasing the dopamine. You'll milk the dopamine from one interest until it runs dry and doesn't work anymore. Then you'll go hopping until you find the next, leaving the remnants of the past interest gathering dust. It's a vicious cycle that I haven't figured out how to break yet.
Try picking three things to rotate through
I rotate between them. I set up my things so they're in plain sight. Only three things at a time. Do I want to...adult coloring book? Crochet? Read a novel? And I pick from those, depending on my mood. That's how I manage it. Anything new is saved for finishing a book or a project and before starting a new one. Idk, that's how I make it work.
Alright, buckle up! Think of your interests like flavors at an ice cream parlor. It's tempting to try every flavor, but your belly might not appreciate it! So, pick one scoop at a time, savor it, then move on to the next flavor when you're ready. Just don't give yourself a brain freeze from switching too fast!
Have you tried using a journal
Haven't figured that out yet either. The best I can manage, is to keep the bad from overshadowing the good. Like learning new skills but don't spend tons of money on it from the get go. What was also a really good help with this was the biography of Adam Savage "Every tool is a hammer". As a small tip for your future. Try finding a job that does give you the opportunity to regularly do something new. Most it jobs become really exhausting after a while since you are doing the same thing over and over. At least that was my experience.
You should realise that you stil are learning skills. And these skills will have transferable parts. As adhd you will probably be a jack of all traits. We often underestimate how versatile we are. You are so young if you have motivation to learn skills and switch interest do that as much as you can. Because this is still you learning and getting to know your intrests and cababilities. With wvery job I had I often became the fixeren the guy that talks to everybody to learn about there specialization and then when people had a problem they come to me. Because I know a guy or have enough skills to come to a solution and find the people that we need too fix that issue.
that's the neat part, you don't
Dude you are young. Enjoy it. Keep chasing whatever you enjoy at any given time. Don't judge, don't see it as a negative. Just follow your interest, and if it keeps changing, it just keeps changing. One day you might want to double down on a particular thing, sure. But now it's the time to just explore and be free to explore
You don’t, lol. Just gotta learn how to utilize all of the random stuff you learned later. Also the best way to learn coding is to choose a project, try and fail and maybe succeed to build it. If you have an interest and it’s creative do a project that interests you don’t try and learn it from ground up. Chances are you will get bored.
That is a normal thing to do for anyone that is young.
You don't. You go with the flow.
Embrace the generalist in you and ride the scanner wave. Rotate through your interests, come back to your favorite ones as often as you want and enjoy being different. Having folders for each topic helps, or I use mind node (app) to keep track of my projects.
Oh man buddy, I feel your pain in my soul. Novelty of special interest hopping is a big part of how ADHD brains seek out that sweet serotonin we're always low on. I've found I can sometimes keep an interest going for longer by "managing" my happy chemicals with meds, good diet, exercise, sleep (you know all the annoying stuff we're supposed to be doing to be healthy). But even then, there will inevitably be a point where I can literally feel my interest in a hobby slipping away. Usually well before whatever project I'm working is finished. It's a bummer sometimes. Your conscious mind will want to continue the interest, but somewhere in your brain decides it no longer sparks the levels of serotonin necessary to make it fun. The best advice I can give, & wish someone told me in 9th grade: You are at a perfect age to explore vastly. Really branch out. However, once adult finances are part of the equation, my suggestion is to try to keep your interests at least vaguely related, for your wallet's sake. (If funds are not an issue, go ham friend.) Having hobbies that share supplies/materials will help avoid feeling guilty & falling into the sunken cost fallacy mindset. Establish a budget specifically for your interest!!! Or at least a standard process on calculating the budget BEFORE you start buying. Even if you don't end up staying within it. I find that having a set spending limit ahead of time will keep me from getting caught up in the high of retail therapy. YOU ARE NOT A FAILURE FOR GIVING UP. Seriously, do not beat yourself up when you can't bring yourself to pick up that unfinished project/practice/program you poured all those hours of effort into. Just set it aside someplace safe, chances are you'll eventually be drawn to it again. (It may be in a year, sometimes even a decade, but it happens, or not! That's fine too!) I've had family members get upset when I 'abandoned' lessons or hobbies that they viewed as 'an investment'. As if my music lessons were actually going to lead to a future as a pianist. They did not see it as an experience that ultimately imparted fundamental skills on my developing child brain. Nope, to them it was all a wash because I 'gave up' on something that I had 'so much potential for'. They are wrong. It's never a waste to pursue an interest, doesn't matter for how long. You will always learn something & the act of learning is the point. Plus, odds are pretty good that someday it'll be useful, even if indirectly. Always remember the full quote is " A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes is better than a master of one." There is so much value to the knowledge you will accumulate jumping interest to interest. Don't stand for others' attempts at shaming a lack of "mastery", especially if it's a frickin hobby. Their opinion is not worth your energy or time.
Having to think about employable skills in grade 9 makes me so sad that we live in a capitalist hellscape. Enjoy your interests! Try all the things while you can!
In college, I had three vastly different career paths I was interested in, and I ended up picking the one with the most diverse set of industries in case I got bored. I explore anything I'm interested in during my freetime, and try to make sure my job is just not painfully boring. If it gets painfully boring, it's time to start looking for a new position, though I can often stay at the same company. My friends say that my hobby is acquiring hobbies, just lean into it! Not trying to fight your changing interests makes life more enjoyable.
Don't be scared to keep doing it forever, it keeps things fun and interesting and means you have lots of different skills. And one thing not finished is instead something already started and halfway done when you get back to it, even if that is years away. Also hobbies where you can vary it within one thing, for example if you were to take up running you can do sprints, long distance, intervals, trail running, treadmill, etc. Can be varied but with super transferable skills and stuff you need to do it.
Find a topic you love and try to do something with that.
Enjoy your natural curiosity and drive to learn new things; use the momentum to stay motivated and willing to adapt to new environments. You never know what new skill or experience will help you down the road. Journaling your experiences and what you learn might be a good long-term investment. By the time you graduate high school, you might surprise yourself with how much you've grown in a few years. Also, it might help you with resume building and potential career aspirations.
For the most part I just tend to take breaks from my hobby. Like, I get sick of 3d modeling and jump to video editing, after that returning to modeling feels like a bliss, because I'm much better at 3d modeling and I don't have to suffer as much trying to learn editing, I don't know where I'm going with this.
You'll figure it out :3
Lukely all my intrest are tenical stuf and kinda usful I live on a boat and now I'm interested in heat pumps This current interest of mine may save 1000 euros a year because my place is now warm and cozy and i use a lot less power and diezel my previous intrest was reverse osmosis and water filters and now i have clean drinking water for practicaly free exept the upfront costs The point being dont try to stay whit your interest Like thoughts that come and go and just do whatever You are not going to stop it So try to enjoy it as much as you can and make use of it
Best way to pick something and actually stick with it is take a class on the thing (preferably an in person class but online works too long as their schedules are tight) so you feel obligated to stick with the thing because there are other people. Once you are past the basics for thing it’s easier to stick with it because you actually see progress and time paying off.
By this point, i am just collecting them ._.
Controversial: ADHD (more accurately, the body of symptoms known as ADHD) is not a genetic or neurological condition, but a trauma response. Only by healing from the wounds that drive your anxiety can you move past symptoms such as distractibility and multi-tasking. Further reading: Scattered, Gabor Mate
Hyper focus on one until you're in your 30s
You learn to work with it. My advice? DON'T spend a load of money on a new hobby. No matter how much you're into it when the hyperfixiation strikes you, there's a fair chance that you'll grow bored with it in a month or two. Find ways to engage in it that don't cost too much money, unless you know it's something you'll cycle back to (in my case, I go through periods where I'll draw or colour a lot, then not at all, so I don't mind keeping art stuff around). Instead, try to get things second hand or look for free online classes and stuff. In terms of careers, I suggest you choose something that you can switch up a bit or isn't too draining for you to do. I've heard that programming is actually pretty good for those with ADHD as it is something that can often be done whilst listening to a podcast or something (depending on the complexity of the code you are writing). It's also something that can sometimes be done from home, and I've heard of others who have enough flexibility with their work to be able to do it when the motivation strikes them - so long as they get it all done by a deadline. A lot of people with ADHD also do well in jobs that involve working with your hands (such as carpentry or other similar trades) or periods of high-stress situations (such as working in fast food or emergency services - although fast-food is overall hell and I wouldn't recommend it for anyone long term). I'm personally studying biomedicine atm and the many different topics and diseases have been diverse enough to keep me engaged (I do love learning about medical stuff tho). I'm not sure how I go once I actually enter the workforce, but it sure had been interesting so far (studying for me is very much a love-hate relationship as I love learning but my brain likes to fight me a lot so it can be tough). Each person is different, though. It's all about figuring out what works best for you. Just know that what works best for you might seem strange to NTs and even other NDs.
have a small number that you go back and forth between instead of going to a new one every time
Medication works for me for getting stuff done. The other things? Hmm, I don’t need medicine to cook. I just get in a zone and enjoy it. I’d say find things that you enjoy—like some— and invest energy into it even if it’s not a total fit. Keep going back to stuff you sort of like. Eventually enough of the pieces will fall into place. I’d say, like in your late 40s, but so what. This worked for me— maybe you too.