After 53 years, I've come to the conclusion I likely have some form of ADHD (son officially diagnosed).
Like many with the condition, I get easily bored, with any task, which means I can get to a proficient level (say guitar/singing) then get bored. Any of you have a tips on breaking through that boredom threshold?
As a result I've become proficient in many disciplines but master of none.
Seeing retirement on the horizon has made it even worse in a workplace environment, where I can't be bothered to put in that extra effort anymore, but still need to survive the next 6 to 8 years.
Comments
I have ADHD (+ ASD) and I have no problem with carrying out high value tasks to a frankly excessive level.
High value tasks for me would be playing guitar, drums, doing studio work, roller skating.
I can do those all day, every day and never get bored.
The problem used to be that it was quite unfocussed about it.
Ask me do to something that is not high value and I will simply not do it for very long, or at all.
Everyone with ADHD is different though, so you can't extrapolate one person's experience out to another's.
The best thing is to get the right support- which for me is diagnosis -> treatment (medication and counselling).
Medication made all the difference to me.
I can now focus much more and there is less brain chatter.
Studio: https://www.voltperoctave.com
Music: https://www.euclideancircuits.com
Me: https://www.jamesrichmond.com
Football is rubbish.
Many ADHD people end up discovering that they have been unknowingly self medicating with obscene levels of caffeine.
When I spoke to my GP about the amount t I was drinking and that my productivity was basically zero when I didn’t he started the referral process. But as an adult who has managed so far the waiting list is about 2 years in my area.
Apparently 5 espresso in a big mug before breakfast and then a couple of filter machine jugs worth through the day isn’t the best way to deal with it…
I’m so bored I might as well be listening to Pink Floyd
When I started on stimulants I dropped caffeine.
I was having 3 triple espressos and a few caffeine soda type drinks every day just to feel normal.
Studio: https://www.voltperoctave.com
Music: https://www.euclideancircuits.com
Me: https://www.jamesrichmond.com
Football is rubbish.
I have learned to get non-interesting paid-work tasks done, basically through fear of losing my job I suppose.
With something vague like music performance as a hobby, there are often no specific goals.
My playing improved a lot when I took a year off work and bought several pro-quality amps.
Previously my playing improved when I started composing and recording at home, and learned to hear my mistakes.
Have a think about how those wanting a professional career would approach music performance: They'd get lessons, they might be enrolled on a course where deliverables are due on certain dates - I think this is probably the key you need.
Basically the music performance equivalent of a gym buddy - someone or something that you have committed to delivering recordings, performances or whatever.
You could do an adult education course. Some are cheaper, some not.
I looked a a part-time MA in music production - £9k over 3 years, that looks interesting.
Also there are MOOC, I did a Berklee one on Jazz improvisation for free, other students peer-review your recordings - well worth a try.
There are a lot of mindfulness, self awareness techniques but ultimately this is a neurological condition, you can't just trick yourself out of having ADHD, it is very difficult to manage for lots of people.
There seems to be this trend of self diagnosing and saying you have a condition without a formal diagnosis and I don't agree with it. It trivialises the condition when everyone says they have it, It might be ADHD, you sound like you have some traits of it so maybe you do have it, but you also haven't described some other very common features so it's worth remembering that most people get bored, lose enthusiasm or procrastinate when they find a task boring and it's hardly ever ADHD, so the best thing to do is get an assessment from a reputable source (too many charlatans out there) because it could be diet, sleep, depression or a myriad of other things. Going on medication for this condition is not an easy experience because doses, medication type can take quite a while to get right, so it can be a difficult process.
I agree that it is sometimes counter-productive to label oneself with a condition that is not actually present but given that the waiting times are so long and private diagnosis so expensive what else are people to do?
Studio: https://www.voltperoctave.com
Music: https://www.euclideancircuits.com
Me: https://www.jamesrichmond.com
Football is rubbish.
In the absence of a formal diagnosis, I'd recommend filling in the standard form used in diagnosis
There are a few variations, but basically the same questions:
https://www.abbeyroadmedicalcentre.co.uk/files/2021/04/ADD-Adult-Self-Report-Form.pdf
https://add.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/adhd-questionnaire-ASRS111.pdf
https://adhduk.co.uk/adult-adhd-screening-survey/
https://www.advancedassessments.co.uk/resources/ADHD-Screening-Test-Adult.pdf
https://www.derbyshirehealthcareft.nhs.uk/application/files/7216/0865/2064/Parent_Vanderbilt_v2.pdf
we were asked to complete the forms several times for each child:
They ask for some mixture of partners, siblings, parents to cover different periods and perspectives: filling it in for when you were at school and current observations on separate forms.
we had some extra pages from Phoenix that asked about managing daily adult stuff like family life, work, money, driving a car etc.
Whilst a spectrum does, by definition, include everyone from Neurotypical at one end to Neurodivergent at the other, to say 'we are all on the spectrum' goes some way to minimise and shame people who are actually unable to do anything about their disability whilst being a defacto denial that anything needs to be done at all.
Saying 'we are all a bit autistic' is like calling someone a surgeon because they once removed a splinter.
Yes, technically removing a splinter is functionally a similar process that surgery entails but there is also a big difference.
If we were all on the spectrum why do you think there is such a huge push for ND people for get awareness and accommodation for their disability?
This is because it can trivialise the challenges we face on the spectrum as though we are saying we have just climbed a mountain and the response is ‘who hasn’t?’
Furthermore, one of the largest objections ND people have to the ‘everyone is on the spectrum’ conversation is that, the moment someone utters these words, it often feels like that person has closed their mind off to the possibility of learning more about neurodivergence.
After all, to them all 7.5 billion people who are both on the planet and on the spectrum are doing just fine, so why do adjustments need to be made for the few diagnosed people who are calling out for change?
In short, please stop it.
'As you get older, you understand yourself better I think, and realise that you are "odd" in some ways and less so in most others.'
For some people it is quite a bit more debilitating than just being 'odd'.
I am not going to go into what my life is like, but I couldn't disagree with you more.
Studio: https://www.voltperoctave.com
Music: https://www.euclideancircuits.com
Me: https://www.jamesrichmond.com
Football is rubbish.
Yesterday my wife asked me to listen to a song, so I asked Siri to play it for me. Instead it played a video of a guy talking about the song. I thought I need to open YouTube and search it manually but I must have got distracted in those few seconds.
Suddenly it’s about 4 hours later and she asked what I thought to the song. I thought eh? I didn’t listen but I asked Siri… Thought back through what had happened since that and all I could remember was this guy talking and then me going off on 5 tangents.
I opened YouTube again to listen to it and then here I am next morning being reminded again I didn’t actually listen because I went off on 5 more tangents.
My view is that we're not "all on the spectrum", for two reasons. Firstly it's more useful for "the spectrum" to refer to a particular neuro divergence at a time, and secondly because the spectrum is not a linear scale with "quite into trains" at one end and "can't really function unhelped" at the other. It's more a model of how all the people on it share a condition, but have different sets of traits. Like a cloud, or a starfield. Not a line.
Also everything Octatonic said. Particularly that "well, we're all on the spectrum" is completely dismissive of the individual struggles people who are actually on a spectrum have.
None of them agree with the "we are all..." premise.
I’m so bored I might as well be listening to Pink Floyd
I might try that.
I’m so bored I might as well be listening to Pink Floyd