I used to drink a pot of coffee every morning before I was diagnosed. (I was diagnosed at a research facility by real doctors….)
And, ADD is not jumping around like a monkey. It’s both the inability to focus—and, a minute later, such focus that you turn around a realize you’ve been working on a project so long…everyone else has gone home.
It was a curse and a blessing.
It’s so much as an inability to focus as much as it’s simply your reservoir of concentration is smaller and needs to be filled up more often.
I find keeping a list of what needs to be dune helps, because I don’t have to think about the next thing. I just do something on my list and keep moving.
You and I both know about ADD, the real kind. I call it “hyperfocus” when I get into that zone that you’ve described. I tuned sounds out, they were just background noise. I used to get teased, they called me “The Concentrator”. It wasn’t inaccurate. I’ve had to learn to live with it. It is a blessing and a curse. I try to focus on the good things that have come from my “deficit.” There are many of those.
ADD: Now called Inattentive ADHD
I am doing forestry work for a fellow just like that.
He gets on one thing and can not, think ahead. The nest moment, he is all over the place and nearly always making the wrong decisions in a panic after he realizes that he messed up.
I cant deal with it and told him he needs to get help. He has not and I wont work with/alongside with him.
I believe some of it came from his upbringing. Raised up getting everything he wanted from his parents.
I can relate. Over my career I’ve been accused of being unfocused and praised for my ability to concentrate intently.