My Over-Active Mind

[Raphael]

I just want to write some thoughts about my over-active mind and how I experience life.

Edited August 7, 2021 by Raphael

[Raphael]

Having A Mind That Functions Differently

I initially titled this journal ADHD: Personal Notes then changed it to My Over-Active Mind. I had different reasons for doing that:

• I don't like labels.
• I had never been diagnosed with ADHD, yet I see many commonalities between how I function and symptoms that are considered as been ADHD symptoms.
• ADHD is over-dramatized as been a serious mental health disorder. I personally think that they are many degrees to this: at some high degrees, it can be pretty difficult where at lower/medium degrees it can be empowering.
• I don't feel disabled in life (even though I have my difficulties). I just think that I function differently than most people and therefore need to have a different life system.
• I feel that there is a lot of bullshit in the typical mental health field. Mental health is relative to what we consider as being mentally healthy and elements of mental health can vary from culture to culture.
• Many times a thing is called a disorder where it is just a weakness and the other side of all weaknesses is a strength. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses, yet some strengths and weaknesses are more common than others. When we perceive an uncommon weakness in someone we tend to demonize this person, yet this uncommon weakness can hide an uncommon strength.
• I see my mind as my biggest strength, it can be difficult to handle sometimes so in a sense this can be a weakness, yet this is one of the most powerful and most important things that I have in my life.

I will definitely write about ADHD here, but not in an over-obsessed catastrophizing way. I just want to understand how my mind functions, its connection to my body, its structure, and how to make the best out of it.

 

Edited August 7, 2021 by Raphael

[Raphael]

ADHD: No Personal Diagnostic, Yet Many Similarities

I have never been officially diagnosed with ADHD, but I see many similarities with how I function and what are considered traits of ADHD:

• My mind is hyperactive.
• I can hyper-focus on subjects that I'm interested in, however, I'm extremely bored when it's not the case.
• My thoughts are very creative and out of the box.
• I can easily interconnect many dots and easily see the big picture and the structure behind things.
• I had difficulties reading social cues most of my life.
• I often daydream which makes me very quiet and annoy people when I have social interactions. It can seem that I'm elsewhere.
• I can be absent-minded because I'm so much in my mind. Sometimes I cannot hear people talking to me because of the insane amount of thoughts that I have.
• I can easily get lost in thoughts and lose focus when I'm working, exercising, interacting with people, or in other situations. Sometimes I get interrupted in the middle of things because of my thoughts, sometimes I do unwanted things because of my thoughts.
• I can get quickly overwhelmed by information.
• I'm very sensitive to my environment and can get quickly overwhelmed by noises and people who express strong emotions. Crowds and loud environments very quickly drain my energy.
• Sleep is difficult because my mind is so active.
• I have organizational difficulties, but it's not catastrophic.
• Planning is difficult as I often want to change plans because I have a lot of creative ideas. Overall I'll say that I know where I want my life to evolve in the next five years thanks to Spiral Dynamics, but I don't have a precise plan.
• I can have difficulties finishing tasks and projects because I always find new interesting things.
• I'm very lazy when it comes to dealing with mundane (but essential) life stuff.

If I'm supposed to have ADHD it would be the predominantly inattentive type as I have difficulties organizing thoughts, often daydream and I'm very quiet. However, I noticed that I can become very talkative when the subject interests me or when I'm with a person that I resonate with.

Resources:

• https://www.healthline.com/health/adhd
• https://www.healthline.com/health/adhd/signs#takeaway
• https://www.healthline.com/health/adhd/three-types-adhd#type-1
• https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/adhd/what-is-adhd
• https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/adhd-benefits#managing-the-challenges
• https://www.healthline.com/health/adhd/benefits-of-adhd