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How to write characters with ADHD

A lot of people fail to realize that ADHD is an actual disability, just like OCD, bipolar disorder, depression, and other mental illnesses. Because of this, there are very, very few ADHD characters out there. The only one I can think of is Percy Jackson, and he doesn’t even actually have it. His symptoms are just side effects of him being a demigod.

So I’ve made this post to clear up a few things and show people that writing about ADHD characters isn’t as hard as it looks, as long as you do the research.

Attention span

This is the one that most people know about. We have a short attention span, and it’s not something that we can control. Sometimes it’s better than others. We can be doing fine for a solid fifteen minutes at a time one day, and then the next, we can’t read a sentence without drifting off.

Even if something’s really interesting or we really want to pay attention to it, it can be difficult to remember everything about it. It’s hard to follow conversations, especially with multiple people talking at once. Sometimes, we can even listen closely to every single word and not remember any of it.

Closely related to this is talkativeness, which usually means we’re carrying on a separate train of thought in our head while someone else is talking and think of something we need to say and say it without regard to what everyone else is talking about. I used to do this a lot more often, but I trained myself not to.

Fidgeting

It feels unnatural not to be doing things. Even if it’s as simple as tapping your foot or swinging your office chair around, we usually need to be doing something. Fidget spinners (remember that terrible trend?) are actually made to help us (and others, I know) have something to fidget with. I don’t have anything like that, so I usually finger with whatever I’m holding.

RSD

One thing that can tag along with ADHD is something called RSD, which stands for Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria. It’s an oversensitivity to anything possibly perceived as rejection or dislike. Even if it’s not, our brains can be extremely hypersensitive to this, and it can be misdiagnosed as social anxiety. While it is similar, it is not the same and cannot be treated like social anxiety.

Other Symptoms

ADHD is a lot more than not being able to pay attention. Some other symptoms are sensory overloads, memory problems (remembering something is hard enough, but remembering to do something? Good luck), inability to regulate emotions (and from that, random angry outbursts that die as quickly as they come), no concept of time, impulsiveness, difficulty explaining concepts (you have no idea how long I spent on this, trying to make sure my points were clear), and insomnia.

Your ADHD characters should have more symptoms than just a lack of concentration, but unless they have really severe ADHD, they won’t have every symptom. For example, I have pretty bad RSD, but I don’t get sensory overloads often, I only have mild insomnia, and I have a relatively good sense of time.

Hyperfocusing

Yes, we can focus sometimes. People with ADHD occasionally hyperfocus on things, making them seem neurotypical for a while. But it’s not the same. Hyperfocusing is a fickle thing. Sometimes, if you disturb it even the slightest amount, it’s gone. Other times, we can hyperfocus on the wrong thing and be completely unable to do anything else, and it takes a lot of effort to pull ourselves out of it.

Random things I’ve done, just to give you some examples:

Been in the shower and thought, have I already shampooed my hair? Then immediately after washing it just to be sure, forgot that I did it and thought the same thing again.

Was trying to say something about Superman and accidentally said Spiderman instead, just because they sound similar, and not realizing it until my friend looked at me weird.

Heard someone laughing behind me, looked and saw two friends who waved it off and said “don’t worry about it” and my brain automatically thinking “they’re laughing at me” even though they definitely weren’t.

Said something without thinking about it, and then tried to recall what I said. How did those sounds feel in my mouth? Because I can’t remember what I said but I can remember what my mouth felt like when I said it.

Okay, I think you get the point. I thought it would be better to show you rather than just talk about it. But remember that no two people will be exactly alike, and your characters will probably have a different set of symptoms than me or mine.

One last thing: please, please, write more ADHD characters. Around 4% of the adult population has it, and there’s not nearly enough representation of it in books. Mental illnesses in general are underrepresented, but this post is mainly focusing on ADHD.

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stressed2obsessed

4 years ago

Y'all ever just wanna cry but you can't 'cause you got too much shit to do?