I'm one of those who literally can't function in society. ADHD is definitely a spectrum disorder and the spectrum also varies within each individual mattering on the situation.

As such I'm not working in tech but I love technology and doing things related to it. I'm highly knowledgeable and highly competent.

I don't social media anymore. I'm out of shape but I'm not fat but I don't exercise so I'm not strong. I get decent sleep but I also do whatever I want with my schedule for the most part, but I get at least 6 hours of sleep and it's good sleep because I don't force myself to sleep when I can't sleep.

The biggest symptom for me with my ADHD isn't focus. It's not attention. I have both of those things with and without my medication probably more than anyone that I talk to on a day-to-day basis and that's because skills I've learned over time to change the way that I approach my environment.

The biggest issue I have with my ADHD is motivation. It's task starting. Even self-goal-related task starting.

The second biggest issue is frustration and anger and impulsivity.

Now you can get told your whole life when you have ADHD that you're not focused on things. And then you develop methods to make sure that you are focused on things... Then through no fault of your own it appears as though that you're not focused on things because you're not *doing things*. You have no fuel in the tank even on a good day to actually sit down and do something that you want to. You're not depressed. You're just not doing the thing.

Even the common medications available today don't address this. But one thing I will say is that stopping dopamine hits doesn't help this. Dopamine fasting is a fucking myth. You need dopamine when you get in situations like this because you're just already at a low baseline and you're desensitized and depriving yourself of more doesn't actually lower that needle on the compressor to use an audio analogy. So, most of the time what gets me out of this funk is to get frustrated at something external. If I'm watching someone play old games on twitch in the retro category maybe I'll get frustrated because they are using dosbox when they should be using PCEM and the accuracy that they are getting is wrong and they're showing the game wrong so then I get motivated to get up and actually play the game correctly while they're doing it wrong or something. Or I'll read a hardware review for some computer part and I get frustrated that they aren't benchmarking this shit correctly anymore and if I have the means to have that hardware then I'll try to start writing a review and doing testing methodology for it. Those are just some small examples. I say jokingly that spite is a motivator for me.

Edit: diagnosed at the age of two and medicated around that same year and I'm 34 now. Also a side diagnosis of extremely high functioning Asperger's.

Also some extra little things I guess...

The world frustratingly operates on delayed gratification and delayed punishment. And by delayed I mean more than immediate. This doesn't work for me. You aren't doing me a favor if I did something wrong and you don't tell me right then right there in a constructive manner. You also aren't helping me if you are withholding reward for longer than exactly when I did the right thing. I'm not saying I'm a spoiled little brat that needs things as soon as possible because everything is about me me me... I'm saying that my brain literally will not process these things the same way if you involve a Time component.

Edit again: anyone who thinks this long scrawling comment is the product of an amphetamined up brain. I just woke up and rolled over turned off the sleep tracking on my phone opened up edge went to hacker News as is my usual morning routine. I'm completely unmedicated right now. Most likely this comment wouldn't exist if I had my medication in my blood right now because I would have thought about what usefulness commenting might have and then thought better of it. IE I would have had less impulsivity. So I'm not saying this is medical advice but if when you take your Adderall for your new found out ADHD diagnosis and you find that when you take it that things are going quicker and you're doing more things possibly impulsively then... I'm just going to say that we don't have the same ADHD or you just don't have ADHD and you're just tweaking right now instead because when I take my 30 mg of instant release amphetamine salts I am extremely calm and extremely collected and I don't do half the stuff I usually do when I don't have my meds in my system.