eli5 – Can someone explain ADHD? Specifically the procrastination and inability to do “boring” tasks?
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Spot on description! Wanted to highlight the “passenger in your own brain” thing and differentiate between neurological interest and willful interest.
When people talk about ADHD having interest-based attention, most people hear that as being about willful interest. “You can’t focus on boring math homework, but you can focus on video games.” But I’ve lost out on things I really wanted (date night, video games I love, playing with our dog) for things my brain just decided to focus on (our budget spreadsheet, random research rabbit holes, video games I wasn’t enjoying).
Interest-based doesn’t have anything to do with your interests; it has to do with neurological interest, basically dopamine. My brain focuses on whatever it expects will give a dopamine hit, even if that’s not happening, rather than focusing on what i willfully want to focus on that I know will be rewarding in the short and long term.
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