this post was submitted on 06 Jun 2025
685 points (98.0% liked)

ADHD memes

10492 readers
764 users here now

ADHD Memes

The lighter side of ADHD


Rules

  1. No Party Pooping

Other ND communities

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] LavaPlanet@lemm.ee 10 points 6 days ago

I tried to explain to someone that our (adhd) brains are literally incapable of forming habits. They tried to remind me of all my bad habits, therefore I was wrong. And that was just too much for me to unpack and explain to them (they didn't know me or my habits, they were just talking about the bad habits that come along with adhd, but thats a whole other story)

But when someone told me habits are something you do without thinking about it. Like, at all.

I've never had a habit in my life. I have to think through every step of every task, no matter how many times I've done them before, nothing just runs of its own volition. And I could have done something literally 10,000 times and I'll still miss a vital step and screw it up.

That fun effect is called, executive dysfunction. Yay!

[–] 01189998819991197253@infosec.pub 8 points 6 days ago (1 children)

3 month habit? Those are rookie numbers lol. In one 3-day stint of a hospital stay, I once completely lost a habit I had developed over more than 5 years prior.

[–] lemsip@sh.itjust.works 4 points 5 days ago (1 children)

You started pissing the bed again, didn't you?

I mean... I'm not gonna say no, but I'm also not gonna lie

[–] Bahnd@lemmy.world 7 points 6 days ago (1 children)

It helps is it was a hyperfixation at one point. In my case, timelieness was a problem, around the same time I was learning programming (Ruby/Rails) and needed so odd time functions to handle multi-timezone inputs. I ended up with a minor fixation on UTC, multiple clocks set to it and a scary ability to do timezone offsets in my head. Bonus, im not late for shit anymore.

[–] DokPsy@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago

I just use a neurotic fear of being late :)

[–] 18107@aussie.zone 108 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I've had a habit for 10+ years. One day I just forgot, and it was weeks later when I thought "didn't I use to do something at this time?"

I never managed to get that habit back.

[–] Vitaly@feddit.uk 24 points 1 week ago (2 children)
[–] boredtortoise@lemm.ee 44 points 1 week ago (2 children)
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] WaterSword@discuss.tchncs.de 13 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] 18107@aussie.zone 15 points 1 week ago

I actually have forgotten and it's bothering me.

[–] fluffy@feddit.org 18 points 1 week ago

Well, it worked for 10+ years, that’s something, isn’t it?

[–] Coelacanth@feddit.nu 78 points 1 week ago (2 children)

If I don't engage with something basically every day I just forget it exists. Doesn't matter if it's a friend, a TV show I'm watching or working out every morning.

[–] Nay@feddit.nl 19 points 1 week ago

I feel validated...

[–] Whats_your_reasoning@lemmy.world 18 points 1 week ago (2 children)

The one exception is when you end up on a runaway train of thought.

You go for a walk and you see a seagull, which reminds you of the last time you went to the beach, which reminds you of coconuts, which reminds you of a silly cartoon you used to watch, which reminds you of a specific day in elementary school when a kid quoted an episode, and then you start to wonder what that kid's up to as an adult today.

And maybe you have the thought of, "I should reach out to them. I think they added me on Facebook like 15 years ago." But then a nearby car honks. You snap out of the thought and look around. You don't know what car honked, but you do spot a dog. It's an uncommon breed and you can't remember the name of it. You then spend the next minute or so either guessing the wrong breed or going down the alphabet, hoping to trigger the right name.

By the time you give up guessing and decide to look it up on your phone, you've completely forgotten about that kid from elementary school. The thought has vanished back into the void whence it came.

[–] Szyler@lemmy.world 3 points 5 days ago

This happens all the time to me. I've made a game of it, that when I land at the end of a thought spiral I work my way backwards to figure out how the hell i ended up at something weird.

[–] Tilgare@lemmy.world 10 points 1 week ago

GET OUT OF MY HEAD.

[–] BJHanssen@lemmy.world 70 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Half the problem with autism and adhd both is difficulty with habit formation and maintenance.

You don’t need habits. You need routines with reliable contextual triggers. They’ll fail from time to time and you will just have to be okay with that, and try to figure out exactly what made them fail when they do so maybe you can fix it going forward. But it will still occasionally fail.

You can’t make a sieve not leak without making it not a sieve.

[–] Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world 41 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Triggers are the real key. Like needing to use the bathroom in the morning. Then hang a habit of taking meds right after. You have to look at the habits you already have, and connect new things to that. You can also build new habits, but if they are forced, they won't have a high success rate. I built a habit of looking back into a space I am walking out of when not in my home. I built it on the anxiety of forgetting something. So it stuck. I try to build a habit of letting others talk, but it has no trigger, so it hasn't stuck.

[–] BarrelAgedBoredom@lemm.ee 15 points 1 week ago (2 children)

That's why I have my meds, deodorant, shoes, hair brush, and hair ties on/near my coffee table. I make my coffee every morning, sit at the couch and (except brushing my teeth) get ready for the day. I let my brain put things where it'll actually use them.

I just moved a few weeks ago. At my last place all of that was in my kitchen. It's weird how moving changes where my brain wants to do stuff

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 53 points 1 week ago (3 children)

I hate this. You think you’ve got a good streak going and have been doing well for weeks and weeks, then something interrupts the pattern for a day or three…and it’s like trying to start from scratch all over again.

[–] KeenFlame@feddit.nu 3 points 6 days ago

I know but then it's so easy to give up, and even if you don't, the next time something slightly disturbs the balance, such as it being Thursday, you need to achieve a monumental life changing effort again just to do the exact same thing you did for months..? And the crazy thing is that even experts on the subject don't seem to understand going "it'll get easier just keep at it" my sister in Christmas, I am fourty freaking years old I don't think I'll suddenly be able to not randomly forget brushing my teeth

[–] CucumberFetish@lemm.ee 22 points 1 week ago

Best part is when there isn't anything that interrupts, but you just forget the habit

[–] Crankenstein@lemmy.world 15 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It's so fucking hard.

Life is just a loop of scrambling to be stable, struggling to maintain it, then inevitably falling back to square one when something knocks you out of the routine.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] ExcessShiv@lemmy.dbzer0.com 30 points 1 week ago

"Making it a habit" is just a big lie to fix any problem even for NTs. I don't have ADHD and I will drop something I've done consistently for 6+ months in a heartbeat if I miss a single occurrence, and then it takes conscious effort for weeks to get back to it.

[–] trash@leminal.space 20 points 1 week ago (1 children)

My mom used to say this type of shit to me all the time. She also refused to get me tested or anything so there's that too.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] applebusch@lemmy.blahaj.zone 19 points 1 week ago (2 children)
[–] ArrrborDAY@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 6 days ago

Precious habits, yes, the rituals we does, yesss, over and over, they can hurt us, or make our lives better, precious!

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 16 points 1 week ago (8 children)

The problem is that it takes someone else to remind you to do the thing often enough and with enough impetus to make it a habit

Which will only last until the first time you're sick and can't, and then that habit is gone

[–] sharkfucker420@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 week ago (7 children)

I played guitar for 3 years until I cut the tip of my finger off with a mandolin. Literally haven't touched it since

[–] DrSteveBrule@mander.xyz 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Does mandolin have more than one meaning? I know it as type of lute instrument, but I can't imagine someone cutting theirself on one.

[–] sharkfucker420@lemmy.ml 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

In the US atleast mandolins are also a cooking utensil that creates thin slices of vegetables by sliding them across a flat surface with a blade attached.

[–] DrSteveBrule@mander.xyz 1 points 6 days ago

Wow I even own one!

load more comments (6 replies)
load more comments (7 replies)
[–] Darkcoffee@sh.itjust.works 11 points 1 week ago
[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 10 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Idk how it works for NTs, but unless the thing tickles my brain the right way, it's not going to become a habit just through wishful thinking no matter how often I push myself to do it.

[–] ChexMax@lemmy.world 19 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Even if something tickles my brain it still doesn't become a habit. I genuinely don't think, in my 30s, with dozens of daily systems and all things considered a damn organized life, that I have a single habit. Everything I do is painstaking. Everything is conscious thought. I do laundry every single day and I have to think through the steps. Brushing my teeth is a slog. Figuring out what to eat is so difficult I often skip it despite just eating the same things over and over. If I don't set alarms, I will forget to feed my kid. Alarms for vitamins that I'm not allowed to dismiss until the vitamin is swallowed. I am struggling to think of a single thing that is automatic. I have to think about opening the blinds every day. I have to think about turning off the lights at night (I think about the consequences of leaving them on to decide which lights I leave on. Every night). Nothing happens out of habit.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›