Gregor Vukasinovič
ADHD
Or, when living in the moment goes wrong. Depending on who you ask, some 50 to 75 percent of people on the Autistic spectrum also meet the criteria of ADHD. I got my Asperger's diagnosis at 16 years old, seen a variety of mental health institutions since then, some even specialising in autism, and yet nobody ever got the idea to check for that. I eventually diagnosed my self with (adult) ADHD, or perhaps just ADD, close to twenty years later, in my mid thirties. I guess it's just the German curse: If you're not doing so well, you'll be taken care of by absolute world-class experts - as long as you're a car, or at least some other piece of machinery. As a malfunctioning human... not so much. And why would anyone be malfunctioning in the first place, we're among the greatest countries in the world here! Like... heff you seen se Autobahn? It's gorgeous, no?! Well, I'm getting carried away again, but then, in this context I guess that's sort of the point...
Anyway. I like metaphors. Sometimes things that lean toward the abstract end of the spectrum, and psychology certainly is one of them, are difficult to explain to people that have more immediate worries - which is more or less everyone these days. The brain is similar enough to a computer that many ailments that can befall it, have a close enough analogy in cyber. For ADHD, I couldn't find one, and I suspect many people don't know too much about cyber either. Instead, picture forming a train of thought, except the wagons all have couplers made from cheap plastic, that can't bear any load. That super heavy Big Boy locomotive of an autistic superbrain you have there - that ain't gonna move them an inch if they don't stick together. Especially not if you're trying to couple it to a wagon that, while it may indeed be the correct one for this train, is not even on the same track as of yet. Or, imagine each thought was a brick, and putting them together to form something coherent, is the equivalent of building a wall. Only, in this case, the bricks are made from jello. Squishy as butter, and also slippery as a fish. No matter how level and solid a foundation you have, you won't get any far. In fact, my idea for the picture was a failed attempt at stacking those bricks to form a wall, but that you could tell at least tried to go somewhere before it got all warped and wobbly. Not a chance on earth though; I couldn't even get a second layer to stay upright-ish, let alone a third.
And that's not only your own thoughts, but also those brought in from the outside. In practice that looks like, having to watch a movie like 10 times to grasp every scene in context of the rest of the film. "Wait, that same person who said this also said that earlier on?" Same with reading lyrics, poetry, things like that, always reaching epiphanies that you could've had five years ago already, the ingredients all were there. And don't even get me started about reading an actual full-on book. I'd love to, and have started several that I found interesting, but have since come to the conclusion, it's pointless.
Also, I didn't know jello is little more than water and what felt like an awful, not to say obscene, amount of sugar. Yikes!
ADHD
Or, when living in the moment goes wrong. Depending on who you ask, some 50 to 75 percent of people on the Autistic spectrum also meet the criteria of ADHD. I got my Asperger's diagnosis at 16 years old, seen a variety of mental health institutions since then, some even specialising in autism, and yet nobody ever got the idea to check for that. I eventually diagnosed my self with (adult) ADHD, or perhaps just ADD, close to twenty years later, in my mid thirties. I guess it's just the German curse: If you're not doing so well, you'll be taken care of by absolute world-class experts - as long as you're a car, or at least some other piece of machinery. As a malfunctioning human... not so much. And why would anyone be malfunctioning in the first place, we're among the greatest countries in the world here! Like... heff you seen se Autobahn? It's gorgeous, no?! Well, I'm getting carried away again, but then, in this context I guess that's sort of the point...
Anyway. I like metaphors. Sometimes things that lean toward the abstract end of the spectrum, and psychology certainly is one of them, are difficult to explain to people that have more immediate worries - which is more or less everyone these days. The brain is similar enough to a computer that many ailments that can befall it, have a close enough analogy in cyber. For ADHD, I couldn't find one, and I suspect many people don't know too much about cyber either. Instead, picture forming a train of thought, except the wagons all have couplers made from cheap plastic, that can't bear any load. That super heavy Big Boy locomotive of an autistic superbrain you have there - that ain't gonna move them an inch if they don't stick together. Especially not if you're trying to couple it to a wagon that, while it may indeed be the correct one for this train, is not even on the same track as of yet. Or, imagine each thought was a brick, and putting them together to form something coherent, is the equivalent of building a wall. Only, in this case, the bricks are made from jello. Squishy as butter, and also slippery as a fish. No matter how level and solid a foundation you have, you won't get any far. In fact, my idea for the picture was a failed attempt at stacking those bricks to form a wall, but that you could tell at least tried to go somewhere before it got all warped and wobbly. Not a chance on earth though; I couldn't even get a second layer to stay upright-ish, let alone a third.
And that's not only your own thoughts, but also those brought in from the outside. In practice that looks like, having to watch a movie like 10 times to grasp every scene in context of the rest of the film. "Wait, that same person who said this also said that earlier on?" Same with reading lyrics, poetry, things like that, always reaching epiphanies that you could've had five years ago already, the ingredients all were there. And don't even get me started about reading an actual full-on book. I'd love to, and have started several that I found interesting, but have since come to the conclusion, it's pointless.
Also, I didn't know jello is little more than water and what felt like an awful, not to say obscene, amount of sugar. Yikes!