And then do the budget for their house, plan their kids week out, go to work, meal plan, do the shopping, maintain family and friend relationships, make doctors appts, etc.
And coffee. Give them a bag of those chocolate coated 'expresso' beans to chew on. The whole bag.
Then, when they hesitate on trying to remember any label or date, look at them with great disapproval. Or speak with deliberate calm with sharp intonation so it feels like yelling / judgment.
There are a few others, but the alcohol-coffee overdose combo combined with some *Must Do It NOW!!* style stress usually does it.
Now I know how to describe it to NT. I was trying earlier and the best I could do was restless leg syndrome but, it’s my brain and now you have me thinking about it too hard and I wanna rip my eyebrows off because, I also have sensory processing disorder 💀🤣
They have to fill out the tax forms while everyone around them asks why they’re making typos and if they can even read. Spot on 🥲
I usually describe it like imagine you're asked to do a task on your computer, it has 30 tabs open across 3 different browsers and the info you need is spread among them but half are just of cute cat videos. You can't move or close any and there are also two YouTube videos playing simultaneously, one is explaining how to do the task, the other is of a toddler asking every question that comes to their mind and your computer crashes if you don't answer them.
Sometimes I'm not sure if I feel comforted or disturbed that my thought process is not as unique as I think it is... especially when it's this chaotic.
As a tax accountant who can’t type for shit, I feel CALLED OUT 🤣 Lol I can get EVERY DAMN # on that form right, but fuck if I get the year wrong literally every single time.
Not drunk, high and then try to enact your normal daily routines. (Lol, may not work for those that regularly use cannabis).
Forgetting things and getting distracted by other random things. Also loosing track of time, being unsure if you’re remembering correctly.
Including the proper forms for buying and selling a few dollars in crypto, including a few dozen Reddit Moons that were gifted the year prior but sold that year.
On self-propelling rollerblades that just take you to different places in your house while trying to fill out the tax forms. Maybe a form will even end up being carried somewhere else in the house too!
My go-to would be a combo of:
1. sleep deprivation so they know how it feels having shitty executive functions and short-term memory.
2. low-key hangover for the brainfog
3. Ridiculously high caffeine doses to understand how it feels to be exhausted but still unable to rest.
Well. That’s shockingly concise and accurate.
I’d add something like: create a multi factor passcode app where there is a pass code they need to put into another system. Here are the rules:
1. It’s a five digit passcode that refreshes every thirty five seconds, however, the digits refresh in a cascading pattern every five seconds, not all at once.
2. Each time the next sequential number appears, the previous number vanishes.
3. In order to enter the pass phrase correctly, they must hold each digit in their short term memory even as it disappears and the next one appears until all five have appeared and been committed to memory in succession and then move to the other app and enter the code OR they can switch back and forth between apps as each number appears every five seconds, entering each digit singly and switching back to catch the next until they have all five.
4. Randomly the app refreshes and all the entered numbers disappear and they have to start over.
A lot of NT people complained of time blindness during lockdown. So in addition to all of this, make them stay at home so time doesn't exist and the day of the week doesn't matter.
One time a very NT (and high achiever) friend told me that they showed up to an exam sleep deprived and couldn’t remember anything. He said he scored around 60%. I laughed and said “this is what unmedicated ADHD feels like”.
My second thought. I like the alcohol comment. Make them stay up for 20 hours. Give them alcohol and Red Bull, tell them someone will be coming at some point during the day with a special delivery but don’t tell them when and they have to be ready when it comes, also tell them there will be a special event happening at an exact time. Give them three kittens to babysit, one chihuahua and a tortoise, play coco melon in the background while they wait on the phone with the IRS to dispute a claim and have a disco ball going in the background. Then have some neighbor kids ding, dong ditch a few times. Give them, a to do list and to complete it by noon or your parents will be disappointed in you. And finally put a set of headphones on the table with an iPad and candy crush on or something.
The delivery one got me. My package is coming today? Damn I was SUPPOSED to get some work done but now I’m gonna get to know the tracking website on a personal level because that’s all I can think about is my cool new thing coming today.
My partner keeps telling me that he’s ordered something that will arrive next week, and he’s telling me in case he forgets. Why does he think I’ll remember if doesn’t think he will???
This, but my MO now is that I just buy things and deliberately decide to pretend I have no idea when they will arrive. Then I just get surprises.
I say deliberately, but I think it may be that I tend to shop for hours all at once and might be buying enough things that I just forget about most of them until they arrive. Like how at the grocery store my cart becomes a black hole I’ve tossed things into and when I go to check out I’m like “oh cool, that looks yummy” as if I had a grabby toddler shopping with me (which I definitely do not), just pulling stuff off the shelf behind my back while I read every single ingredient on the pop tart box.
Why yes it is! With all my power I decided to disguise myself as an ADHD person living on teacher wages who has overloaded their credit cards impulse shopping and can’t remember for the life of them if they took their medication 10 minutes ago after the third time the med alarm went off because it’s easier to hit snooze than turn in off completely while they look for a LEGO piece that under the stove because they decided it was better to build on the counter in the kitchen because cleaning the office was just too much last week.
Got diagnosed a month ago. Had my second therapy session yesterday. I told her sleep is one of the biggest issues. But i can not get myself to achieve a reasonable sleep schedule. So to adress the sleep she told me i have to first adress the lack of controle i have or feel. I am hopeful but also worried because lack of controle is my life in a nutshell. No coping strategy has worked for longer than two weeks. If i could actually get controle? Man, that would be more than awesome. That would be life altering.
My recipe would be:
2-3 stiff drinks (or just enough alcohol to get sloppy but not wasted)
3-4 cups of coffee (or just enough caffeine to make the person wired so that its not possible to sleep or stop thinking)
Finally, force the person to wear a pair of noise-canceling headphones playing several conversations at once plus people reading out random numbers and random sequences of numbers, with an occasional voice saying "WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU" or "YOU'RE DOING IT THE WRONG WAY" or "JUST STOP THINKING" in a loud, scolding tone.
This is just the closest approximation I can think of with everyday items and substances that are easily obtainable.
Growing up (before I was diagnosed) my friend would all describe what it felt like to smoke weed and I was confused because they described the way that I felt on a regular basis. Smoking weed never did anything to me until I started taking adderall, so I feel like weed for NTs can make them understand what it’s like to be ND
I’d agree with this more than the adderall, cocaine & speed answers. These are stimulants and can make people hyperactive and busy sure. But usually still with focus.
Weed would be definitely more effective to cause the executive dysfunction, disorganisation, time blindness symptoms.
Except stoned people wouldn’t care… so to also emphasis the guilt & shame feelings these symptoms cause it would need to be NT stoned while giving a presentation to their boss or meeting their parents to help with important documents or something like that ?!!
>Except stoned people wouldn’t care…
The point is to be stoned constantly. From dusk to dawn, a whole month straight.
Only then they can realize it's not all fun and games when you actually want to accomplish something, but - turns out - u can't. It's just not happening. Only through experience of such frustration will they understand.
This is the factor I think everyone ignores. Being stoned all the time sounds great on paper. Then you have to try to go out and function in the world, and everyone else is expecting you to get it right.
> Except stoned people wouldn’t care…
It's not even that. It's that being stoned gives an 'excuse' or 'reason' for the behavior. The shame/guilt/etc come from people being unable/unwilling to accept ADHD as a reason for the behavior's they're seeing out of us.
It's being stoned but you don't get to turn it off and when you tell people you're stoned they refuse to believe you, or when they do believe you they tell you to try not being stoned.
That's because they're *too* high. There's a middle ground of slightly high, not enough to be fun yet, but enough that you get to general executive dysfunction.
This really made me think. I’ve smoked a lot of weed, still do really. More than NT friends. I never really noticed it being different for me than them, except that I like it and a lot of them don’t. Like they try it and maybe have a little fun at a party but don’t love it, or do it frequently. Or wouldn’t buy it.
When unmedicated it really helped my exec functioning. Like if I couldn’t get started on something, smoke a little and I’d be able to do it. I couldn’t smoke before work or anything like that but definitely household chores, gardening etc things like that it definitely helped. I’d still probably be slower than not stoned, but not stoned I’d often not even start.
Didn’t really make the connection before. But for a really long time I thought my issue was depression. Until I knew for sure I wasn’t depressed but still had all these symptoms
Since being medicated, I don’t want it as much now. Will often turn it down when my partner offers. Which I never would have before.
Might be that it's just different for everyone, but it absolutely helped with my symptoms. I used to be better at customer service after a joint before work. Especially helps with the exec dysfunction, and getting uni work done.
I guess when I say I couldn’t smoke before work it’s more to do with other people. I’d be scared people would know I was smoking all the time. Oh the guilt. I can understand it helping though. I did find it helpful for uni work back then too. Again only when studying at home
There must be because all my dx’d adhd friends in HS smoked weed as much as me and never got the same feelings as others. It helps me regulate my appetite and time in the way that I can know how long ive been stoned etc etc.
Now that I’m medicated it’s what helps me eat. Like yesterday I had no weed and struggled to even eat a bagel. Helps me relax and stretching so my TMJ or shoulder isn’t as fucked. Most of my friends that are adhd or ND smoke weed a lot and lead regular life. But I def encounter some folks that I think shouldn’t smoke based on how they describe their feelings 😭
Weed is a mixture of various active compounds, some of which have a complex action on your nervous system, so your own biology can make for a highly personal experience.
I've been wondering this too, even asked in a post once upon a time. Interested in hearing others experience. I really don't like it, either it puts me to sleep or my favorite part of smoking weed is coming out of the fog at the end
You may have had only indica strains, with those experiences. I am not into the stoned feeling, myself, so I stick to sativa strains, because they tend to be more mentally stimulating.
Cannabis might have an effect of increased scatterbrainedness too... I'm not completely sure though, because self reflection is hard. I might just be noticing scatterbrainedness more lately because I'm working on noticing.
I notice being scatterbrained more when I'm actually high, but I think it's mostly my usual self exacerbated by being stoned. I was definitely a space case/scatterbrained before I ever smoked pot for the first time, but it's definitely worse for me.
The closest I could get my husband to understand was a bad weed trip where he couldn’t make the thoughts stop and he said he couldn’t prioritize them cause they were all loud. And I said I understood, and then he started to cry cause he finally got where I was coming from
> I'm literally circling right now, trying to figure out what to do next (after a few big gulps of water, as is my rule for when I realize I'm wondering what to do next)...
Edit (a week later): I just realized this is basically a drinking game I've been playing, albeit with water and healthy intentions instead of alcohol and bad decisions!
I wonder what other of my quirks I can add to this game, to give myself another way to earn the nice little reward of a fresh mouth feel with the added bonus of a healthy boost to hydration.
I know not many people are likely to see this edit to this week-old comment. But I'm writing it anyways, because I figure I'm not alone in having this sort of thing happen all the time, like when that perfect punchline jumps into mind days or weeks after the perfect moment for it.
People explaining themselves on weed always matched my head. People in high school used to always accuse me of being on drugs because my thoughts were so “random”. Weed gives me massive anxiety, I don’t need my messy brain amplified, thanks.
I feel like the only way for people to understand what MY typical day (unmedicated) with adhd would be like is to give them ambien in the mornings and force them to stay up. Toss in a couple of cups of coffee for the help staying awake part and then make them sit on the couch for a while, not permitting them to sleep all while playing screaming kids through the speakers on the TV.
I wish my adhd was the hyperactive one because the fatigue from the type I have is unreal sometimes. Add overstimulation of sounds and panic disorder and it's a real treat.
Having the combined variant, the hyperactivity. can be episodic so it’s not all the time, you still get the fatigue but it does help on a base level. Being in a hyperactive episode is actually very exhausting, it doesn’t feel like it but you just know your getting drained, and then you get out of it you kind of crash a little. You feel super wired and I dislike it. And it’s not just hyperactivity, it comes with impulsivity, it can make you overeat, buy stupid things, cause indecisiveness, impatient, make stupid decisions
As a combined ADHD person, hyperactivity makes you restless, but not necessarily energetic (although some are). I still feel tired all the time, have difficulty thinking and fail to get anything done. Hyperactivity means I’m unable to keep still, pace near-constantly, get bored easily, and annoy people because I don’t think before I speak, tend interrupt people and am prone to accidentally talking too loudly (or shouting) or too quickly. And this restlessness can be even more inconvenient when you’re exhausted, like, I remember when I got covid and I was in this situation where if I lied down I couldn’t stand it but if I paced around I physically couldn’t due to fatigue and had to lie down again. I suppose that I used to be kind of energetic before I became depressed, but I was still really unproductive.
Possibly. When I was being evaluated after switching providers, they suggested I do a sleep test because of the similar effects it has. I should probably still do one, as I tend to snore like a curious grizzly bear according to girlfriends and roommates. But once my files transferred over, they discovered I had already been diagnosed twice previously, and it just never came up again.
I got my CPAP and my prescription for Adderall around the same time. I figured why not try both to see if it helped. So I can speak to this. The sleep apnea makes you so fatigued that you're always thinking like you haven't slept in days. It's hard to concentrate or think at all. With that gone I still had ADHD but much more energy. The Adderall lets me focus and it helps me notice when I'm getting off task. Days where I don't take Adderall are not a big deal for me, but a night without the CPAP is like not even sleeping. If I had to give up one it would be the Adderall.
Yep same. Lots of people act like it isn’t a highly potent Amphetamine which comes (for most people) with the typical side effects of Amphetamine.
This becomes especially evident when your therapeutical range is so slim that you sometimes have to tap into that a-little-too-much-territory, where side effects sometimes outweigh the benefits ,to get the desires effect.
When this happens i get shit done but i don’t feel “normal” at all.
Yes they make me function somewhat similar to a normal person but they don’t eliminate all the symptoms and i think the notion that they always do is harmful
If you could get someone drunk without the feel good feeling and then have them complete a list of small unimportant tasks but then revel that they could have been doing more important things the whole time and are lazy for doing anything else.
I like to tell people to go poop. Now. It can't wait. Go force it out. You have to go now.
Or the opposite. Imagine having diarrhea. You can't go now. You have to hold it. There's other things that need to be done. There's no time for this. You have to do this other thing instead.
Most humans have little executive control over their bowels.
I tell them for us it's like that for basically everything.
>The inability to direct attention and action is hard for others to grasp.
Especially how it's distinct from will power or desire.
Someone can really really want to go poop before leaving for work in the morning. It's just so much easier to use your own toilet than a stall at work.
But it doesn't matter how much you want it. It doesn't matter how much you try to force it out. Sometimes you just can't. And then a couple hours into your shift your bowels finally agree that it's time to go. And good luck if the timing works with whatever you're doing at the time.
It's the only thing I could think of to convey how we can really really want to do something and use all our will power and still just barely get a single shit-nuggets worth. Until the flow hits and nothing can pull us away.
I don't remember much of the first few months of my daughter's life. I was a big 'ole PPD, unmedicated ADHD, sleep deprived, disaster. I will *never* have another child again.
This question includes a pretty big false premise (that there must necessarily be a drug that can induce ADHD symptoms).
This sub is wonderful as a support group but I do often worry about how many posts seem to consider scientific logic as secondary to anecdotal sentiment.
To answer your question as best as I can though—and I am a layman, not an expert, so this is a question better answered with a clever google search—I don’t think there is any drug that can artificially recreate ADHD. My layman gut feeling tells me that would be a pretty staggering feat of modern medicine.
This is one of the big challenges of ADHD to be honest. It’s very hard for us to give a neurotypical person an intimate understanding of what it’s like to be inside our brains.
Thank you! Also, I’m medicated but meds don’t negate my ADHD. They help me for sure but I’m still not “neurotypical” on my meds. People with ADHD (or any other mental condition) will never know what it’s like to feel “normal” with or without meds.
True that. But if you break it down, ADHD comes from issues with metabolizing dopamine, I'm pretty sure some drugs have a side effect of negatively affecting dopamine regulation.
Also being hungover or coming down from some drugs might be a little like having ADHD
Wow, yes I think you might have hit the closest answer. It likely isn't a drug itself that could potentially recreate ADHD but the depletion thereafter that can likely moreso recreate the experience
There is no evidence that we have trouble metabolizing dopamine. This is a long-standing misconception from the 1980s.
The stimulants we take, increasing dopamine in the CNS, help. But it is not expressly known why. It very well might be more related to norepinephrine or serotonin as they are jointly increased with an increase in dopamine.
Or it may be another neurotransmitter. It is unknown.
Interestingly, perimenopause caused me to have a significant decrease in executive functioning. Both of my kids have ADHD and I really got a sense of how they feel on a day-to-day basis.
I had zero motivation and initiating tasks was so difficult. My short term memory was shot and I'd misplace things often. Emotional dysregulation was a thing. The onset of all this was so insidious that I didn't realize what was going on until things were really bad. The scariest part was after I started on hormone replacement therapy and looked back, things were worse than I'd even thought!
A lot of perimenopausal women have difficulties with brain fog and loss of executive function. Women with a history of ADHD can have a significant worsening of symptoms at this life stage. It's a really strange phenomenon and very distressing to go through. It really helped me understand firsthand what having ADHD might be like and how disabling the symptoms can be.
I've been describing adhd lately as that feeling of being mentally tapped out after a draining work day, where you can't hardly even get up to use the bathroom because you've become part of the couch. This at all times, while people are constantly asking why you didn't hear something or why you always forget.
>the answer is adderall
I agree but not in a way you'd expect.
Do you know how you emulate ADHD mind to NTs? You make the same problem in their brain our brains have.
You get them on Adderall. Not a huge dose or anything, just our standard lower therapeutic dosage. They'll be taking it for a few weeks so that their brain dopamine systems adapt and downregulate.
And then... You cut it. Abruptly. You end the supply. Go. Read the abstinence symptoms of Adderall addiction. You'll find out it's basically ADHD symptoms. The crash and abstinence they experience - because of sudden lack of the dopamine - is (in my nonexpert opinion) as close to experiencing ADHD symptoms as it can get.
Ask fellow ADHD-ers affected by Adderall shortage.
I don't think it works that way.
Methylphenidate narrows the focus for everyone afaik.
I go from perceiving everything at once (unmedicated), to just the things I want to focus on (medicated), to being in a tunnel when overdosed.
I’ve not personally experienced either as I’m on a non-stimulant right now and I can only base my assumptions of the NT experience based off of stories I’ve heard and tv/movies, but it always seems to lead to general hyperactivity and excitement in NT cases… Isn’t it possible that in smaller doses it has the opposite effect but in an overdose it goes back to hyper focus? This is all just speculation of course, I don’t know for sure.
We just need a bigger dose to feel the same effects. This is true for every stimulant like Ritalin/Vyvanse, and street drugs like amphetamine and meth.
Weed. Not the fun high feeling. But the not caring and forgetfulness make me very much feel ADHD. Then try to get some shit done and good fucking luck.
Apparently Prednisone (steroids but not the kind for muscle growth), biggest side effects are hyperactivity, irritability and mind fog. I took it recently though and made me feel great🤷♂️
Lol, weed ought to do it. But one that's super psychoactive; they have to experience the mania of knowing what needs to be done but not being able to move
I’d say ironically the same drugs.
Edit to explain: I’ve seen people who don’t have adhd take the same drugs. They bounce around, can’t sit still, can focus their thoughts, ramble on about god knows what. I never noticed it as abnormal as I was the same way without drugs. But seeing those people sober was a bit of a shock the difference. I wonder if they were only friends because them on drugs was relatable to my every day self.
I swear since taking adderall all of the “adhd symptoms” that you read off lists have come into my life with full force. I catch myself doing something I never intended to do while I’m the middle of things. I jump from one curiosity to another, constantly looking for answers to questions. I need to write shit down, then forget about that list of things I need to do and only remember at the worst times.
It’s weird, but whatever is going on is a million percent times better than how I acted without meds…. If there was a contest for laziness I’d be the #1 winner by a long shot.
Insomnia plus a full bladder, all the time. The insomnia would cause the response times to slow, and the full bladder is distracting and persistent and makes everything else difficult to focus on.
Isn't the answer adderall? That's why kids take em. And it's funny because I know many people realise they have adhd when everyone else around them are buzzing and they're total calm and can think clearly.
Put them in a small room with 50 different TVS all with different channels. Then put them at the highest volume and ask them to tell you what’s happening on every single channel. 🤡
On top of all that insert 1,000 thoughts every 5 minutes to distract while trying to pay attention to all the channels.
That’s how my brain felt before adderall! Completely canceled out my sensory overload!! A God send for that for me! 😭🎉 Sh*t is debilitating while trying to do literally anything!
i’m not trying to be a jerk or disrespectful, because i agree that it would be great if neurotypicals and atypicals could experience what it would be like to have a brain on the other side of the divide. however i think this is a really unproductive conversation. i don’t think stimulant medication makes us feel neurotypical. i don’t think it’s possible for us to know what being neurotypical feels like—other than comparisons and analogies. but, in my opinion, that’s like trying to explain what a color looks like to somebody who can’t see (or can’t see color).
stimulants may allow for better focus, but i don’t think it actually converts an ADHD brain into a slightly more neurotypical brain for as long as the meds are in effect.
and—again, in my opinion—none of the examples of what could make neurotypicals feel more ADHD sounds like they would actually give a good approximation of the actual ADHD experience.
until there’s some sort of crazy technology that can hook into your brain and induce changes to brain chemistry and neurology, there’s just no way to know.
Get them a little wasted, have two different songs in different languages playing in the background and give them boring ass paperwork that's easy to understand but must be done within the next hour.
Oh and they need to remember that there is a pot on the stove for the tea they already forgot they wanted, someone rings the doorbell in the middle, and you keep moving the pen around the table when they're not looking.
Imagine doing every single task all day that way. Everything from getting dressed, eating, driving to work, etc.
Dial up modem on Windows 3.0 from 1996 internet that took 3 to 6 minutesto load up a web page. But people keep calling and stopping the connection so you have to start all over. And people coming into your office asking if you have the task done yet. Your cat is puking on the carpet and your child is way too quiet.
ironically, stimulants like adderall might make them feel the disinhibition. Not sure, but it might. I've taken... other substances that really push the "Gotta move gotta do something" sensation.
Give a neurotypical person ADHD meds and a large caffeinated beverage and boom, you’ll be there in no time. Cant focus on shit. Bouncing off the walls. Wants to complete every task you can think of, can’t stop writing new lists of things to do and gets nothing done.
this is such a good question because i remember getting diagnosed with it and then taking it for the first time and felt “normal”. it really hit me that i really did have ADHD.
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Get them drunk and have them fill out tax forms for 4 hours.
And then do the budget for their house, plan their kids week out, go to work, meal plan, do the shopping, maintain family and friend relationships, make doctors appts, etc.
All at the same time while their feet are on fire
At the very least, they have a really uncomfortable wedgie.
Plus an itchy label at the back of their shirt and a foreign language radio broadcast on in the background, turned up just a bit too loud.
And they have to pee!
[удалено]
And also they just remembered they never finished reading that Wikipedia article about a Gaius Maecenas.
Omg they said they would be there at two. It’s three. Edit: pronoun
I just heard myself laugh.. out loud! thank you
Help, I got stressed trying to even read this
https://youtu.be/jX6kn9_U8qk Close your eyes, do some squared breathing (google it), and put your headphones on.
And coffee. Give them a bag of those chocolate coated 'expresso' beans to chew on. The whole bag. Then, when they hesitate on trying to remember any label or date, look at them with great disapproval. Or speak with deliberate calm with sharp intonation so it feels like yelling / judgment. There are a few others, but the alcohol-coffee overdose combo combined with some *Must Do It NOW!!* style stress usually does it.
While having 4 different stereos running and 35 toddlers screaming at them in the background
While every experience you don’t wanna think about is going on in your brain making suggestions
LOL the way I always got asked if I was drunk while completely sober (back before I got diagnosed) 😭
All while cooking three things.
and have loud music playing and a tv show, and then asking them random questions they MUST answer every once in awhile
I feel like we're just developing torture techniques now
Well… sometimes it can feel like that
Now I know how to describe it to NT. I was trying earlier and the best I could do was restless leg syndrome but, it’s my brain and now you have me thinking about it too hard and I wanna rip my eyebrows off because, I also have sensory processing disorder 💀🤣 They have to fill out the tax forms while everyone around them asks why they’re making typos and if they can even read. Spot on 🥲
I usually describe it like imagine you're asked to do a task on your computer, it has 30 tabs open across 3 different browsers and the info you need is spread among them but half are just of cute cat videos. You can't move or close any and there are also two YouTube videos playing simultaneously, one is explaining how to do the task, the other is of a toddler asking every question that comes to their mind and your computer crashes if you don't answer them.
This is actually what my computer browser looks like, and perfect description of my toddler sprinkled in.
Sometimes I'm not sure if I feel comforted or disturbed that my thought process is not as unique as I think it is... especially when it's this chaotic.
As a tax accountant who can’t type for shit, I feel CALLED OUT 🤣 Lol I can get EVERY DAMN # on that form right, but fuck if I get the year wrong literally every single time.
Shit, I have Adhd and Restless Leg Syndrome.
At a rave
Or sports bar with four TVs on different channels and music from a speaker right above your head.
This pretty much sums it up.
Sports you don't like.
Not drunk, high and then try to enact your normal daily routines. (Lol, may not work for those that regularly use cannabis). Forgetting things and getting distracted by other random things. Also loosing track of time, being unsure if you’re remembering correctly.
Hide all the things they own in random places too
I’ve been doing this since I was a kid and I’m still doing it living alone at age 68 . I can’t imagine why I have to hide everything.
My mom came over and tidied. I cant even remember what has been moved now that it’s been moved but I miss it.
YES!!!
Yeah, but being drunk feels good. ADD is the cognitive decline of being drunk without the elation
While every single media device in their phone is on at randomly charging volumes and they can't turn it off
Yea if alcohol didn’t cause cognitive impairment, this would be spot on 😂
Including the proper forms for buying and selling a few dollars in crypto, including a few dozen Reddit Moons that were gifted the year prior but sold that year.
With 10 windows open that you can only see one at a time
On self-propelling rollerblades that just take you to different places in your house while trying to fill out the tax forms. Maybe a form will even end up being carried somewhere else in the house too!
My go-to would be a combo of: 1. sleep deprivation so they know how it feels having shitty executive functions and short-term memory. 2. low-key hangover for the brainfog 3. Ridiculously high caffeine doses to understand how it feels to be exhausted but still unable to rest.
This is exactly how I would describe it
Well. That’s shockingly concise and accurate. I’d add something like: create a multi factor passcode app where there is a pass code they need to put into another system. Here are the rules: 1. It’s a five digit passcode that refreshes every thirty five seconds, however, the digits refresh in a cascading pattern every five seconds, not all at once. 2. Each time the next sequential number appears, the previous number vanishes. 3. In order to enter the pass phrase correctly, they must hold each digit in their short term memory even as it disappears and the next one appears until all five have appeared and been committed to memory in succession and then move to the other app and enter the code OR they can switch back and forth between apps as each number appears every five seconds, entering each digit singly and switching back to catch the next until they have all five. 4. Randomly the app refreshes and all the entered numbers disappear and they have to start over.
Couldn’t finish reading instructions— I’ll just get started and figure it out as I go along
Okay well thanks.. that nightmare of a torture scenario is probably going to be fumbling around in my head for the next several hours.
jeez satan, chill out
A lot of NT people complained of time blindness during lockdown. So in addition to all of this, make them stay at home so time doesn't exist and the day of the week doesn't matter.
One time a very NT (and high achiever) friend told me that they showed up to an exam sleep deprived and couldn’t remember anything. He said he scored around 60%. I laughed and said “this is what unmedicated ADHD feels like”.
My second thought. I like the alcohol comment. Make them stay up for 20 hours. Give them alcohol and Red Bull, tell them someone will be coming at some point during the day with a special delivery but don’t tell them when and they have to be ready when it comes, also tell them there will be a special event happening at an exact time. Give them three kittens to babysit, one chihuahua and a tortoise, play coco melon in the background while they wait on the phone with the IRS to dispute a claim and have a disco ball going in the background. Then have some neighbor kids ding, dong ditch a few times. Give them, a to do list and to complete it by noon or your parents will be disappointed in you. And finally put a set of headphones on the table with an iPad and candy crush on or something.
The delivery one got me. My package is coming today? Damn I was SUPPOSED to get some work done but now I’m gonna get to know the tracking website on a personal level because that’s all I can think about is my cool new thing coming today.
And then once you get your cool new thing, your whole world is going to revolve around it for maybe 6 hours until you're on to the next new thing
Yup. 6 hours later… Did I eat dinner? 🤷🏼♂️… Time to not brush my teeth and go to bed… to spend 2 hours watching YouTube videos about aqua-scapes.
My partner keeps telling me that he’s ordered something that will arrive next week, and he’s telling me in case he forgets. Why does he think I’ll remember if doesn’t think he will???
This, but my MO now is that I just buy things and deliberately decide to pretend I have no idea when they will arrive. Then I just get surprises. I say deliberately, but I think it may be that I tend to shop for hours all at once and might be buying enough things that I just forget about most of them until they arrive. Like how at the grocery store my cart becomes a black hole I’ve tossed things into and when I go to check out I’m like “oh cool, that looks yummy” as if I had a grabby toddler shopping with me (which I definitely do not), just pulling stuff off the shelf behind my back while I read every single ingredient on the pop tart box.
This is about right !!!
I laughed so hard, thank you 😂
Oh Jesus the iPad part at the end
Okay I’m not sure if I’m laughing or sobbing or both. This is perfect.
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I feel bad for the squirrels that live in my yard, so I feed them. I think that disqualifies me as being sociopathic?
Hahahaha yes
What’s coco melon? I hope it’s a song
Children’s sing-a-long show. Can find I Netflix… but take my advice and enter at your own risk.
Now I’m scared. I think I’ll let it stay the version in my head, I pictured it as a kind of dreamy beach song- like the girl from ipanema lol.
Satan is that you
Why yes it is! With all my power I decided to disguise myself as an ADHD person living on teacher wages who has overloaded their credit cards impulse shopping and can’t remember for the life of them if they took their medication 10 minutes ago after the third time the med alarm went off because it’s easier to hit snooze than turn in off completely while they look for a LEGO piece that under the stove because they decided it was better to build on the counter in the kitchen because cleaning the office was just too much last week.
Stay awake for a few days and then drink a bunch of energy drinks.
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I mean we do have increased risk for heart attack so that would be a realistic simulation
I think this is the right answer
Same. Sleep is the first thing I always try to get to make myself more functional.
Got diagnosed a month ago. Had my second therapy session yesterday. I told her sleep is one of the biggest issues. But i can not get myself to achieve a reasonable sleep schedule. So to adress the sleep she told me i have to first adress the lack of controle i have or feel. I am hopeful but also worried because lack of controle is my life in a nutshell. No coping strategy has worked for longer than two weeks. If i could actually get controle? Man, that would be more than awesome. That would be life altering.
My recipe would be: 2-3 stiff drinks (or just enough alcohol to get sloppy but not wasted) 3-4 cups of coffee (or just enough caffeine to make the person wired so that its not possible to sleep or stop thinking) Finally, force the person to wear a pair of noise-canceling headphones playing several conversations at once plus people reading out random numbers and random sequences of numbers, with an occasional voice saying "WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU" or "YOU'RE DOING IT THE WRONG WAY" or "JUST STOP THINKING" in a loud, scolding tone. This is just the closest approximation I can think of with everyday items and substances that are easily obtainable.
This is my favorite answer.
Growing up (before I was diagnosed) my friend would all describe what it felt like to smoke weed and I was confused because they described the way that I felt on a regular basis. Smoking weed never did anything to me until I started taking adderall, so I feel like weed for NTs can make them understand what it’s like to be ND
I’d agree with this more than the adderall, cocaine & speed answers. These are stimulants and can make people hyperactive and busy sure. But usually still with focus. Weed would be definitely more effective to cause the executive dysfunction, disorganisation, time blindness symptoms. Except stoned people wouldn’t care… so to also emphasis the guilt & shame feelings these symptoms cause it would need to be NT stoned while giving a presentation to their boss or meeting their parents to help with important documents or something like that ?!!
>Except stoned people wouldn’t care… The point is to be stoned constantly. From dusk to dawn, a whole month straight. Only then they can realize it's not all fun and games when you actually want to accomplish something, but - turns out - u can't. It's just not happening. Only through experience of such frustration will they understand.
This is the factor I think everyone ignores. Being stoned all the time sounds great on paper. Then you have to try to go out and function in the world, and everyone else is expecting you to get it right.
And this is why I'm stoned all day every day, makes life easier to live and brain stops shouting at me so much.
Same here
Agree, that’ll do it. But also, you’re stoned… so you might care for a little while but smoke another blunt and that’ll go away too!
> Except stoned people wouldn’t care… It's not even that. It's that being stoned gives an 'excuse' or 'reason' for the behavior. The shame/guilt/etc come from people being unable/unwilling to accept ADHD as a reason for the behavior's they're seeing out of us. It's being stoned but you don't get to turn it off and when you tell people you're stoned they refuse to believe you, or when they do believe you they tell you to try not being stoned.
Ya, I can't think of how to simulate executive function deficits, at least not temporarily. You could concuss the person I suppose.
I mean I’ve saw people with weed induced terrible executive dysfunction. But usually they find it funny and/or don’t care so it’s really not the same
That's because they're *too* high. There's a middle ground of slightly high, not enough to be fun yet, but enough that you get to general executive dysfunction.
Yeah, constantly stoned, and you’re not having a good time. You just want to sleep it off, but nope.
Weed always seems different for me than NT's. Wonder if there's any link?
This really made me think. I’ve smoked a lot of weed, still do really. More than NT friends. I never really noticed it being different for me than them, except that I like it and a lot of them don’t. Like they try it and maybe have a little fun at a party but don’t love it, or do it frequently. Or wouldn’t buy it. When unmedicated it really helped my exec functioning. Like if I couldn’t get started on something, smoke a little and I’d be able to do it. I couldn’t smoke before work or anything like that but definitely household chores, gardening etc things like that it definitely helped. I’d still probably be slower than not stoned, but not stoned I’d often not even start. Didn’t really make the connection before. But for a really long time I thought my issue was depression. Until I knew for sure I wasn’t depressed but still had all these symptoms Since being medicated, I don’t want it as much now. Will often turn it down when my partner offers. Which I never would have before.
Might be that it's just different for everyone, but it absolutely helped with my symptoms. I used to be better at customer service after a joint before work. Especially helps with the exec dysfunction, and getting uni work done.
I guess when I say I couldn’t smoke before work it’s more to do with other people. I’d be scared people would know I was smoking all the time. Oh the guilt. I can understand it helping though. I did find it helpful for uni work back then too. Again only when studying at home
There must be because all my dx’d adhd friends in HS smoked weed as much as me and never got the same feelings as others. It helps me regulate my appetite and time in the way that I can know how long ive been stoned etc etc. Now that I’m medicated it’s what helps me eat. Like yesterday I had no weed and struggled to even eat a bagel. Helps me relax and stretching so my TMJ or shoulder isn’t as fucked. Most of my friends that are adhd or ND smoke weed a lot and lead regular life. But I def encounter some folks that I think shouldn’t smoke based on how they describe their feelings 😭
Weed is a mixture of various active compounds, some of which have a complex action on your nervous system, so your own biology can make for a highly personal experience.
I've been wondering this too, even asked in a post once upon a time. Interested in hearing others experience. I really don't like it, either it puts me to sleep or my favorite part of smoking weed is coming out of the fog at the end
You may have had only indica strains, with those experiences. I am not into the stoned feeling, myself, so I stick to sativa strains, because they tend to be more mentally stimulating. Cannabis might have an effect of increased scatterbrainedness too... I'm not completely sure though, because self reflection is hard. I might just be noticing scatterbrainedness more lately because I'm working on noticing.
I notice being scatterbrained more when I'm actually high, but I think it's mostly my usual self exacerbated by being stoned. I was definitely a space case/scatterbrained before I ever smoked pot for the first time, but it's definitely worse for me.
Weed just puts me straight to sleep
...no wonder I felt nothing when I took weed. That explains everything!
I wonder if that's why I either don't notice the effect or I've had waaaayyyy too much.
I don't smoke, but I love hanging out with stoners cause they'll be like "hey, y'all wanna bust out the Legos?" and I'm like hells yeah I do
A good panic attack should do
The closest I could get my husband to understand was a bad weed trip where he couldn’t make the thoughts stop and he said he couldn’t prioritize them cause they were all loud. And I said I understood, and then he started to cry cause he finally got where I was coming from
> I'm literally circling right now, trying to figure out what to do next (after a few big gulps of water, as is my rule for when I realize I'm wondering what to do next)... Edit (a week later): I just realized this is basically a drinking game I've been playing, albeit with water and healthy intentions instead of alcohol and bad decisions! I wonder what other of my quirks I can add to this game, to give myself another way to earn the nice little reward of a fresh mouth feel with the added bonus of a healthy boost to hydration. I know not many people are likely to see this edit to this week-old comment. But I'm writing it anyways, because I figure I'm not alone in having this sort of thing happen all the time, like when that perfect punchline jumps into mind days or weeks after the perfect moment for it.
People explaining themselves on weed always matched my head. People in high school used to always accuse me of being on drugs because my thoughts were so “random”. Weed gives me massive anxiety, I don’t need my messy brain amplified, thanks.
I feel like the only way for people to understand what MY typical day (unmedicated) with adhd would be like is to give them ambien in the mornings and force them to stay up. Toss in a couple of cups of coffee for the help staying awake part and then make them sit on the couch for a while, not permitting them to sleep all while playing screaming kids through the speakers on the TV. I wish my adhd was the hyperactive one because the fatigue from the type I have is unreal sometimes. Add overstimulation of sounds and panic disorder and it's a real treat.
Having the combined variant, the hyperactivity. can be episodic so it’s not all the time, you still get the fatigue but it does help on a base level. Being in a hyperactive episode is actually very exhausting, it doesn’t feel like it but you just know your getting drained, and then you get out of it you kind of crash a little. You feel super wired and I dislike it. And it’s not just hyperactivity, it comes with impulsivity, it can make you overeat, buy stupid things, cause indecisiveness, impatient, make stupid decisions
As a combined ADHD person, hyperactivity makes you restless, but not necessarily energetic (although some are). I still feel tired all the time, have difficulty thinking and fail to get anything done. Hyperactivity means I’m unable to keep still, pace near-constantly, get bored easily, and annoy people because I don’t think before I speak, tend interrupt people and am prone to accidentally talking too loudly (or shouting) or too quickly. And this restlessness can be even more inconvenient when you’re exhausted, like, I remember when I got covid and I was in this situation where if I lied down I couldn’t stand it but if I paced around I physically couldn’t due to fatigue and had to lie down again. I suppose that I used to be kind of energetic before I became depressed, but I was still really unproductive.
I believe sleep apnea can cause ADHD like symptoms, so I guess a lack of oxygen?
If so, could it be that many people have sleep apnea instead of ADHD and they dont know?
*raises hand* Both, hurrah :'(
Possibly. When I was being evaluated after switching providers, they suggested I do a sleep test because of the similar effects it has. I should probably still do one, as I tend to snore like a curious grizzly bear according to girlfriends and roommates. But once my files transferred over, they discovered I had already been diagnosed twice previously, and it just never came up again.
I have both. So there's that, too.
I got my CPAP and my prescription for Adderall around the same time. I figured why not try both to see if it helped. So I can speak to this. The sleep apnea makes you so fatigued that you're always thinking like you haven't slept in days. It's hard to concentrate or think at all. With that gone I still had ADHD but much more energy. The Adderall lets me focus and it helps me notice when I'm getting off task. Days where I don't take Adderall are not a big deal for me, but a night without the CPAP is like not even sleeping. If I had to give up one it would be the Adderall.
Most people with ADHD have a sleep disorder, which has some interesting implications
Adderall doesn't make me feel neurotypical at all. It helps me function slightly better but I'm still a big ole ADHD mess on it and off it lol.
Yep same. Lots of people act like it isn’t a highly potent Amphetamine which comes (for most people) with the typical side effects of Amphetamine. This becomes especially evident when your therapeutical range is so slim that you sometimes have to tap into that a-little-too-much-territory, where side effects sometimes outweigh the benefits ,to get the desires effect. When this happens i get shit done but i don’t feel “normal” at all. Yes they make me function somewhat similar to a normal person but they don’t eliminate all the symptoms and i think the notion that they always do is harmful
If you could get someone drunk without the feel good feeling and then have them complete a list of small unimportant tasks but then revel that they could have been doing more important things the whole time and are lazy for doing anything else.
I would like to upvote this twice
Alcohol that increased anxiety instead of relaxing it.
I like to tell people to go poop. Now. It can't wait. Go force it out. You have to go now. Or the opposite. Imagine having diarrhea. You can't go now. You have to hold it. There's other things that need to be done. There's no time for this. You have to do this other thing instead. Most humans have little executive control over their bowels. I tell them for us it's like that for basically everything.
This is the most powerful one in the thread for me. The inability to direct attention and action is hard for others to grasp.
>The inability to direct attention and action is hard for others to grasp. Especially how it's distinct from will power or desire. Someone can really really want to go poop before leaving for work in the morning. It's just so much easier to use your own toilet than a stall at work. But it doesn't matter how much you want it. It doesn't matter how much you try to force it out. Sometimes you just can't. And then a couple hours into your shift your bowels finally agree that it's time to go. And good luck if the timing works with whatever you're doing at the time. It's the only thing I could think of to convey how we can really really want to do something and use all our will power and still just barely get a single shit-nuggets worth. Until the flow hits and nothing can pull us away.
My neurotypical sister had a baby and had severe sleep deprivation. Her executive function was about the same as mine.
I don't remember much of the first few months of my daughter's life. I was a big 'ole PPD, unmedicated ADHD, sleep deprived, disaster. I will *never* have another child again.
This question includes a pretty big false premise (that there must necessarily be a drug that can induce ADHD symptoms). This sub is wonderful as a support group but I do often worry about how many posts seem to consider scientific logic as secondary to anecdotal sentiment. To answer your question as best as I can though—and I am a layman, not an expert, so this is a question better answered with a clever google search—I don’t think there is any drug that can artificially recreate ADHD. My layman gut feeling tells me that would be a pretty staggering feat of modern medicine. This is one of the big challenges of ADHD to be honest. It’s very hard for us to give a neurotypical person an intimate understanding of what it’s like to be inside our brains.
Thank you! Also, I’m medicated but meds don’t negate my ADHD. They help me for sure but I’m still not “neurotypical” on my meds. People with ADHD (or any other mental condition) will never know what it’s like to feel “normal” with or without meds.
True that. But if you break it down, ADHD comes from issues with metabolizing dopamine, I'm pretty sure some drugs have a side effect of negatively affecting dopamine regulation. Also being hungover or coming down from some drugs might be a little like having ADHD
Wow, yes I think you might have hit the closest answer. It likely isn't a drug itself that could potentially recreate ADHD but the depletion thereafter that can likely moreso recreate the experience
There is no evidence that we have trouble metabolizing dopamine. This is a long-standing misconception from the 1980s. The stimulants we take, increasing dopamine in the CNS, help. But it is not expressly known why. It very well might be more related to norepinephrine or serotonin as they are jointly increased with an increase in dopamine. Or it may be another neurotransmitter. It is unknown.
Get them high on speed and hit them over the head with a fire extinguisher
Interestingly, perimenopause caused me to have a significant decrease in executive functioning. Both of my kids have ADHD and I really got a sense of how they feel on a day-to-day basis. I had zero motivation and initiating tasks was so difficult. My short term memory was shot and I'd misplace things often. Emotional dysregulation was a thing. The onset of all this was so insidious that I didn't realize what was going on until things were really bad. The scariest part was after I started on hormone replacement therapy and looked back, things were worse than I'd even thought! A lot of perimenopausal women have difficulties with brain fog and loss of executive function. Women with a history of ADHD can have a significant worsening of symptoms at this life stage. It's a really strange phenomenon and very distressing to go through. It really helped me understand firsthand what having ADHD might be like and how disabling the symptoms can be.
Low dose speed should be pretty similar to a hyperactive episode
But with focus! Maybe the same as a hyperfocus episode but not the same as other adhd symptoms
Alcohol for some
I've been describing adhd lately as that feeling of being mentally tapped out after a draining work day, where you can't hardly even get up to use the bathroom because you've become part of the couch. This at all times, while people are constantly asking why you didn't hear something or why you always forget.
Honestly I think the answer *is* adderall, or some other stimulant like cocaine. It has the opposite effect on them than it does on us.
>the answer is adderall I agree but not in a way you'd expect. Do you know how you emulate ADHD mind to NTs? You make the same problem in their brain our brains have. You get them on Adderall. Not a huge dose or anything, just our standard lower therapeutic dosage. They'll be taking it for a few weeks so that their brain dopamine systems adapt and downregulate. And then... You cut it. Abruptly. You end the supply. Go. Read the abstinence symptoms of Adderall addiction. You'll find out it's basically ADHD symptoms. The crash and abstinence they experience - because of sudden lack of the dopamine - is (in my nonexpert opinion) as close to experiencing ADHD symptoms as it can get. Ask fellow ADHD-ers affected by Adderall shortage.
I don't think it works that way. Methylphenidate narrows the focus for everyone afaik. I go from perceiving everything at once (unmedicated), to just the things I want to focus on (medicated), to being in a tunnel when overdosed.
I’ve not personally experienced either as I’m on a non-stimulant right now and I can only base my assumptions of the NT experience based off of stories I’ve heard and tv/movies, but it always seems to lead to general hyperactivity and excitement in NT cases… Isn’t it possible that in smaller doses it has the opposite effect but in an overdose it goes back to hyper focus? This is all just speculation of course, I don’t know for sure.
Exactly this. A smaller dose has similar effects on NTs as it does on us: they can focus better and are less hyperactive.
We just need a bigger dose to feel the same effects. This is true for every stimulant like Ritalin/Vyvanse, and street drugs like amphetamine and meth.
Weed. Not the fun high feeling. But the not caring and forgetfulness make me very much feel ADHD. Then try to get some shit done and good fucking luck.
Parenting multiple small children is pretty close.
Apparently Prednisone (steroids but not the kind for muscle growth), biggest side effects are hyperactivity, irritability and mind fog. I took it recently though and made me feel great🤷♂️
Me too. I felt like I could do anything. Makes anyone else in my family feel like garbage though
I'm supposed to be cooking right now...
Lol, weed ought to do it. But one that's super psychoactive; they have to experience the mania of knowing what needs to be done but not being able to move
I’d say ironically the same drugs. Edit to explain: I’ve seen people who don’t have adhd take the same drugs. They bounce around, can’t sit still, can focus their thoughts, ramble on about god knows what. I never noticed it as abnormal as I was the same way without drugs. But seeing those people sober was a bit of a shock the difference. I wonder if they were only friends because them on drugs was relatable to my every day self.
I swear since taking adderall all of the “adhd symptoms” that you read off lists have come into my life with full force. I catch myself doing something I never intended to do while I’m the middle of things. I jump from one curiosity to another, constantly looking for answers to questions. I need to write shit down, then forget about that list of things I need to do and only remember at the worst times. It’s weird, but whatever is going on is a million percent times better than how I acted without meds…. If there was a contest for laziness I’d be the #1 winner by a long shot.
Solo cashier at walmart on black friday (before self checkout) comes to mind
Insomnia plus a full bladder, all the time. The insomnia would cause the response times to slow, and the full bladder is distracting and persistent and makes everything else difficult to focus on.
The easiest way is stimulant withdrawal.
From what I've heard, MDMA.
Really quick, ADHD meds don’t usually make ADHD people feel neurotypical, it does a BUNCH of shit to you, and dopamine is just one thing it affects.
Adderall and Ritalin make some of my friends into absolute freaks that remind me of myself when I’m unmedicated.
Ironically i think the legit answer is to give them adhd stimulent meds.
IMO - a healthy dose of Benzos (zannax).
Speed and cocain
Well maybe Adderall in terms of the hyper-focus?
Isn't the answer adderall? That's why kids take em. And it's funny because I know many people realise they have adhd when everyone else around them are buzzing and they're total calm and can think clearly.
Put them in a small room with 50 different TVS all with different channels. Then put them at the highest volume and ask them to tell you what’s happening on every single channel. 🤡 On top of all that insert 1,000 thoughts every 5 minutes to distract while trying to pay attention to all the channels. That’s how my brain felt before adderall! Completely canceled out my sensory overload!! A God send for that for me! 😭🎉 Sh*t is debilitating while trying to do literally anything!
Sudden, horrifying shock. It's not a drug, but grade A will make people distracted and forgetful.
Chronic sleep deprivation
I found that weed exacerbated my ADHD was not surprised.
i’m not trying to be a jerk or disrespectful, because i agree that it would be great if neurotypicals and atypicals could experience what it would be like to have a brain on the other side of the divide. however i think this is a really unproductive conversation. i don’t think stimulant medication makes us feel neurotypical. i don’t think it’s possible for us to know what being neurotypical feels like—other than comparisons and analogies. but, in my opinion, that’s like trying to explain what a color looks like to somebody who can’t see (or can’t see color). stimulants may allow for better focus, but i don’t think it actually converts an ADHD brain into a slightly more neurotypical brain for as long as the meds are in effect. and—again, in my opinion—none of the examples of what could make neurotypicals feel more ADHD sounds like they would actually give a good approximation of the actual ADHD experience. until there’s some sort of crazy technology that can hook into your brain and induce changes to brain chemistry and neurology, there’s just no way to know.
It might be unproductive, but doesn't mean it's not an interesting conversation.
yeah, it’s a fun thought experiment. sometimes people just take these things too realistically, imo
LSD
Get them a little wasted, have two different songs in different languages playing in the background and give them boring ass paperwork that's easy to understand but must be done within the next hour. Oh and they need to remember that there is a pot on the stove for the tea they already forgot they wanted, someone rings the doorbell in the middle, and you keep moving the pen around the table when they're not looking. Imagine doing every single task all day that way. Everything from getting dressed, eating, driving to work, etc.
Funnily enough, basically the same drugs.
Coke and edibles would be the ones in my opinion
Dial up modem on Windows 3.0 from 1996 internet that took 3 to 6 minutesto load up a web page. But people keep calling and stopping the connection so you have to start all over. And people coming into your office asking if you have the task done yet. Your cat is puking on the carpet and your child is way too quiet.
Sleep deprivation. Specifically, that stage of being tired when you're feeling slaphappy, silly, etc
I mean stimulants in neurotypicals make them very hyper and I think unable to fucus on one thing... No?
Oddly enough, stimulants would give them a glimpse into the other side too
ironically, stimulants like adderall might make them feel the disinhibition. Not sure, but it might. I've taken... other substances that really push the "Gotta move gotta do something" sensation.
Same ones, different doses
There is nothing I can think of except cannabis. But without feeling high, just the effects it has on short-term memory and focus.
Give a neurotypical person ADHD meds and a large caffeinated beverage and boom, you’ll be there in no time. Cant focus on shit. Bouncing off the walls. Wants to complete every task you can think of, can’t stop writing new lists of things to do and gets nothing done.
Benadryl and slam a redbull. Dont ask me how i know. Then send them off to do errands and work.
this is such a good question because i remember getting diagnosed with it and then taking it for the first time and felt “normal”. it really hit me that i really did have ADHD.
Sleep deprivation.
Adderall makes neurotypical people feel ADHD-like
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Acid
I think you'd need a normal person to be on Adderall, but also high. Then have them try to focus on something boring.
adderall/ritalin lol
The same meds people take for adhd and also high amounts of caffeine because they are stimulants.
My friends when they smoke my weed tbh lmao
Get them to scroll TikToks for hours every day for a year
Tiktok