Who I am, how I think, and how I behave are shaped in large part by my neurodivergence. When I was 15, I was diagnosed with severe ADHD and OCD (DSM-5-TR). The latter is largely controllable—20mg of Fluoxetine per day over many months has proven effective. However, the effects of ADHD still permeate my day-to-day.
Here's what that means for you:
- I might not respond to messages and e-mails for many days, despite having noticed (and even read) them. This isn't about you—it’s because I'm extremely unmotivated in this specific context at times. However, I will spontaneously strike up a conversation with you that might last hours.
- If I ever seem uncharacteristically sombre and/or focused, I am likely on stimulants. I’m not sad unless I say I am. I’m not in a bad mood. I haven’t suddenly matured. I’m on Methylphenidate, which is the only stimulant available to me right now.
- I will be unable to hold a linear conversation with you. It’s rare that I finish telling anyone about something before it trips off a memory of something else that's also super interesting, leading to the original discussion being abandoned and a tangential topic being pursued.
- I will interrupt you—often. This is something I'm actively working on, and I would appreciate you stopping me in my tracks and calling me out on it.
- I'll frequently lose my train of thought, even mid-sentence. You’ll notice I pause at seemingly random intervals while speaking—this is me trying to recall where I was going with what I'm saying.
- You will also notice that I tend to throw myself headfirst into brand-new, divergent fields (unrelated to my experience, education, or training) every few months, seemingly abandoning a trajectory toward significant progress.
The upside is that I've become a strong first-principles thinker. I do extremely well in high-intensity, fast-paced environments, and I’m adept at reasoning and making decisions with limited information.
I’ll update this page as I learn more about myself.