Published on 12, July, 2020
I wanted to express this here to see whether I'm not the only one who experiences this. I'm diagnosed with autism but I strongly believe I have ADHD too. My dad is diagnosed with ADHD and we think he might also be autistic. When I was young my ADHD experience was internalized (and mostly still is) and since I wasn't stereotypically bouncing of the walls, this went unnoticed by many.
With me, my autism can cause me to hermitize and feel nervous about going out. What I believe to be my ADHD is strongly sensory seeking and quite gregarious as times, so when I go out (which is not often) I can be the memory of the night so to speak. I can also be very "all or nothing" if that makes sense. This experience can be challenging because I have the mental ability to understand how nuanced how life is in general, and it's this nuance that makes things more interesting.
I crave stimulus but can then feel overwhelmed by it. I strongly believe (and know through research) that ADHD brains are highly susceptible to addiction due to our natural dopamine levels. I'm lucky enough to have been raised in an environment where drugs were not a go to for me, and I don't overlook this. My phone has been the source of my overload and inevitable crash, especially TikTok. The dopamine hit I gain is strong but afterwards I feel lethargic and unable to form coherent thoughts. I can also experience headaches.
I've been managing my screen time better and feel more connected to the present moment, which is nice. I hope that some of this also allows others to relate.
I wonder if most people aren't overstimulated, there's so much on social media and the internet and far to little emphasis on critical thinking and questioning what shown to us. I don't do social media and never have, it's never appealled to me and from everything I hear and read about it, I'm glad I don't indulge, apart from here. It's all so loud! Life seems to have got louder, multiple sources for music, people who make and recieve phone calls in thier cars seem to be louder outside than it must be inside, do they put speakers on the outside of cars now? I can hear peoples conversations when they're in a closed car, and I'm in my house with the double glazed windows shut. I think if I had even a few minutes of the noise and bright flashing colours of social media I'd go made and have a melt down!