I’m so glad you have written this piece and posted it in the EA Forum. I have been diagnosed with ADHD for almost a year now and almost everything you have expressed above resonated with me. There seem to be surprisingly few posts in the EA Forum which describe or take into account the experience of having ADHD.
My curiosity coupled with ADHD has led me to have surface-level knowledge in a wide range of topics and areas but not having much in-depth knowledge about any one particular area. I have always felt like although I really want to dedicate my life to doing as much good in the world as I can, I don’t like work that is hard and not immediately rewarding and I cannot maintain medium/long-term projects to be able to contribute in a meaningful way. I often would get a sudden burst of motivation in a particular area and I’m feeling great and researching into it, but then after a while I lose that motivation and I gravitate either to mindless procrastination or to whatever my new motivation is, and I don’t go back. I feel like, after a year and a half lurking on the EA Forum, I want to actually (actively) do something, but the above obstacles have prevented me from doing much more than reading some short Forum posts and bookmarking a load of ones that look interesting to me but which I never actually get down to reading.
I have also been a particularly unfortunate case when it comes to medication (I’ve tried 3 different drugs, 2 different dosages of each, and none have worked for me thus far).
I’m so glad you have written this piece and posted it in the EA Forum. I have been diagnosed with ADHD for almost a year now and almost everything you have expressed above resonated with me. There seem to be surprisingly few posts in the EA Forum which describe or take into account the experience of having ADHD.
My curiosity coupled with ADHD has led me to have surface-level knowledge in a wide range of topics and areas but not having much in-depth knowledge about any one particular area. I have always felt like although I really want to dedicate my life to doing as much good in the world as I can, I don’t like work that is hard and not immediately rewarding and I cannot maintain medium/long-term projects to be able to contribute in a meaningful way. I often would get a sudden burst of motivation in a particular area and I’m feeling great and researching into it, but then after a while I lose that motivation and I gravitate either to mindless procrastination or to whatever my new motivation is, and I don’t go back. I feel like, after a year and a half lurking on the EA Forum, I want to actually (actively) do something, but the above obstacles have prevented me from doing much more than reading some short Forum posts and bookmarking a load of ones that look interesting to me but which I never actually get down to reading.
I have also been a particularly unfortunate case when it comes to medication (I’ve tried 3 different drugs, 2 different dosages of each, and none have worked for me thus far).