[robotastronaut]

It's interesting to me that your daughter phrased it that way. There's actually a ton of research (some old, some new) about perception of time among ADHD sufferers and how that affects modern life. In a nutshell, the idea seems to be that there's a shorter time horizon (ADHD folks can only see or imagine themselves so far into the future) which is what makes long-term planning, budgeting, etc so difficult and why many are also seen as procrastinators or bad with money. Hop on any research database or google scholar and give it a look. You'll also find in that research an overwhelming bias towards studying younger folks. We're only recently starting to understand how missing diagnoses affect adult livelihoods.

Anecdote: I'm one of those who tried behavioral approaches for years before agreeing to try medication. I bounced back and forth between different types and doses and ended up on small, regular doses of adderall because I could have some control over when it tapers off. I'm disheartened by the smugness of commentary here from people who see nothing but stimulant abuse.

To give a solid example of why it can sometimes be seen as giving you superpowers, consider my experience: I have three degrees. I was in graduate school for...far too long. Anthropology isn't a quick in and out. I could wrap my head around anything, but sitting and writing multiple drafts of 50-100 page papers regularly was unimaginably difficult. I loved writing, and I wasn't sure why it was so challenging for me. Several years ago, I had the "opportunity" to write an NSF grant with (read: for) a pretty famous researcher. The downside is that when I was asked to write it, I was told the deadline was in four days. I spent some time setting up a perfect writing environment with no distractions, comfortable lighting, and everything I could think of, but when I was working, I could almost physically feel my brain constantly switching to some other track. It was deeply upsetting. The following year, I finally gave in to my doctor's medication recommendation. When I first sat down to read an article in a journal while medicated, the only thing I could hear in my head while reading was my own voice reading the words on the page. It actually brought me to tears because I realized that was probably what everyone else was able to experience normally. The glasses analogy everyone is using? Yeah, it's a bit like that, but imagine being in your 30s not even knowing that you can't see properly until someone put glasses on you. It changes your entire perception of the world and your place in it. It makes small things seem like superpowers. Like you finally have the ability to do all the things you're expected to do as a productive member of society. It's liberating. At the same time, all I can think about is how much more I might have been able to achieve if people had considered putting me in some sort of treatment as a kid rather than telling me that I wasn't working hard enough and making fun of other kids with ADHD.

[texasbigdata]

Can you link the time horizon, that’s super interesting. At least most YouTube medical lectures I’ve watch sort of focused on the norepinephrine reputake inhibition and how dopamine in the (forget the name) chain somehow hinders task ability.

[hellomotomoto]

The concept to search for here is 'time blindness'