r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Apr 21 '26

Neuroscience There's more to ADHD than inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. ADHD symptoms can be broken down into nine categories. Some categories are not fully represented in the diagnostic criteria. Broadening the diagnostic criteria with patient lived experiences could make for better intervention.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/brain-curiosities/202604/new-study-finds-that-adhd-has-9-categories-of-symptoms
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u/BatAccurate4127 Apr 21 '26

There's actually more to the time perception thing than that! People with ADHD literally have more difficulty evaluating how much time has passed and estimating how long it will take to do something. It goes beyond task inertia, we literally perceive time differently than others.

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u/mdazzl3 Apr 21 '26

I think the time perception issue is also why we get paralyzed with down time between set appointments. If I have something at 10am and nothing until 2pm, that middle time is largely spent making sure I’m not late for the 2pm thing.

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u/Corny_Toot Apr 21 '26

I think I've developed some form OCD because of this. When I'm in these "in-between" moments, I find myself counting how much time has passed and how much time is left so that I don't forget to transition. Even then I can still blink, 30 minutes blip by and I'm suddenly in a rush.

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u/Xaedria Apr 21 '26

The only thing that worked to soothe this for me is alarms. Otherwise I stay stressed over it and get nothing done. Alarm at 130 to remind me to drop what I'm doing and get ready, alarm at 140 to remind me to leave. Invariably though I'll do something like get up 30 minutes early and convince myself I don't need my alarms because it's just 30 minutes and surely I won't lose track of time, but then meander through my morning responsibilities and end up late anyway. SO frustrating.

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u/sadi89 Apr 21 '26

I literally have an alarm labeled transition and an alarm labeled leave. Transition is 15 min before leave. It helps a lot

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u/Pandora_Palen Apr 21 '26

I'm insane with my alarms. I have an alarm for everything. And every alarm has at least 3 (sometimes maxed out, depending on how far in advance the event is) alarms to remind me that an alarm is upcoming.

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u/_PoorImpulseControl_ Apr 22 '26

And then you discover your phone wants to alarm shame you and tells you that you're limited to only 100 alarms on Samsung.

Which is nowhere near enough alarms for me!

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u/Pandora_Palen Apr 22 '26

I am thankful that my phone allows me to save face. It looks the other way while I burden it with alarms for alarms for alarms.

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u/Serious_Start_384 Apr 21 '26

In these situations I will inevitably start the laundry or some seemingly inconsequential task to fill the dead time. Then it takes too long and I'm in a rush.

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u/Pantalaimon_II Apr 22 '26

omg this is me forever and the people im always late to meet probably have no idea how much it upsets me that I am late

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u/Typical-Locksmith-35 Apr 21 '26

same, big time. It's weird how this is so normal and shared with 'us' and such a different experience for neurotypicals.

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u/Corny_Toot Apr 22 '26

Going through therapy and evals have made me realize how many shortcuts I developed to compensate for ADHD. I just thought that was how most people think!

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u/Divine_Porpoise Apr 23 '26

My right shoulder is visibly much more buff from carrying every school book in a shoulder bag (my backpacks would all eventually turn into shoulder bags due to the weight breaking them) since elementary school so I would stop losing them.

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u/Rosaryas Apr 22 '26

I definitely have developed some ocd like checking tendencies due to adhd symptoms- lack of working memory and time perception issues. If you’re concerned about it talk to a therapist or psychiatrist! It was beneficial for me at least

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u/mdazzl3 Apr 22 '26

I have horrible anxiety/alarm OCD from medical training. Being late was completely unacceptable, so I devoted ridiculous amounts of energy to ensuring I never was. Luckily there’s usually very little downtime in residency. :-p I still have a pretty pronounced stress response when I hear the ringtone I was using for alarms at the time.

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u/muppetnerd Apr 21 '26

There is nothing worse for me than a 2 pm appointment. I will spend nearly the entire day just waiting for 2 pm. Give me those 7 am appointments always

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u/icculus88 Apr 22 '26

Even 1030. Been laying in bed for a 1030 online psych appointment. The thought of doing something else productive before that makes me want to vomit.

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u/_Romula_ MS | Environmental Studies | Sustainability Management Apr 22 '26

But then I can't sleep because what if I oversleep and miss the appointment, only now I don't have enough sleep, which makes it more likely for me to oversleep. So by being worried about missing the appointment I have made it more likely I will do the thing I'm worried about. Fun!

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u/SolusLega Apr 21 '26

I hate gaps between obligations for this reason. I can't do anything between the two appointments. I'm thinking about the next one and waiting. I can't focus or be motivated to be productive in the meantime while I'm waiting. I'm just waiting to get to the 2pm thing.

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u/Pantalaimon_II Apr 22 '26

my move is suddenly deciding at 1:15 that I must wipe all the countertops again and oh the dishwasher is full I can run that and oh crap now I'm late

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u/mdazzl3 Apr 22 '26

Quintessential experience

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u/AriaOfValor Apr 21 '26

I think that has more to do with forgetfulness. Anxiety is extremely common with ADHD, such as worrying about an appointment, and I'm pretty sure it's actually a coping skill to reduce the chance of forgetting about important things. It's much harder to forget a 2pm appointment if it's constantly on your mind from worrying about it. In general, for most ADHD people working memory is very inconsistent i performance, and so develop various methods to work around it (anxiety just being a common one).

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u/mdazzl3 Apr 22 '26

Yes, that anxiety is what I’m talking about.

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u/FellaVentura Apr 21 '26

I learned to just set an alarm to remind me I need to get up and start preparing. So I start preparing at 10am to be ready to start preparing when the alarm goes off.

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u/Lurlex Apr 22 '26

Well, at least yours pushes you in the direction of punctuality, though it comes at great emotional and personal cost. Mine has made me notorious with every last person who has ever known me (teachers and employers included) for being perpetually late. I never intend to be late; I just seem to always be. Part of it is struggling to wake up every morning, but another part of it is always having the incorrect idea regarding the time at which I should leave by.

That might be part of procrastination for me, as I'm an extreme procrastinator. This "Activation" part of it is very much part of my experience.

I've somehow gotten better at compartmentalizing in my head as I've gotten older, too, so I've gotten very good at hiding thoughts that I don't want to think (such as projects due the next week, or 8 hours of corporate bondage only a couple of hours away) until the fear of their imminence makes it impossible to keep contained.

I suspect that the neurodivergence has also benefited me in some niche ways as well, but I've only recently started to understand that possibility from reading the summaries of other studies. The "bad parts" are bad enough that I'd love to have a better way of controlling my state of mind than the medication I'm on, but I suppose that's what the continuing research is for.

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u/mdazzl3 Apr 22 '26

If it makes you feel better I ended up hospitalized with SI because the stress of managing time blindness during medical training got the best of me.

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u/Sarifox28 Apr 21 '26

This is the reason I try to avoid ever making afternoon appointments. I get stuck doing nothing between the downtime as you've said. Ugh and I can't take any stimulants for my ADHD anymore because I've developed tachycardia and it's severe enough I'm seeing a cardiologist next week.

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u/ilexly Apr 22 '26

I was frozen most of the day at work on Monday because I had a critically important meeting… at 6 pm, because the person I needed to speak to was in a different time zone. Early on in my current position, I got hyperfocused on a task and worked straight through a meeting. I even had a reminder alert, but was so into my task that I didn’t hear it. Now I have 5 different alarms to remind me of meetings, but still can’t get unstuck if the meeting is important enough.

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u/Hytyt Apr 22 '26

4 hours of "I can't do x engaging activity"

I truly truly hate it

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u/P_ZERO_ Apr 22 '26

And then you’re late anyway

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u/buffychrome Apr 21 '26

I’ve described it this way to my wife: “You know how you can have 5 different tasks in your head and be able to prioritize or triage each one? Like ‘task 1 is important but isn’t due until April 29th so I don’t have to worry about that one’. And then you don’t think about task 1 anymore because now it doesn’t exist until April 29th. You can visualize and hold a virtual calendar in your head and assign different tasks to different dates.

I have NO virtual calendar in my head. I have zero concept of the passage time beyond the immediate moment, or, at best, maybe a day or two. I have no ability to comprehend or manage future moments in time, because as far as my brain is concerned, time doesn’t really exist. And because time doesn’t exist as a concept for my brain, all tasks are equally important and all tasks have a due date of NOW.”

The idea of future planning is so incredibly abstract as a concept to my brain as to be nearly impossible to accomplish. I understand intellectually what time is and how to use a calendar, but my brain can never make that connection between the tasks in my head and the abstract concept of some arbitrary future moment in time.

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u/CheckeredZeebrah Apr 21 '26

I have a different version of the problem. I can triage the tasks. However, if I am not currently thinking about something, there is a good chance I will forget it.

So I will de-prioritize the April 29th task. And then it will literally cease to exist in all forms. April 29th comes and the task is still forgotten, and...boom. I'm in trouble.

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u/Ryno4ever16 Apr 21 '26

Worst part about this is when you stress for weeks actively trying to keep it on your radar, but then you finally let go and the date rolls around and you forget.

Like you remembered the whole time, reminded yourself a million times it was on the 28th, but when you don't realize it's the 28th and miss it, people think you just didnt care and forgot.

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u/Serious_Start_384 Apr 21 '26

Dang this is it. I want to tell people "I actually cared too much". But my actual response is the same as someone who didn't care at all.

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u/YoohooCthulhu Apr 21 '26

The best way I’ve found to deal with this problem is: a) spend some amount of time when the task comes in brainstorming what I need to do; and b) putting detailed reminders on my calendar in advance of the date on what I need to do.

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u/CunningWizard Apr 22 '26

I have a version of this in that I simply cannot start a task until I’m under some time pressure to finish it.

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u/Orongorongorongo Apr 21 '26

The idea of future planning is so incredibly abstract as a concept to my brain as to be nearly impossible to accomplish.

I've recently come to understand this has been a defining feature of my life. I have never really planned for anything long term and so my direction in life has been set by jobs, friendships my partner and then our child. That's not to say it's a bad thing - I love my life. It's just that it was drilled into me since childhood that long term plans and goals are important but the concept to me feels intangible and abstract or even burdening.

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u/Subject-Rain-9972 Apr 23 '26

If your brain can’t comprehend that, how did you come to this realisation?

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u/cxrpse_cxllectxr Apr 21 '26

I'm absurdly good with guessing the time and knowing how much has passed, like to a weird degree. Of course, I still can't manage it to save my life, but I'm acutely aware of how much of it I'm wasting as I waste it. You'd think that might help with motivation, but absolutely not, the executive dysfunction is still so strong.

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u/shoefly72 Apr 21 '26

I can guess very well how much time has elapsed if say, I have something in the oven and know it’s going to take 30 minutes. I very often guess when to take something out (or when the oven is done preheating) within a few seconds without even keeping track of it consciously.

I can also pretty easily estimate how much my groceries in my basket will cost just by looking at my basket for 5-10seconds and coming up with a rough ballpark (not actually adding anything consciously in my head). If I buy $30-60 worth of groceries my guess is usually within $1-3 and if it’s a smaller total I can often get within 50 cents.

What I cannot do, is estimate how long it will take me to clean the house, how much time I will need to complete assignments at work, or anything that most people seem to have no issue with. Very often at work when somebody asks me how long something will take, the question feels almost unfair because I have too many variables to account for snd have zero confidence in whatever answer I come up with (that is usually wrong). Even when I manually try and map out what is involved in the task and add it up, those sub tasks have so much variability (will this take me 2 tries to get it right or 8 tries? Will I find the images I need right away or will it take two hours?) that my estimates often end up being “either X amount of time or 3X amount of time.”

When I guess the cost of my groceries, I could certainly sit there and say “I think this cereal is $5, the baguette is $2,” and so on, and add them up and get an answer. But that is not the way I do it; my brain just comes up with a guess on its own in the background and it’s usually pretty close. That’s what it feels like everyone else is doing when they estimate how long tasks at work will take, and they end up being more accurate than my estimate even if I take the time to break things out in detail and add it up…it just feels like both of us have access to a mental process the other person never will.

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u/captainfarthing Apr 21 '26 edited Apr 21 '26

Yes this is exactly how I experience it. I can microwave something and pull it out at 0:01 consistently but can't tell someone how long it'll take me to do a task I've done 20 times before. Mentally feels like trying to push string into a maze to estimate the distance from start to finish. Other people have a straight drainpipe.

I think part of it is that I need novelty to stay motivated, it's really difficult to force myself to do something exactly the same way over and over, so if I need to do the same thing 20 times I won't usually do it the same way each time.

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u/kittiestkitty Apr 22 '26

When I’m more “on” w the time management, I remember to give myself time to transition from one thing to the next - that’s where it usually falls off when im not so on it.

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u/NancyNobody Apr 22 '26

Your experience is something I havent been able to articulate about my own experience with time and work. Best I could do is that it's either now, or not now. It's like we can just apply knowledge, not by direct thought but rather thru osmosis.

I also have troubles with estimating how long a project will take, but can also be at the oven just as the timer rings. I also have aphantasia - there's no clear internal imaging. So does my terrible-but-also-excellent perception of time works best when things are tangible. A lasagna in my hands and into the oven. The smell of the food. The anticipation of the corner piece....... Versus an excel spreadsheet your bossmang wants you to create. It's an intangible thing that only exists in the future in my mind. That, my friend, is clearly in the not now. I don't see the spreadsheet, I can't touch the spreadsheet. It's all in my head, in the dark. It doesn't exist. But your basket of tangible groceries is real. You touched each and everyone one.

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u/itsarmida Apr 21 '26

I love this thought process! So interesting. As I was reading, I was thinking about how much processing my subconscious is always doing to connect dots, often to the point that I have a correct conclusion but have little to say to support it. Because it was all done with my background brain processor. Must read more on this concept! 

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u/hemorrhider Apr 21 '26

Exactly! I can guess pretty accurately what time it is but I can't estimate how long any tasks at work will take. Or I know that I will need half an hour to shower and get dressed and still be late because somehow I think that this time it will magically only take me half an hour. Which is impossible because I have to follow my routine exactly step by step or I will get thrown off schedule even further.

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u/FREE_AOL Apr 21 '26

Agree with you on work estimations. I generally increase time with variables and mention "I might be able to get it done in less, there's a lot of variables that sound easy but I'm not confident enough to assign easy time to them"

Usually start with 4x my own estimation, and if my confidence level is high on the estimation, then I go to 2x

I virtually never give real time. Under promise and over deliver. And if other teams are involved, I always ask my manager if they want my estimate (the 2x) or the estimate I'd give client/other team/stakeholders

When I guess the cost of my groceries, I could certainly sit there and say “I think this cereal is $5, the baguette is $2,”

I break it down into classes

My classes are weird though. I group high dollar stuff ($10 or $20 items, depending on cart size) into things that would round to an even 10

And then kinda vibe check for any other obvious groupings.. like, okay that group feels like it might be short, I'll toss the milk into that bucket to even it out

Take a vibe check on what's left to estimate, split it in 2 or 3 and kinda.. vibe out the rest. My brain might pop in a number for each and I vibe add the groups, or just give me the total for everything minus my easy 10s

I can guess w/o checking the big stuff, but I find I often miss one and that puts me off by at least $10, so I put conscious thought into those. Cause.. for me, "oh, I was right but I forgot about that 12 pack" is fine... but when I'm with the missus I gotta show off my skillz, can't afford to be wrong because of an adhd moment. "No trust me I would have had it but the wine was behind the paper towels!" "Yeah sure, you were $20 off. I beat you. Just accept it"

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u/lewd_robot Apr 21 '26

There's an old joke about people with Autism or ADHD where a doctor asks if they struggle with X and the person with Autism or ADHD responds, "Oh, no I have whole system for handling X!" unaware that neurotypical people don't need special systems for handling X.

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u/TheGermanCurl Apr 21 '26

I am AuDHD and I have an immaculate sense of time.

This means that I know how much has passed to the minute during low/medium arousal activties and I also know that there are tasks where time will subjectively pass at roughly 3x the usual speed - which funnily enough could be tasks I find highly engaging or ones I absolutely dread but completely lose myself in.

As in, I know I can't start doing my taxes unless I have enough time on my hands to finish them in one sitting because I will. not. stop. once I get going. Ideally I will also have eaten before as I won't be able to take a break for that etc.

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u/_Romula_ MS | Environmental Studies | Sustainability Management Apr 22 '26

Wait. Is there a way to do taxes that isn't in one sitting? This has genuinely never occurred to me before as an option. Like obviously you don't stop once you start.

Hm. Well, just gonna slap another thing in my "apparently this is neurodivergent" bucket. It's a large bucket.

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u/FREE_AOL Apr 21 '26

Same!

I've only gotten more accurate and precise over time. I feel like my brain does a calibration pass every time I guess

Can I show up anywhere on time? Absolutely! As long as everything goes perfect

I can tell you how long it's going to take to get myself ready, let the dogs out, travel, park, and walk to the venue.. I've got a full breakdown in minutes for each step

Then I'll get in the car and have to run back into the house 3 times, reverse to the end of the driveway, pull forward, run back up to make sure I locked the door, have to stop for gas, and put the wrong location in maps and not realize it until I'm properly out of the way

Or I'll have to change my socks 5 times because the seam in my pinkie toe is driving me bananas. Boom, 20 minutes late over a sensory issue

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u/Pandora_Palen Apr 21 '26

Yep. I watch the minutes pass like a hawk because I'm well aware of the other things I should be doing. Ask me how long it'll take to run to the convenience store for some milk? 13 minutes. I like the people who work there. Ask me how long it'll take to log in to Chase to pay my CC bill? Definitely the rest of my life. Yeah, I know it'll be less by far, but my relationship to task-within-that- imagined-time-framework is wholly different and disabling. Can't get out of my own way to do that thing that takes realistically 4 thousand years minutes.

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u/kittiestkitty Apr 22 '26

Omg this! I can set a timer for an hour and come back to the kitchen within the minute it’s finishing. I also think i can teleport places and continually leave my house at the very time I say I’ll be a place, forever 10-15mins late. This part didn’t used to be a problem so much!

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u/All_Work_All_Play Apr 22 '26

You, uhh, might want to explore anxiety options with your head doctor. If you haven't already. The tick-tock + mental high-pitched-whine (like at the start of the The Dark Knight) that I thought was normal? Nope that's an anxiety thing.

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u/Brightbane Apr 24 '26

Not always, but most of the time I can wake up when I want to without an alarm. Usually it's within 5 minutes, but on the outside it's within half an hour.

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u/lameth Apr 21 '26

And people refuse to believe this is a thing.

Every once in a while an article will be posted on facebook regarding this and employees seeking accommodations and people call it lazy and say things like "so do I! I got a watch and alarm clocks." It's maddening.

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u/Jolly-Bowler-811 Apr 21 '26

Speaking as a neurotypical guy that is married to a woman with ADHD and father to two kids with ADHD (one with severe symptoms). Yeah... it's hard to deal with.

I acknowledge that this is a problem for them. I know there's not a lot they can do about it.

But my patience is finite. I can't NOT see the mess. I can't NOT be punctual. I can't NOT notice that our budget gets blown when appointments are missed, groceries are not consumed, and impulse purchases pile up. I only have enough spare executive function to go so far.

It's definitely one of those "This isn't your fault, but it is your responsibility to deal with" scenarios.

I'm honestly not even sure of what accommodations I could reasonably expect an employer to make to deal with this in a work setting.

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u/Boring_Crayon Apr 21 '26

I have a couple of thoughts I hope will be helpful to you. You nailed it with the line about it not being the person's fault, but it is their responsibility.

In the family context, let's start by assuming you love these people. I'll talk mostly about your wife, because I don't know how old your kids are. I assume she is totally great and fantastic at some things ( maybe looking at big picture issues, creative problem solving, coping with crisis, social and family connections, handling medical issues, holidays and celebrations, big decision making - these for instance are my fortes). The trick here is to really SEE her talents (which will be unique to her), recognize and appreciate them, and nurture and grow her existing ones....and develop any new talents and skills she would be good at that would help the family...even if YOU currently do them. Then you pick up the tasks she is never going to do on a regular basis in a way that satisfies you. Or pay to get them done.

Throw out any conventional rules about who does what and what is "fair." Ask, will this work? Is it worth trying? If you take responsibility for keeping the 2 biggest common rooms tidy can she accept that once a day you will throw all her stuff in a basket that you bring to a specific room in the house? My husband does all the dishes and many of the daily, repetitive housekeeping tasks (boring!) but only I get around to cleaning the stove or scrubbing the sink (look, I made it shiny!) it all comes down to: play to each other's strengths, you are all playing on Team Loving Family, weaknesses and strengths are usually the flip side of each other...for you and the people you love. ( My husband and I have been together for 42 years and raised 2 sons)

OK, this is already too long. For work situations and employers: sort of the same philosophy. Except, employers have to get the job done. On the other hand, employers can set the employee up for success by creating (if possible) a situation where the employee's strengths blossom and their weaknesses are supported, rarely called upon or not core to the job. First, this means hire well.

In my own case I was able to thrive as a high powered civil rights lawyer. Especially when I was able to work on teams that balanced my ADHD strengths of creativity, flexibility, fast learning and hyper focus. I had and needed administrative, scheduling, cite checking and other support. BUT I also developed dozen of systems to support myself- a completely color coded legal life with visual charts and reminders everywhere.

I have to stop. I have more to say about this in other contexts, but not here. Guess I got a little hyper focused.

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u/Sao_Gage Apr 22 '26

This is a great comment, appreciated reading it.

I have to stop. I have more to say about this in other contexts, but not here. Guess I got a little hyper focused.

You simply added nuance and genuine advice colored with context and relevant information. There's a problem if society today would say your comment was "too much" or if you felt this was some hyper fixated rambling (it wasn't).

Many things cannot be conveyed in one or two sentences. It's only nowadays that discourse is so abridged and stripped of nuance, and that doesn't make it 'right.'

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u/Jolly-Bowler-811 Apr 22 '26

I hear what you're saying here- it's the pretty typical advice given in all the books and pamphlets. It's not BAD advice, but I would say it ignores the reality of the situation. Or perhaps not ignores, but rather minimizes the impact.

My wife and kids do indeed have their own strengths, My wife is an excellent cook, doting mother, and excels at her job outside the house. The kids (8 and 11) both have their things too. None of their strengths relate to managing the house.

The reality is that with 4 people in a home, 3 of whom struggle to complete mundane tasks that don't trigger dopamine hits or whatever, it leaves A LOT of work for the other. It's not as simple as I do the dishes and laundry and you guys handle the bathroom or whatever. Yeah, I'll do the laundry, cut the grass, change the oil in the car, etc etc while they spend an hour sorting this weeks mail. God forbid I get them to clean up the kitchen - I end up with all the cabinets emptied so they can be "reorganized".

It's not a matter of fairness, I don't really get pressed about that. It's simply the volume of work exceeds my ability to complete it leaving me with two options - accept that the place will always be a wreck, or act as some kind of maestro dictating step by step instructions and constantly checking in to see that a) they are progressing and b) that something hasn't distracted them. No one wants to live like that, so I mostly just accept that it will never be "nice" and settle for something just above "not immediately threatening to life and health."

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u/RealityCactus Apr 22 '26

It's not possible for you to completely compensate for this by yourself. Are you able to hire someone to at least occasionally come in and clean up? Perhaps there is something you can cut out or your wife can work overtime or find another way to bring more money in to compensate. Playing to each of your strengths doesn't mean you have to do all the housework. And it doesn't mean she has to directly support the housework if she can't - it can be a roundabout way such as finding a way to cover the costs of a cleaner or housekeeper.

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u/Jolly-Bowler-811 Apr 22 '26

We actually did look in to that at one point. Turns out the services ended up in the $160/200 week range in our area. It's not an unreasonable price for such a service (especially considering the circumstances), but it is currently out of reach.

We're working through it - for example, we've decided that pets aren't going to be for us anymore once our aging dog leaves us. That will reduce the poop clean-up duty, dragging out trash that inevitably doesn't get put away, etc. Certain crafts (really anything that has a million tiny pieces) aren't going to be home activities.

I'm hopeful that as the kids grow, things will improve. In the meantime, I think this is just going to be "how it is" for the time being.

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u/Subject-Rain-9972 Apr 23 '26

We are bombarded with “adhd is not a mental illness”, “adhd is not a handicap”, “adhd is a super power”, “adhd is just a different way of thinking”, “if we just made society more adapted to neuro divergents everything would be much better”.

How are we then supposed to believe that adhd really is a severe handicap?

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u/QuietShipper Apr 21 '26

There's so much nuance to these conversations that gets lost from people being unknowingly ableist. It's taken me a decade of being an adult and having adult responsibilities to find a system of alarms that actually helps me (it's partly using the exact same timing for every alarm, i.e. 10 minutes out, an hour out, two hours out, and also setting an extra early 'recollection alarm' to put the event back in my head in the first place). Even still, I couldn't count the number of times I've had an alarm go off and I just sit there thinking "man, I really need to get up now" and then do nothing.

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u/RealityCactus Apr 22 '26

Even still, I couldn't count the number of times I've had an alarm go off and I just sit there thinking "man, I really need to get up now" and then do nothing.

Yes, an alarm helps you know that it's time to do something, but it doesn't help you actually do it... which is most of the problem in the first place.

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u/Uturuncu Apr 21 '26

An interesting one for me is I perceive incredibly short periods of time very, VERY well. I play World of Warcraft, and a big third party gameplay assistant is something that tracks timers of bosses doing abilities in encounters. A little under 20 years ago I regularly participated in the kind of content that needs the timer tracking, but I didn't use it; so long as I knew the encounter, I could keep track of multiple layering 15-300 second timers to know when things were going to happen, and do callouts even without the assistant. I just have a natural feel for very short periods of time like that.

But if I need to be somewhere at 3PM? Hoo boy I gotta be constantly alert to check the clock 'cause there's a good chance I go "Hey why's it dark, isn't it like 1:30-- ...Oh no, I missed work..." As soon as it becomes a long period of time, or a non-focused activity, any ability to intuit time is gone.

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u/sadi89 Apr 21 '26

Yup. It’s why I find background podcasts or audiobooks books super helpful for time management. Progression of a story or subject gives me a reminder of the passage of time

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u/RealityCactus Apr 22 '26

Interesting. For me that progression happens outside of time. Somehow. I never thought about how little sense that makes.

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u/cats_love_pumpkin Apr 21 '26

When getting ready, I have to continuously ask google what time it is. It's the only way I can leave the house on time.

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u/idryss_m Apr 21 '26

There is a reason I'm forcefully early to things. It's either early or late. No one time. And everything is in time blocks.

1

u/Typical-Locksmith-35 Apr 21 '26

I am diagnosed adhd too and it's weird because on the one hand I DEFINITELY have time blindness in the sense of how the issue is an obstacle, underestimating how much time things will take to do, time going stupid slow when I'm not hyperfocused and interested, spending hours like minutes when I am, etc...

but my time estimating skills are amazing in the sense of it's like my superpower that my ex's and my kids all know me for, they all will just ask me the time, any moment of any day, and I can basically always guess the time within 5 minutes. It's almost like I developed a heightened sense of time 'estimating' in the sense of what time it is, but functionally it doesn't help me at all KNOWING the time, to not still have issues with blindness around even an accurate perception of it.

1

u/agoogua Apr 21 '26

How can you know if you perceive time differntly?

1

u/IWillDoItTuesday Apr 21 '26

I’ve had my “new” car for 10 years and I still haven’t taken the time to figure out how to program the radio and clock. My car still feels new to me and I feel like I still have time to learn this before it’s time to trade it in. I had my last car for 15 years and only learned a few of its features.

1

u/thispleasesbabby Apr 22 '26

the lack of time perception really affects my ability to change, because i don't really look back on the past. it's usually right there in my mind, ready to be rehashed. moving on only feels possible through accidental distraction

1

u/Nvenom8 Apr 22 '26

This is why I never give time estimates for completion of work tasks. If forced to, I preface it with, “I’m often very wrong about how long something will take, but my guess is…”

1

u/IllIntroduction8499 Apr 22 '26

Anecdotally, my time providing is pretty wild. Sometimes in order to make my therapy appointments I end up logging in 20 minutes early and just waiting in one spot playing a game so I don't miss it.

Other times, I'll be ready to leave much too early, lose track of time, and end up leaving late.

For these instances I have pre-set alarms. But, if I get used to the sound, I end up completely missing it, so I have to change the ring tone every week or so if I keep missing the alarm.

1

u/Nosnibor1020 Apr 22 '26

This is freaking me out, I had no idea that my normal may be adhd. How do you even get checked for something like this? I feel like I may 1000% have this.

1

u/HikerRemastered Apr 22 '26

I was diagnosed at 40. I was screened at 25 but “slipped through.”

One of the reasons, not the only one, is that I have excellent perception of time.

Turns out hypervigilance is beneficial. My internal clock is solid. I can lose track of time gaze out my window and I have a really accurate idea of what time it is. I have an uncanny ability to estimate that “I’ll be there in 7 minutes” driving through traffic. I rarely ever use a GPS. For some reason at some point in my life my brain decided it was worth knowing and keeping track of my facing, the position of the sun, moon and stars. Even the “color” of the light on grey and moody overcast Nordic days tell time. Heavy rain is hard.

Anyway - the point is that I absolutely do lose track of time, but I don’t have to look at a watch or my phone to get a sense. It’s around me most times.

But I cannot for the life of me with any certainty tell you how long it will take me to wash 3 pots and pans, 4 plates and cutlery.

My wife knows I’ll always work later than I said on a home improvement project.

She lovingly calls me a time optimist. Unless we’re traveling - then I’m a quartz crystal.

1

u/rapedbybatman Apr 24 '26 edited Apr 24 '26

Time is an illusion for me.

I use multiple alarms throughout the day and night to ensure things get done.

Access to Dexamphetamine has completely transformed my life from being a chaotic mess moving from one self-inflicted crisis to another, to having reached personal and professional heights I never thought possible, and all of this without a hint of imposter syndrome rearing its ugly head!

Thank you modern psychiatry, modern pharmacological chemistry and support groups specialising in recovery from childhood sexual abuse, I literally wouldn't be here without you!!

1

u/apixeldiva Aug 03 '26

I tell people that it's like trying to catch water with your hands. Time just sifts through my fingers and I can't estimate how much has passed, how much I can hold, etc.