More thoughts by breakfast than somebody else has all day: This is what it’s like to have ADHD

March 01, 2018

By Yvette Caster

Monday 11 Sep 2017

Source Article: http://metro.co.uk/2017/09/11/more-thoughts-by-breakfast-than-somebody-else-has-all-day-this-is-what-its-like-to-have-adhd-6918632/

Writer and student James Woods wasn’t diagnosed as having ADHD until he was at university – and even then he was skeptical.

‘At first I was like ‘no,’ because I was a well-behaved child, and there was no kind of behavioral issues and my knowledge and view of it was the same as everyone else’s – like small five-year-old children running around really hyperactive – and I never recognised myself as hyperactive,’ he said.

But, as he found out more about it, the symptoms rang true.

‘Organisational problems, focus was a big thing and it was like things that I didn’t recognise until learning about it.

‘So I’d have to nap in the daytime because I was so tired, and that was because when you wake up with ADHD you have more thoughts by breakfast than somebody has all day.’

James was talking about ADHD on Metro.co.uk’s weekly mental health podcast Mentally Yours.

He discussed his associated anxiety and depression, as well as what he called the ‘superpowers’ that could come with ADHD – in his case hyperfocus, ‘when you focus really hard on one thing and it’s impossible to distract you from it,’ being able to see the bigger picture and being able to pick out small details...