AI Fixed my ADHD

Even in primary school things only interested my until I solved the issue. This was massively visible in math class. It was super fun for me, and I was really good at it! Maybe I was good at it because it was fun! But the issue with being good at it as the rest of the owl way of approaching math:

Teacher would put the equation up, I would glance at it, and blurt out the answer(s).

“Okay, show your work, how did you get to the result?”
“I am smart”

For the past three decades, I just accepted that I’m only interested in anything until the moment I solved is in my head. Conceptually. I have the solution. I don’t care to put it down on paper, because that doesn’t add to my life. I solved it. Writing it down is tedious, wastes time, and that’s not the solution.

The task is done, I no longer have a pending to–do item, I can move on with my life. Writing it down is just pulling me back into something that’s already done. I hate it. I don’t want to do it.

And then I became an adult

With responsibilities. Expectations. Outputs, KPIs, contractual obligations. I now had to show my work, write down the solution. It was a struggle. Every time. I built so many coping mechanisms, scaffolding, and adaptations in my life so I could function.

Problem was, I treat solving the problem as the important part; documenting it is more secretarial, more menial, no thoughts required. I could give that task to someone else, because I had More Important Things To Do™, and doing boring unimportant tasks are keeping me from jumping on to the next shiny pebble Important Thing™. So I didn’t do the implementations, unless absolutely necessary.

Then I was formally diagnosed with ADHD. Losing interest once I solved them without implementing them was literally a question my assessors have asked me.

Yay.

At least now I knew it wasn’t a moral failure on my part.

I still hated doing it though.

AI enters the chat

A couple of lines above I wrote that I hated doing the implementation because I could give it to someone else because I had More Important Things To Do™.

AI is the “someone else.” I can give it the implementation, and it does it quickly, and more importantly, I don’t have to do it. I can both come up with the solutions to the Important Things™, and also have them done quickly.

I am unlocked.

The clickbait

AI did not fix my ADHD, it’s still very much present, but now I can use it to my advantage, rather than fighting it every step of the way.

And for this reason, I am grateful for having access to AI.

Source for the images:

• owl: https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/eccj2/how_to_draw_an_owl/
• because I’m smart: https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/21qkbp/smartass_kid_test_answers/
• Hero image by Neakasa on Unsplash