6:39pm August 11, 2014

“The hallmark feature of ADHD has always been the inconsistency. Inconsistent engagement, inconsistent performance, inconsistent moods, etc. Activities that were done beautifully yesterday are terribly done today. Usually this is presented in a very judgmental way that the person with ADHD is ‘flighty, unreliable, unpredictable, or intentionally not trying.’”

—

Adult and Teen ADHD Information, Dodson ADHD Center (via crylie)

Yes.

Incidentally, a few years back, I read in a research article that the most consistently reported finding in ADHD research is unusually large amounts of “intraindividual variability” (which means variation within a single individual’s behavior, rather than between individuals). High IIV is more widely supported than deficits on any attention, working memory, executive function, prospective memory, time perception, or other traditional ADHD task. Yet as far as I know, there is no “intraindividual variability” theory of ADHD.

But I think there should be, because any trait found so widely in both real life and in the lab is important, and this one is also disabling and frustrating. I’m going to go out on a limb and propose that in at least some people, the cause of ADHD is a widely variable brain starting from the most basic level of arousal on up.* Which, in turn, causes problems with alertness, concentration, planning, inhibiting impulses, and so on. How poor a person’s executive functions etc. are in practice should vary, not only with predictable things like the person’s environment and the difficulty of the task, but also unpredictably, based on this brain noise. If we understand what form this variability takes in the brain (i.e.: variability of what exactly?), and what causes the variability, then we’ll know something important about how ADHD works.

*Actually, the variability might start even “lower,” at the level of basic regulation of sleep, appetite, temperature, etc.—all of which I’ve read are often disrupted in ADHD. I’m sure I’m not the only person with ADHD who has difficulty maintaining “homeostasis” (a balance of all body functions).

(via neurodiversitysci)

I’ve heard similar things said about autism, including things about circadian rhythms. I forget the word they used, but it was a very important word to remember for such things. And I can’t remember it. It actually wasn’t in the context of autism, it was in the context of a genetic disease that often results in autism, but it was a seriously important word and I wish I could remember it now.