Skip to content

It’s An ADHD Thing?!

Posted in Personal

At roughly a year since I first sought help for a resurgence of ADHD symptoms, I’ve learned a lot, especially from meme accounts on Instagram. One of the big things I’ve learned about fairly recently is that sharing a personal story to relate to something someone has said isn’t something everyone does! I legitimately never noticed that I could be somewhat unusual in that.

Twitter post: When people with ADHD bring personal anecdotes into conversations, we aren't trying to "make everything about us." We just listen to what you're saying and get excited by the instant connections we're making to things we've experienced
Just one example, of many, posts I’ve come across regarding ADHD’ers sharing personal anecdotes.

I have however, long since realized I have a tendency to interrupt people. I’ve been working hard on that, doing my best to wait for a natural pause in the conversation to share my stories. Or, when I slip up and interrupt, I try to pause, excuse myself, and apologize as soon as I realize what I’ve done. But, going back to my main point…

ADHD’ers, and perhaps other neurodivergents — I haven’t expanded my research to find out — will often share stories to show they understand and empathize/sympathize with the person they’re conversing with. For example, let’s say I’m having a conversation with a friend about dieting problems. I’d likely share how I’ve given up on dieting because they don’t work long term for me. I may even mention how I’m focusing on changing eating habits instead.

I promise, I’m not trying to make the conversation about me. That thought wouldn’t have once entered my head. But now that I’ve found out that this is, apparently, unusual, I end up questioning myself, wondering if the person or people I’m talking to think I’m self-centered.

The sad part is, it’s typically the opposite. I’m trying to relate to you; to show I hear you and I understand, share your feelings, and/or have experienced similar situations.

This hasn’t ever been brought to my attention, so the people I’ve spoken with in my life were either too polite to voice their displeasure, understood what I was trying to say, or were, themselves, neurodivergent and understood my point. Let’s hope it’s one of the latter.

Based on the memes and posts I’ve come across, neurotypical people do this far less? If you’re neurotypical, please let me know if this is something you do, or if it’s something you’ve noticed in others. I know that everything online should be taken with a grain of salt, so I’m curious to see what “real” people have to say.


Thanks for reading to the end, I hope you enjoyed my post.

Make sure to subscribe to my blog or follow me on Instagram so you don’t miss any posts. I generally post at least once a week.

3 Comments

  1. Terrell
    Terrell

    Well, I believe I am neurotypical, and I have been making these sort of personal connections in conversations for over 65 years! Yes, I have to be careful not to interrupt out of enthusiasm but I think it is a good thing. When I was working in internationally in the business world, it sure was a useful “skill”.

    December 4, 2022
    |Reply
    • Good to know! I try to take everything I read online with a grain of salt, so having other perspectives is great.

      December 4, 2022
      |Reply
  2. Cori
    Cori

    Weird. I’ve always thought this was normal and showed empathy. Now I wonder. I also end up interrupting which I’ve been working on but I’m always afraid I’ll forget what I was going to say. Do you ever feel that? Thank you for sharing.

    December 1, 2022
    |Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *