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ADHD IN DISGUISE: 10 “weird” things I didn’t realise were signs of ADHD

ADHD Love

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This week on LATE BLOOMERS, Rich and Rox go through ten weirdly specific things that turned out to be ADHD in disguise. Bendy joints, dopamine dressing, owning 12 water bottles for no reason, and not being able to sleep with a ticking clock in the room.

Rox breaks down why she can't tell she's hungry until she's shaking, why a slice of cheese counts as dinner, and why she's started roughly 100 businesses and finished none of them. Rich points out the parts Rox doesn't notice herself doing, including the inner monologue that occasionally becomes an outer monologue in public.

If you've spent your whole life thinking you were just "a bit weird," this one might explain a lot.

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0:00 Intro: ten weird things that turned out to be ADHD
1:24 #1 You're weirdly bendy
3:40 #2 You dopamine dress
6:28 #3 You own 12 water bottles
7:55 #4 You can't sleep with a ticking clock
9:33 #5 You soundtrack your life
13:28 #6 You can never tell when you're hungry
16:11 #7 A slice of cheese can be dinner
19:51 #8 You get emotionally attached to objects
23:29 #9 Talking to yourself out loud
26:47 #10 How many businesses have you started
31:07 Outro

20 Comments

@user-noh8t 1 month ago

The slice of cheese for dinner! No cook meals! I feel that in my soul.

@gamer-8955 1 month ago

I didn't realise that having imaginary conversations in your head was an ADHD thing 🫤
I sometimes find myself saying things out loud by accident 😅

@sheherazahde5611 1 month ago

ADHD and memory anchors!
My mom doesn’t understand why I need to own books, instead of borrowing them from the library. I need to own books because they are keys to remembering their content. I can trigger my memory of the contents of a book by looking at it. But it has to look like the book I read, it can’t be in a different format.
Of course ebooks have no trigger, so I lose my memory of them.

@everforwardqueen 1 month ago

I can totally see Rox' point about RSD and taking rejection so hard that we can't even reject an object. I would also say that the object being tied to memory is valid as well. For me it's def a bit of both and it really depends on the object itself.

@alex-e7f9e 1 month ago

I saw a specialist for my hearing. He said he is currently studying ADHD and tinnitus because it seems we can hear our own heartbeats etc more, we seem to be massively sensitive to sounds in the body we are supposed to ignore!

@stevie9202 1 month ago

This cooking vs putting together a meal is a great example of literal thinking

@ezzlouise9198 1 month ago

As soon as you said a ticking clock I GASPED. I remember clocks feeling like torture when I was a child and thought it was just me 😭

@stephk5797 1 month ago

OH MY GOD THE CLOCKS
since i was a child whenever i had to stay anywhere unfamiliar i had to take their batteries out or bury them in wardrobes and still hear them 😭

@Kate-sp1vx6vz9z 1 month ago

Re: water bottle & lip balm in every room-->Look into the idea of a "house purse".

An open fabric tote actually works better than an actual purse, but that being said, the "house purse" is a fantastic way to keep yourself together.

It can hold your glasses, a notepad & pen, your planner, water bottle, lip balm, phone, ear buds, nail file, meds (if you don't have kids), whatever you need as you move around the house during the day.

Whenever I leave a room, my house purse goes with me. Easier to remember one thing rather than multiple things.

@lindajanek2750 3 weeks ago

I'm 73 and only found out I have ADHD a year or so ago. Dx last spring. My whole life suddenly made sense. I don't have hypermobility, but I absolutely relate to everything else you said. I absolutely have difficulty throwing things away, talk to myself, never know when I'm hungry until I'm ready to drop, and many other things.

I love you two! I'm so glad I found you. I share you with my husband trying to help him understand me. Like one of your recent videos, with Richard trying not to scare you. Our eldest son has ADHD (how I found out I have it) and his wife just found out she's on the Autism spectrum.

Thank you for all you lovingly prepared, humorous (sometimes), wonderful (always) videos!

Linda

@pattie2day 1 month ago

When you DON'T have executive function disorder, your idea of cooking is planning a few items to eat, putting ingredients together, cooking them on the stove or in the oven, and having it all turn out together very satisfactorily. When you DO have executive function disorder, your brain is too disordered and mentally exhausted to do all that planning and executing, so doing something as "planned" as microwaving actually FEELS like cooking. So in a way, you're both right!

@TheCrochetKid 1 month ago

The being attached to objects bit: I think the word you’re looking for is anthropomorphism! Giving non human objects human feelings or personalities. I even have a hard time killing animals in video games, even though I KNOW it’s not real and it’s just a game it makes me weepy, especially with their sad little pained noises 😢

@Fed-Up-007 1 month ago

Once when I was doing a purge my son and my grandsons were down and helping me. There was harlequin clown doll that my son had given (he got it at a small 'dollar store') that I was absolutely terrified of. It was in a box and when I did have it out in the house I kept it turned away LOL. Clowns are creepy to me. Anyway, when I told him he started laughing 'WHY do you keep it then? Toss it!' but I couldn't - he had given it to me and I didn't want to hurt him, his feelings. He tossed it. This was years and years ago - but I think that was when he realized how hard EVERYTHING truly is for me. Like I'm crying just typing this . . . whew.

@rs.9165 1 month ago

I love the word" Neurospicy". Neurospicy behaviors

@sabinem.702 3 weeks ago

I've never in my life met someone who just gets it and now here I am and I totally get you Rox

@StoriesatToadPond 1 month ago

I think many of these also fit with autistic women: bendy joints; specific dressing (though not necessarily dopamine dressing); owning lots of a specific item; noise sensitivity; getting emotionally attached to specific objects. The overlapping circle in the Venn diagram between ADHD and autism is pretty substantial!

@mariekaren4295 1 month ago (edited)

Harsh! Rich is in rare form this episode. His LACK of empathy for inanimate objects is surprising.

A LOT of people, whether they are ADHD or not, project feelings onto objects of ALL sorts, but especially anything that can be anthropomorphic. It starts when we are BABIES! That's why we have toys! And as we grow up that creative thought extends to not just "childish" things, but also entirely mature souvenirs, collectibles, and precious items of any sort.

And, YES, this can get even more intense with ADHD people.

Tossing away stuff is...
1. erasing memories
2. disposing of precious dopamine
3. disregarding the inherent value of the object itself
4. disposing of the original intentions of the purpose
5. disrespecting the giver
6. terminating the relationship
7. deleting the feeling of ownership
ETC...

@AliSparks2 1 month ago

OMGOODNESS the empathy for inanimate objects is such a thing. To the point t that when I was a kid I sometimes struggled to throw out pieces of trash. I made a 'family' of little broken pieces of led from my mechanical pencils and I SOBBED when someone threw them out.

@ericamaki1072 1 month ago (edited)

I used to think my stuffed animals had feelings and I was hurting their feelings when I chose to cuddle one over the others. I always thought it was because the golden rule made such an impact on my small learning human brain

And I am ALWAYS having inner dialogue. Like acting out a conversation for sure

@prs_6c9840 10 days ago

I’d be interested to know how Anwen Reid’s anxiety quiz was created and what the different results are based on. The questions don’t always seem connected on the surface, so there must be some kind of structure behind how the answers are interpreted.