ADHD Vocab!

5 ADHD Terms I Wish I Knew Sooner

Do you have struggle to articulate your ADHD experiences with others?

If so, you are not alone! When I was diagnosed with ADHD-inattentive type back in May of 2020, I decided it best to go down the good ‘ole ADHD rabbit-hole. While traversing the ADHD universe, I started seeing and hearing words I had never heard before, but they were describing certain life experiences perfectly! I began to understand myself more and more and they helped me better articulate my experiences to others.

Here are several of my favorites:

1. Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria:

Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria (RSD) refers to the extreme emotional response ADHDers like myself often experience when feeling rejected or criticized, even if it’s perceived.

People with RSD may experience overwhelming feelings of sadness, anxiety, shame, and worthlessness when they believe they have been rejected or criticized by others. Personally, RSD has been the hardest thing about living with ADHD. So often, the fear of rejection has the biggest impact on my relationships, my business and my self-respect.

2. Hyperfocus:

Hyperfocus is a state of intense concentration or absorption in a task or activity, often to the point of losing awareness of one's surroundings or the passage of time.

While it is true that anyone can hyperfocus, it tends to impact ADHDers way more frequently. We are most likely to hyperfocus on things that we find interesting, new and engaging. For me, these are things like video games, sports, content creation and my newborn daughter <3. I find hyperfocus very valuable for most situations in life, but every now and then, it can really hurt other important areas of life, like self-care or relationships with friends and family.

3. Body-Doubling:

Have you ever cleaned your entire room simply because someone was sitting there with you? That person was a body-double. Body-doubling, widely known as co-working, is a very popular and powerful tool amongst the ADHD community, but can be helpful for anyone. It’s when someone is present with you, physically or virtually, to help keep you focused, motivated and accountable to finish a task. The body-double isn’t even working on the same task, but is there as a supportive presence.

If you would like to give body-doubling a shot, we run virtual body-doubling rooms multiple times a week in our online community, ADHD Social!

4. Analysis Paralysis:

Analysis paralysis, also know as decision paralysis, is when someone gets stuck, unable to make a decision or get started, due to overthinking, over-planning and over-analyzing. Analysis paralysis can be caused by a fear of failure, low self-confidence, or perfectionism and can lead to procrastination.

Some common ways to overcome analysis paralysis include breaking down problems/tasks into smaller steps, setting clear goals and focusing on the most important information or steps.

5. Procrastivity:

One of the most relatable words in the "ADHD Dictionary” is procrastivity! It’s exactly what is sounds like; using less important activities to avoid doing something more important. For example, it’s tax season, but every time you think about starting them, you realize the sink is full of dirty dished and laundry needs to be done. All of a sudden, the taxes can wake a little longer, but the dishes cannot!

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What are some words that you have learned in your ADHD journey that have helped you understand your brain better or helped others understand you better?

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If you made it to the end of this read, thank you so much for supporting me in this my journey! I am thoroughly enjoying writing and cannot wait to see how these evolve over time. I am definitely embracing “Progress over Perfection” when it comes to this newsletter. The perfectionist in me makes it so hard to press the "publish” button, because my brain is constantly telling me these “could be shorter”, “easier to read”, “more valuable”, so on and so on. I’m sure you know EXACTLY what I am talking about.

Thanks for reading!

Damon

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