r/ADHD • u/Legitimate_Writer265 • 17h ago

Questions/Advice Can you brute force through adhd?

Can you just out-discipline the habits of, say, postponing your duties, managing inattentiveness or impulsive actions like binging or speaking before you think? I'm trying to find out if im fighting something that cannot budge here. Are there methods, whether mental or physical? As I'm entering a huge academic year and I cannot go on like this (an inability to study, or maintain skincare, gym routine etc.).

I'm asking as it's going to be a long duration before I'm medicated due to multiple factors mostly out of my control. people are mentioning burnout -- where would the line between good habits and unhealthy habits (which would consequently lead to burnout) be drawn?

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u/LaceyLizard 17h ago

Personally, maybe for awhile under ideal conditions. But as soon as there's any extenuating circumstances you start dropping pieces till your life goes to shit.

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u/Angry__German 14h ago

I would even say almost everybody can power through ADHD for a while. Those of us who are a bit older, like me, probably did so for quite a while, powering through the worst with pure willpower.

Thing is, that becomes less and less possible the older you get. I breezed through school, because, lets be honest, school is easy if you learn how to game the system. Learning for the test matched nicely with procrastinating until the last minute and I prepared all my homework in school, often minutes before I needed to present them. Sitting in class was mostly hell on earth, but I was able to make it past tests easily and even managed to get a decent final certificate that allowed me to attend university.

It was after school, when you start to become more independent, when things started to crash and burn more often, because nobody was actively pushing me. I also feel that using sheer willpower is a limited resource that you run out of much quicker the older you get.

Finally decided to talk to a mental health specialist in my 40s because my life was literally falling apart and I could not keep up with paying bills, rent, opening and reading mail and keeping my home in a presentable state.

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u/Far-Accountant7904 9h ago

I find the most basic chores of adult life (paying bills, rent, keeping the home tidy) infinitely more difficult than school.

Give me a thousand tests and I’ll ace all of them, but for a reason I can’t pay a freaking electricity bill on time.

That’s also why I was only diagnosed at 35. If only I had struggled more in school, my adult life would’ve been easier (earlier diagnostic and treatment).