LogFAQs > #949766103

LuciferSage posted...

Best comparison I can draw is a really good cup of tea or coffee vs a red bull.

Oh, I can relate for sure, but I wasn't talking about whole-assing things end to end. The superpower is more on the multitasking end of things. At least for me. I'm pure ADD. The "H" was added just to hook 3x as many kids on adderall. I'm from the Ritalin, pure ADD era.

The best way I can put it is this. Total silence is a blight because my mind will either make it's own static or tinnitus takes over. It's not that I can't focus, quite the contrary. I can focus on something to a near autistic degree, but that focus on any one thing comes with a stamina bar. However, I *can* keep as many as 7 or 8 channels open at a time. While I'm focusing on any one thing, the stamina bars on the other 6 or 7 are recharging. I switch rails as needed.

It looks like total chaos to the untrained eye, but there really is a system at work that I've spent 40 years dialing in.

An added side effect is a strange ability to see connections and patterns in seemingly unrelated things. I blame running on so many parallel circuits at once for that...

It also makes me an extroverted introvert by nature. It's not that I can't handle a room full of people, but the interconnectedness of it all gets exhausting.

I feel like I can sometimes do many things effectively, but mostly if there is too much going on then I tend to shut down completely. It has only ever really gotten serious at work once. I had various client files on my desk, phone calls to make, notes to do, and co-workers to get back to about things they had asked me. I found myself starting one thing then changing my mind and doing another, then switching again and again and realizing that I was doing a lot but in reality getting nowhere. I became an emotional wreck at the time and had to call my boss to calm myself down. It was kind of embarrassing as I'm not used to losing control like that (or at least showing it). One thing I've realized that has been helpful to me as far as schoolwork goes is getting out of my environment. I had made it a habit to go to a pretty quiet Starbucks across the street whenever I had a lot of studying or work to do. As long as I had my earphones I found it was much easier to work on things in a place where my whole point of being there was to do work. I wasn't as easily distracted by things. I can't do that anymore because of the pandemic.