I often find it strange how damaging being bored with ADHD can be. When neurotypical people are bored, they might put on a movie, go for a walk, call to meet up with a friend, or do some work. But if you have ADHD, boredom can be a hell of its own, and it’s often where many of us make bad decisions.
For me, I’d describe boredom as suffocating. If you have ADHD, you’ll often find that doing something, anything, even if it isn’t the best choice, is often better than the loneliness of not knowing what to do with your spare time.
If you’re a neurotypical person reading this, you might be thinking: well, why wouldn’t you just put on a movie, go for a walk, or meet up with a friend? And the truth is, that’s a great question. The answer is that these things don’t seem obvious at the time, or at other times they’re simply not enough.
When you have ADHD, your brain has an imbalance of dopamine, and it’s this very imbalance that often causes those with ADHD to abuse different substances, such as drugs and alcohol, or other things that cause fast-acting dopamine rewards, like doomscrolling.
Boredom for people with ADHD isn’t a gap of time to simply fill, but a suffocating void that needs to be filled with something that makes us feel good about ourselves. And sometimes, the best way to approach this void isn’t to have a line-by-line plan of what to do when it appears, but rather to understand who you are, and the fast-acting dopamine you might reach for when it does.
