I have always been both extro- and introverted, with social activity being quite exhausting even when I enjoy it, but also happy to do nothing but sit in front of a PC 24 hours a day. When socially active, I have been pretty great at superficial interactions, I don't even have a lot of trouble making friends, historically - but I am also very prone to misunderstand things others seemed to intuitively understand, and also have a history of changing peer circles and losing contact with people.
I've been young before, but I am old now.
I'm a cishet guy, so I guess I have been a boy.
I have phases of fidgeting and other noticeable stimming, but can also sit completely still, both as a learned/trained thing, stress reaction (to the point of basically dissociating), or when otherwise focused on things.
I both excelled and struggled in school - I excelled at the topics I loved and was able to bullshit a lot thanks to absorbing a lot of general knowledge because my family was all failed, mentally ill and ND academics/intellectuals. But I simply never put in any effort and was outright defiant for anything that did not interest me - and I never did homework, flunked out of classes repeatedly and basically stayed home about 1/3rd of my career as a student, but still managed to finish school - probably because some teachers found that combination of knowledge and defiance "endearing" and they put in a word with the teachers that rightfully found it just to be obnoxious.
"Difficulty regulating" attention hits the nail on the head, and the fact that I thought to myself "But I can pay attention to things, I can even be extremely focused, so it can't be AD(H)D" as a misconception for decades was sadly a very regrettable part of my life that kept me from understanding myself properly.
(I even had a diagnosis when I was a kid, but my parents were rather ambivalent about it, and it was the late 90s/early 2000s, the time when ADHD was presented as "just those damn psychiatrists/psychologists suddenly pathologising normal behaviour, just discipline your kids right" very regularly and with relatively little backlash - probably one of the most damaging pop-culture contrarianisms that affected my childhood/teenage years. I internalised it for decades and just assumed that diagnosis back then must have been a "trendy" mistake, because the most superficial "these are the symptoms" materials I read, never seemed to fit properly - and the people I knew with confirmed ADHD seemed so different from how it manifested for them.)
I have always been both extro- and introverted, with social activity being quite exhausting even when I enjoy it, but also happy to do nothing […]
This is actually textbook introvert. Ex/introverted has nothing to do with what you enjoy. It's about what "recharges your battery" and gives you the strength to continue.
Do you remember during lockdowns there were those people who were absolutely losing their minds because they missed being around people so much? Those are extraverts. They need people to recharge their batteries like you or I need our alone time to recharge ours.
I have always been both extro- and introverted, with social activity being quite exhausting even when I enjoy it, but also happy to do nothing but sit in front of a PC 24 hours a day. When socially active, I have been pretty great at superficial interactions, I don't even have a lot of trouble making friends, historically - but I am also very prone to misunderstand things others seemed to intuitively understand, and also have a history of changing peer circles and losing contact with people.
I've been young before, but I am old now.
I'm a cishet guy, so I guess I have been a boy.
I have phases of fidgeting and other noticeable stimming, but can also sit completely still, both as a learned/trained thing, stress reaction (to the point of basically dissociating), or when otherwise focused on things.
I both excelled and struggled in school - I excelled at the topics I loved and was able to bullshit a lot thanks to absorbing a lot of general knowledge because my family was all failed, mentally ill and ND academics/intellectuals. But I simply never put in any effort and was outright defiant for anything that did not interest me - and I never did homework, flunked out of classes repeatedly and basically stayed home about 1/3rd of my career as a student, but still managed to finish school - probably because some teachers found that combination of knowledge and defiance "endearing" and they put in a word with the teachers that rightfully found it just to be obnoxious.
"Difficulty regulating" attention hits the nail on the head, and the fact that I thought to myself "But I can pay attention to things, I can even be extremely focused, so it can't be AD(H)D" as a misconception for decades was sadly a very regrettable part of my life that kept me from understanding myself properly.
(I even had a diagnosis when I was a kid, but my parents were rather ambivalent about it, and it was the late 90s/early 2000s, the time when ADHD was presented as "just those damn psychiatrists/psychologists suddenly pathologising normal behaviour, just discipline your kids right" very regularly and with relatively little backlash - probably one of the most damaging pop-culture contrarianisms that affected my childhood/teenage years. I internalised it for decades and just assumed that diagnosis back then must have been a "trendy" mistake, because the most superficial "these are the symptoms" materials I read, never seemed to fit properly - and the people I knew with confirmed ADHD seemed so different from how it manifested for them.)
This is actually textbook introvert. Ex/introverted has nothing to do with what you enjoy. It's about what "recharges your battery" and gives you the strength to continue.
Do you remember during lockdowns there were those people who were absolutely losing their minds because they missed being around people so much? Those are extraverts. They need people to recharge their batteries like you or I need our alone time to recharge ours.
People who need people, lol
Lockdown really was rhe best thing to happen im recent years 😌