this post was submitted on 18 Nov 2024
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I feel like the ADHD community is embracing a whole raft of symptoms that I thought were more bipolar ii related because this sure sounds a lot like me during one of my hypomanic phases. i'm not sure where the nuanced distinctions are... maybe it comes down to whether you also spend thousands of dollars on gear to support said project and/or just decide sleep is optional while you're tackling it? or crash into a depressive phase triggered by frustration when you inevitably fail and abandon it? IDK
Hey I'm someone who can answer this.
ADHD, by itself, does not have manic episodes. There's a lot of supporting documentation to that effect.
Mania is often caused by having too much dopamine. ADHDers don't have enough dopamine ever, unless with medication, or with hyperfocus.
So the similarity you're seeing is only in that people with ADHD will negotiate, move things around, eat only ramen for a month in order to buy things related to the new hyperfocus. Pursuing the hyperfocus gives us dopamine, so we will do lots to justify getting that, since we don't have any. People with bipolar can have manic episodes which can be caused by an abundance of dopamine, which leads them to doing things they shouldn't, because they can't control themselves.
I can't speak for others, but all of the blockhead decisions I've ever made while hyperfocusing and buying too many supplies, I've absolutely known I shouldn't, and why I shouldn't, but I'm trying to get my fix so I'm going to buy that lockpicking kit, thankyouverymuch, and if I have to eat ramen for a week to do it, I will!
(Pro tip I got from someone else online. If the hyperfocus gets you bad, spend lots and lots of extra time shopping for, researching, and making damn sure the thing you want to buy is the perfect one for your hyperfocus. I've been able to buy myself a couple of weeks this way, which allowed me to save up. I treat hyperfocus like unexpected car maintenance problems nowadays.)
Thank you, this comment helped me understand something, because during hypomania I legitimately do not notice except in hindsight that my priorities may have been off; everything makes total sense in a way that it doesn't when I'm not in that state. Similarly, until I bought a smart watch that could track sleep and started wearing it to bed, I actually didn't notice how little sleep I would get during these phases--sometimes less than four hours a night for a straight week, and I would barely feel any difference. It sounds like there is more of a kind of self-awareness during ADHD hyperfocus, and sometimes I have that as well--I'm learning to discern which is which, just like I learned to use indicators like sleep to recognize when I am at risk of a hypomanic episode.
Delayed sleep phase is often comorbid with ADHD. I have to take sleeping medication because my body wants to be up until about 4am and sleep until about 1pm. Which isn't sustainable with our modern way of life.
If you can, I 100% recommend seeing a professional. It took until I was 36 to figure out what all my deal is, but it was so worth it.
Good luck on your path either way! There are answers. Sometimes it's a huge, horrible slog to get them, but they're there.