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I Have ADHD, And There’s A List For That

Arthur Keith
8 min readMar 12, 2021

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Sex, Drugs, and….

Illustration by Andrii Zastrozhnov on Shutterstock

Given my love and need for lists, you’d think this might be a listicle. (I never even heard of that word until I started writing on Medium.)

Each ADHD’er manifests symptoms differently. To one not familiar, you might picture a person who has maniacal tendencies. While there is that aspect with some who are afflicted, most do not come off looking and acting like hyperactive trainwrecks. It mostly has to do with focus and the lack thereof.

My ADHD Story

My main symptom is an overriding, internal panic attack. If everything is necessary, how do you prioritize? As the day wears on, I become more and more anxious about the things not done on my lists. (I have an anti-anxiety medication but will only take that at bedtime.) My plan of attack has been to create piles roughly sorted by subject and lists. Tons of lists. I’m also constantly trying to put things in a logical place, but rarely can I find what I need. Why?

Because of the fucking “to be filed” piles, nothing ever gets put in its place.

Upon describing these and other symptoms to a new psychiatrist in Chicago in 2015, he administered an ADHD test. I don’t remember one question on it, but I did “well” enough to qualify for a prescription to Adderall. That’s what I was…

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Arthur Keith
Arthur Keith

Written by Arthur Keith

My goal is to inform, educate, & entertain. Top writer in LGBTQ, Music, Climate Change. Directionally dyslexic with an excellent sense of direction.

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