this post was submitted on 27 Sep 2025
383 points (98.7% liked)

ADHD

12045 readers
180 users here now

A casual community for people with ADHD

Values:

Acceptance, Openness, Understanding, Equality, Reciprocity.

Rules:

Encouraged:

Relevant Lemmy communities:

Autism

ADHD Memes

Bipolar Disorder

Therapy

Mental Health

Neurodivergent Life Hacks

lemmy.world/c/adhd will happily promote other ND communities as long as said communities demonstrate that they share our values.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] zaidka@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 days ago

I feel, for me at least, it's more than just curiosity. Bottom up thinking makes you obsessively want to learn the deeper truth so you can build more generalized knowledge. For example, a neurotical student learning the Pythagorean theorem would simply memorize the formula which is easy and straightforward. Maybe if they're curious enough they'd try to understand why it works. But for a bottom up thinker, memorizing the formula as a floating piece of knowledge is difficult. So they need to have a deeper understanding of the underlying principles in order to "ground" that knowledge.

My pet theory is that people with ADHD have to rely more on bottom up thinking to compensate for their weaker working memory. Having a deeper understanding of a subject makes things easier to remember and reason about. Kind of like how it's easier to remember a phone number if you look for patterns within it. This "hypercuriosity" is an advantage in the same sense as wheelchair users have the advantage of having stronger arms.

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 53 points 6 days ago (2 children)

You know the saying: Hypercuriosity hyperkilled the hypercat.

[–] otter@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 6 days ago
[–] Infynis@midwest.social 2 points 6 days ago

Turns out safety regulations are written in our blood

[–] Carbonizer@lemmy.world 20 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Alas, I have the 'nothing at all gives me dopamine' ADHD. I thought it was just depression for years, but turns out it was ADHD. I struggle to see any benefits that come from my condition.

[–] GaMEChld@lemmy.world 11 points 6 days ago (1 children)

ADHD can correlate with depression. You still need to treat the depression though. Untreated depression will indeed blind you to anything positive about anything.

[–] EldenLord@lemmy.world 5 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Yup, it‘s probably that. In a societal vacuum, the curiosity would exist, but the daily struggle and resulting depression overshadows it.

(Source: Been through it, currently recovering.)

[–] GaMEChld@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

Same, was speaking from experience as well. I consider myself recovered from the depression now, but it was definitely something I needed to proactively address.

[–] TDCN@feddit.dk 10 points 5 days ago

My curiosity absolutely does not disappear when I'm medicated! I'd rather say that it gets refined and sharpened such that I can better filter out noisey ideas that irrelevant and focus on my curiosity and creativity such that I can actually execute on the ideas I have.

[–] Krauerking@lemy.lol 18 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Duh.
You think a behavior that was handled in humanity for thousands of years would be fully disadvantageous or perhaps just we are letting our world be dominated by what a few think it should look like?
It may not fit into the current world but that is more a statement on it than us.

[–] cute_noker@feddit.dk 9 points 6 days ago (1 children)

It's like my boss says

"Just shut up and do your job"

Right now I am into mushrooms but that doesn't pay the bills

[–] Krauerking@lemy.lol 5 points 6 days ago

Yeah i wish it was easier to get in and out of jobs. I would open a really awesome popcorn shop i think but i cant risk the bills.

But thats the flaw of our current society that we cant explore how we can help make the world a little more full instead of utilitarian.

[–] ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com 16 points 6 days ago

PFFT advantage of asking too many questions and pissing off all the normals? Yup, got it.

[–] webghost0101@sopuli.xyz 18 points 6 days ago

“Dampening such impulsive behavior so that the child can focus and succeed makes intuitive sense. But what if dampening the child’s impulsivity also dampens curiosity?”

Perfectly explains my struggle with learning physics in school and it quickly becoming a hobby of mine when i stopped being medicated when i no longer went to school.

[–] Formfiller@lemmy.world 18 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

You mean like my 256,475 hobbies?

[–] Infynis@midwest.social 7 points 6 days ago

So if you ever wonder who it was that figured out you can eat something weird way back in history, sounds like it was probably someone with ADHD lol

[–] Homesnatch@lemmy.world 8 points 6 days ago

adhd hypercuriosity post followed by cat photo

These two share curiosity in common.

Yeah I have it, it's let me learn a lot of new things but it falters when I really want to explore those things or God forbid, get better at them

[–] BrianTheFirst@lemmy.world 6 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I read the article, but I don't understand how hypercuriosity is a benefit. It's more annoying than anything, because I can't do anything practical with it.

[–] EldenLord@lemmy.world 5 points 6 days ago

It‘s a benefit for society. Some people being weird and trying new ways to improve tasks are eventually successful. Think caveman constantly rolling down things a hill and inventing the wheel.

load more comments
view more: next ›