And for anyone reading this who is wondering if that sounds familiar - a certain type of ADHD does tend to manifest as the ‘stays up for days working on the cool problem until they are so exhausted they pass out’, which looks remarkably like stimulant abuse for someone with ‘normal’ (quotes because it’s not like we fully understand what that means either) brain chemistry. And it happens without any external drugs or chemicals.
Medication (with stimulants) often allows the person to stop or control it when it isn’t helpful or desirable, and actually sleep. Which is quite unintuitive at first.
Inattentive type is also a thing, and often looks like someone who is always daydreaming/off in their own world. That tends to show up more in women, but that’s only a rough categorization. Some folks cycle back and forth.
Overall as pointed out elsewhere, it’s the difficulty in regulating and directing attention that is the problem, and when it causes distress and difficulty living a normal life is when it gets categorized as a disorder.
Medication (with stimulants) often allows the person to stop or control it when it isn’t helpful or desirable, and actually sleep. Which is quite unintuitive at first.
Inattentive type is also a thing, and often looks like someone who is always daydreaming/off in their own world. That tends to show up more in women, but that’s only a rough categorization. Some folks cycle back and forth.
Overall as pointed out elsewhere, it’s the difficulty in regulating and directing attention that is the problem, and when it causes distress and difficulty living a normal life is when it gets categorized as a disorder.