How does one even live like this?

You suck all the dopamine out of something and move on leaving the drained husk of your former hobby behind. Hopefully the dopamine runs out before you put money into it.

I swear as soon as I put money into a hobby, I lose interest. I got a guitar I can't play, a hackRF I can't be bothered to relearn, a box of half built eletronics, an unknown amount of Raspberry Pis and Arduinos with no purpose...

As a person with no diagnosis of any type, I too feel confused by people only having ‘a few’ interests and hobbies. If my time were not so finite, and I had the financial means, I’d be pursuing a lot of random things

I find the world to be crawling with interesting things to learn about. From electric plugs, to coffee, to how computers work, etc. It always drives me insane that the average person doesn't seem to be remotely interested in learning much about how and why the world works..

Didn't know it could be an ADHD thing though.

I prefer the term "renaissance man".

My ADHD interests: intensely researching a topic that has no prospect of financial reward and wanting to talk about it to people who don’t care

Yup, that's me. Only have a handful of active interests at a time. But a couple of those are free floating interest slots that I'll swap out every month or few as I really dig into something new. And then everything else gets moved into passive interest territory, where I'm not seeking it out but can still relate or engage if it comes up again. So that's how I live with it.

Yeah, this sounds about right. I think this is why other people (without ADHD) often identify me with only one or two of my special interests instead of the full variety of all those interests. The other day I had to introduce me in a certain setting to someone where everyone had to mention their hobbies as well. I was struggling at first how to cram so many hobbies in a short time or how to prioritize them. Then a friend, who was also there, said to me "Oh, you like to upload pictures on iNaturalist!" This is true, but I did not really feel seen because of all the other hobbies that seem similarly important!

I had a similar moment of confusion when I realized "normal" people have to put forth effort to think. Your brains aren't always on, always thinking, about everything? You don't always notice every little detail (though sometimes at the expense of the bigger picture)? How can you do one thing over and over again without getting bored? You just obey and believe things you're told? You can follow rules you don't personally understand a need for? You've been doing a thing the same way forever just because that's the way it's always been done?

Sometimes it's aggravating to me as it seems like other people are being intentionally obtuse, but other times I envy the ability to float through life, free of thoughts and therefore free of anxiety.

Huh. I used to write notes to myself a few years ago when I was still in school and would get super drunk. "Look up modular synths," was one of my notes and I never went and actually did it. This is probably my calling to learn about them 🤔.

Can you imagine how specialized you would be if you only had one interest? Like the example non-ADD person just into politics... They must know the name of every representative at every level from city to country where they are living, know the detailed history of the political parties, and have a deep knowledge of political movements and their history.

I mean, I wouldn’t call it living. Maybe rather existing. :D

Only historical materialism can placate their rabid curiosity now

ADHD: how to get more out of life and less out of life at the same time.

i think ADHD is probably responsible for the bastardized version of "jack of all trades master of none"

That's my headcanon for it at least.

My interests tend to rotate, thankfully. I try to decorate my room or have things that will physically remind me of old hobbies and get me to jump start them back to life.

As someone who switched meds, didn't sleep much for about 14 days and discovered modular synths: I'm in this picture and I don't like it.

Disclaimer: let's face it, I actually love it. Like others in this thread, I can't even imagine how boring I'd feel not discovering a completely new interest / hobby / aspect of life all the time.

Hell, I know so many people my age who simply seem to stagnate and are simply not interested in anything any longer, and I feel "protected" from that. Life is fucking exciting, let me try all the things!

There are definitely layers to this though, I have core interests that are more aligned with my personality, and I feel that governs how invested I am into each particular hobby. That doesn't keep me from having wildly varying interests, though.

I have one broad interest that manifests in many ways: I like to make things. From a D&D table, to a workbench, to glowing led hex panels, to making automated blinds from scratch, to cutting worm gears, to internal keyway cutters, to sex machines, to syncing up videos to said sex machines, to grind rails and ramps for skating, to gearboxes, to spool un-winders, to book presses, to rpi powered media centers, to pi arcades, to bed frames.....just to name a few.

wonder if this has anything to do with an inability to say youre not interested when someone starts talking to you about something (at least in my case because i perceive it as being rude and i absolute hate feeling like ive been rude) leading to the actual development of a larger range of interests

ive never understood when my friends decline something because it "sounds boring" i just cant think that way at all

NT: "So what are your interests?"

Me, inside: "Software development, compression algorithms, binary file processing, scripting in Bash and Powershell, web development, networking, homelab/selfhosting, household automation, 3D graphics and modelling (and a particular fascination with Geometry Nodes), shader programming, video game development, video games..."

Me, outside: "... ...I like computer? Like, all of computer?"

when self-hating people who've learned a little about genetics and evolution pipe up with "why are we even still in the gene pool" sadposts ... this is why. overall, this style of thinking is a net positive to the proliferation of Homo sapiens, and every now and then even a net positive to the people who embody it.

People: what do you do in life? Me: video games. that's it, just videogames. A LOT of videogames

Uh, I was never diagnosed with any type yet I have fuckloads of different interests, though I very rarely devote enough time to any of them. Maybe I should recheck? Or is it just a case of internet rabbit holes? I mean, you start perusing wikipedia and you have no idea how you went from vector graphic formulae to chemical composition of certain drugs to baryon asymmetry.

no i do not have adhd. i love doing lots of things and learning lots of things. it means you are a smart person and have alot of time on your hands to do all that. most people are in a RUT and work home and family thats it.

This is one of the things my other ND things cancels out. Or maybe just the way my ADHD is more on hyper focusing than being totally unfocused? I only like, basically, 3 things. Video games, music, and language. Granted, "language," covers a lot.

How I am is not a disorder. Other people just want to put me in line behind them.

What does it say about starting all those hobbies / projects and not finishing any?

Nonsense. I’ve had myself certified to be riddled with ADHD by 5 separate psychiatrists, and I’ve lost count of my hobbies/interests. And I have every intention of returning to leathercraft one day… just as soon as I dig my bed back out and get a good nights sleep.

Part of me really misses the certainty of the old school psychiatry. It seemed to hold the promise of answers and ultimately solutions. For if conclusions cold be reached problems could be identified and solved or otherwise compensated for.

Unfortunately this was never the case. It was just well meaning folks making it up as they went along. If they could convince their colleagues to buy in and do a bit of limited research… bingo, accepted theory.

Now we just get an endless wash of statistics and papers loaded with so much domain specific language they are practically indecipherable.