I will do this thoroughly. you can't stop me. Table of Contents 1. Basic Summary (aka tl:dr) 2. Biology. 3. Basic Effects. 4. Effects of THOSE effects. 5. General Perception in Media and why i hate it 6. How this will effect Lakekit! 7. The bright side to all this 8. I cite all my sources here. No i don’t i just cite the ones i remember. I have done too much research over my life. 1 Adhd is a disorder that mostly affects attention and impulsiveness. Lakekit will have combined types meaning she will display traits of both inattentive type adhd, forgetfulness and a tendency to not focus on things she doesn’t like, and hyperactive type, meaning she will display impulsivity and a need to constantly be moving. 2 Ultimately we don’t really know for sure what causes adhd but it does tend to be inherited. My mom and I have discussed a few brain things on multiple occasions, leading to an idea that before civilization, adhd could have been evolutionarily useful. It causes differences in the brain structure that i don’t know much about but i do know about the neurotransmitters involved in it. Those are dopamine and norepinephrine. (dopamine and norepinephrine are connected) Dopamine is a a brain chemical that helps with your internal rewards system. for example if you eat food and feel good after that’s dopamine. Adhd is connected to lower levels of dopamine and therefore norepinephrine. 3 After reviewing a few different sources i can to the conclusion that adhd is mainly characterized my a difficulty regulating attion and reward seeking behaviors. Due to the low amounts of dopamine it makes regulating behaviors to get dopamine harder. This causes low attention spans, impulsively and a myriad of other issues. One of those issues is executive dysfunction. Also due to the fight-or-flight chemical being messed with there are sometimes sensory issues and sleep problems that come from adhd. 4 So by now you will have likely learned that this seems like it sucks, generally speaking. Fun fact life being negatively impacted can and will cause issues. Most mental disorders have high comorbidity rates, I theorize that this comes from both a chemical imbalance in the brain not only affecting one thing, genetic factors, and life sucks so a person would be more likely to develop other disorders. Inattention and impulsivity can create a hard time for kids and adults with adhd to connect with peers. And forgetfulness and impulsivity can also cause organizational problems, but Lakekit doesn’t have to worry about that. Also the sleep issues that could happen often effect things. 5 Generally I see adhd being portrayed in media with bubbly and carefree. Our impulsiveness is portrayed with overused jokes like, “SqUiRrEl” and everything else only exists to laugh at. Characters with adhd are often used for comedy, and I’ve rarely seen adhd characters that are i emphasize with because of their adhd. (percy jackson series thank you) problems from adhd are constantly treated like a banana on the floor, a problem but if you just look you’ll be fine, it’s no big deal, everyone struggles to pay attention, everyone forgets things from time to time. No one ever sees it as an actual problem. “Wow you must use that as an excuse so often” first of all sir, I don’t like to explain myself beacuse i have a hard time understanding when people want those, second of all it impacts nearly every aspect of my life. that is one of the diagnostic criteria, it has to impact you in multiple settings. I don't think I've ever seen media portray executive dysfunction. I've really seen social difficulties from adhd be portrayed, (thank you again to the percy jackson series.) they are often portrayed as stupid and incompetent, and when they are allowed to be smart they are still portrayed as air-headed. This is just wrong. People also tend to not do enough research and just stand on the stupid stereotypes. Lakekit also gets to be slightly above average as a fighter until everyone in her age group learns how to not get hit. (me fr)
6 Lakekit will have a TERRIBLE memory. She’ll often forget words, and she will also talk fast, her brain seemingly directly connected to her mouth. She’ll fidget a lot, and will seem to be constantly chattering, which could lead to her coming off as annoying, or for people to filter out important things she’s saying. She’ll have difficulty figuring out what cats want from her, not paying attention to subtext. She’ll find it extremely difficult to start tasks she doesn’t like, but be struggle stopping activities she likes. She’ll find lots of light a sound to be overwhelming, and will often stay up at night as a result of both this and sleep issues. Also as I mentioned earlier Lakekit will be good at fighting for her age group until everyone figures out not getting hit. She’ll struggle weighting actions a consequences, and often forget to entirely. She has to /care/ to do something, if the action itself is not the cause of why she should care she will have a hard time doing it. For example if Duckdandelion asked her to gather rocks she would struggle to do it, but if it was phrased to make the rocks themselves the reward she would. Action in themselves have to be satisfying, not the rewards for those actions. She’ll also often make minor mistakes. I can't foresee any comorbities yet, though I'm pretty sure social anxiety is the most likely one. She's also like to start assuming everyone dislikes her during later apprenticehood. I'm fairly certain she got adhd genetically, with her mom's anxiety. 7 So Lakekit doesn’t live in modern society. She has no math homework to forget and doesn’t have to sit in a classroom for hours. This will likely mitigate some of the effects of her disorder. Her low impulse control will help her not hesitate in battle and when she hunts. She will likely put a lot of attention into battle, so she will excel in it. Her sensory issues will help her spot prey and avoid ambushes. She ultimately lives in a hunter-gatherer society, which my mom and I theorize adhd evolved for. 8 https://icd.who.int/browse11/l-m/en#/http://id.who.int/icd/entity/821852937 https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/attention-deficit-hyperactivity-disorder-adhd. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/adult-adhd/symptoms-causes/syc-20350878 personal experience. a lot of that. and also many forgotten sources of information because this isn't the first time i've looked into adhd.
