The PINCH ME Acronym
What Actually Is ADHD?
ADHD stands for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Which is not the most useful descriptor, because the experience of ADHD does not tend to be one of a lack of attention, but rather an inability to force that attention onto things that it doesn’t want to attach to. The attention deficit was identified by outside parties, teachers and parents and the like wanted to direct the attention of their wards with or without their consent. This understanding of ADHD as a dysregulation of attention explains the experience of ‘hyperfocus’ or the laser-like attention that pulls you so deep into a single task or topic that you fail to notice that you need to pee (not that I am speaking from experience .
Okay so we don’t lack attention, it’s just not captured by the sorts of things that neuro-normative institutions want to capture our attention. So what does capture it? Well we are in luck, there is a nifty little acronym to help us remember the things that pull us in.
PINCH ME
Play
Interest
Novelty
Competition
Hurry Up (Urgency)
Moral Compass
Emotional Motivation
Javelin’s Experiences
Okay depending on the person some of these things will have a stronger draw than others. I for example, have long eschewed competition as a way to grasp my attention, mostly because I don’t like the kind of person I become when I am competing for stuff. Too many rage filled endings to Settles of Cantan that fill me with shame for how seriously I took those little imaginary victory points.
On the other hand, before discovering that I have 80 of the HDs, I absolutely used one of these to manufacture attention and motivation, namely Hurry Up (Urgency). I completed my undergraduate degree in Psychology writing my papers the night before they were due almost without exception. This was a combination of autistic inertia (an inability to get started on a task), and self-medicating my ADHD by mainlining anxiety. I cannot count the number of 3am tear-drenched essay writing marathons I forced myself into. Over the years the tears dried up along with all the fucks I had ever given academically. I finished my degree a year late and fled into my acting career, but it would be years before I stopped waking up in a cold sweat at 5 in the morning thinking I had forgotten about an assignment or paper that I hadn’t even started.
In terms of positive attention, my most fulfilling pathway is interest. God the deliciousness of good information on a topic that has awoken the dragon within me that hordes knowledge beneath his scales, a rich trove despite its lack of metallic shine. That shine is not found in the pages of my books, but in the corner of my eyes as they consume them whole. I’ve heard it called information hunger. An apt description. When it is roused is it ravenous. It will not rest til it is sated. This one is powerful, but not easily manipulated. Like a capricious god it does as it pleases.
What Now?
So what do we do with this now? Well we are scientists here at Alchemy, and we understand the importance of observation and data collecting before trying to make changes. So this is an opportunity to start observing and noticing.
What kinds of things grab your attention and keep it for a while?
What are the themes present for the projects and tasks you can stick with?
What are the themes around the things that lose your attention?
This is your starting point to understanding your own unique attention system. Once you know the things that grasp you, you can start building those attention grabbers into the things that you struggle to do.
Tell me about the things that grab your attention!