It sounds like you've developed depression and it's making your ADHD symptoms worse.

See a therapist if you can afford it, or at least a regular doctor and get some antidepressants

I understand completely. I'm over 40, and my normal day is: go to work, come home, smoke weed and hang out with my wife. She needs the TV running at all times, and it's near impossible for me to look away from it when it's on.

Sometimes I think about all the things we could be doing and I feel disappointed in myself, but aside from chores that get put off a little longer than they should, there's not really anything else I want to be doing. I'm depressingly content in my mediocrity. (Does that count as a paradox?)

As someone else said, they feel guilty diving into an obsession, and I agree completely. I think I'd love to jump into Balder's Gate, but my wife has no interest in watching me do that, so I'd feel guilty about not spending that time with her. And yes, I realize that we are allowed to have our own interests, but a game like that could absorb me for a whole night and it would only feel like a moment to me.

This really resonates with me. It certainly feels like it gets harder to manage every year, but I don't know that that's actually the case. I think the reality is just that I've become much more aware of my deficiencies over time.

As a child I wouldn't bat an eye at playing video games for 10 hours straight without eating or drinking anything, but as an adult I'm aware that I could be doing so much more productive things with my time. Now, if I ever feel the familiar urge of a new fixation setting in I also feel melancholic because I have to actively temper myself to the point I feel guilty if I indulge it.

Career-wise, yes, in my experience.

When you start out in junior positions, you don’t tend to have a lot of autonomy in your work life. Other people are setting priorities, deadlines etc, and you’re just along for the ride.

As your career advances, you tend to take on more leadership duties. You’re more responsible for managing your own work, and then eventually other peoples’ as well. This is where executive functioning deficits tend to start to really hit home.

It’s not for nothing that a lot of people get diagnosed in middle age.

This is the first time I've seen someone else describe exactly how I have been feeling every single day for the last few years. Like, to a T.

Yes. But part of that for me is greater expectations on adults and lots of stress. Burnout will suck all the enjoyment out of everything. Depression will, too. Medication may help. Might be worth looking into.

You like board games? My wife and I are usually on Boardgamearena.com playing games with each other.

It probably won't add much purpose to your life, but might keep you occupied. My username is the same there if you could use a game buddy!

I very much go through this. It can be hard looking at all the niche things around my house which I spent so much energy pursuing - specialized photography rigs, magic cards, jewelry making tools+storage, exercise gear, crazy keyboard setups for multiboxing, etc. With all of those came the community aspect. I feel so guilty just disappearing after gaining so much attention and recognition in various areas. I can confidently say I'm paralyzed with some type of fear to get into new things- I know they'll consume me, but then one day I'll wake up and just see it as a source of stress and drop it. If I had infinite money and loved socializing, I'd not be too stuck, but I just can't afford to keep cycling through interests right now. The things which tend to interest me always demand a financial sink.

I don't think it gets harder with time - but, as an executive dysfunction, I think having more decisions to make is more difficult. When you were a kid you'd have parents directing a lot of your life but now you need to make all those decisions yourself. Additionally, I'm sure that stress doesn't help... having additional stress as an adult will just make everything harder.

Yes, ADHD symptoms are only problematic when combined with time. If you are able to separate ADHD symptoms from time, they won't even occur.

I wonder how much of this is influenced by society's trends toward information consumerism. Things like short-form content and constant context-switching in media etc.

Not to say this is the whole picture, but for people predisposed to latch on to that sort of stuff I feel like there's an exacerbation factor there.

It's still a journey, but in my case, these are the things that have helped:

• Volunteering - by far the thing that has helped the most. I volunteer as a teaching assistant helping refugees learn English, and it not only gets me out of the house, but I've met a lot of great people, and I feel like I'm really making a positive impact in the world. It's also really easy, as far as volunteering goes - as a native speaker, I know English pretty well after all.

• Medication seems to be helping in my case, though this one is the most "your mileage may vary". I haven't been taking it long, but it's made a huge difference in my energy level and my bouts of executive dysfunction.

• This one is going to sound weird, but (atheistic) spiritualism - in particular, Tarot. I've always been against spiritualism because it isn't "science", but lately I've been coming around to the idea that the way we think and feel about the world has just as much effect on our lives as anything else. I liked Tarot in particular because all it really is is a form of self-guided meditation. I don't believe in any "supernatural" stuff personally, but the ritual of shuffling and laying out the cards is very calming, and the randomness of the cards forces you to see your issues from a perspective you may not have considered before. Of course, any form of meditation would likely do the exact same thing.

I should also mention that I'm generally in a very privileged situation (especially now - I wasn't always quite so lucky), so I can't deny that plays a large factor as well.

I feel that. Maybe get into a local or remote community with people about something, and share your stuff?

Nature and Linux communities are always pretty edgy and cool.

If you're working at it, then it should become more automatic - it should take less conscious effort to keep from doing things that are problematic.

It's a practice thing, just like learning other stuff. ADHD responds very well to Cognitive Behavioural Therapy - where you essentially re-write the scripts we all operate by. But it takes time and practice - the repitition of substituting a new internal dialog for any given thought process/script.

To that end, 2 books may be helpful:

Adults and ADHD - this is good for seeing how it functions in adults VS kids.

Your Erroneous Zones by Wayne Dyer. Early "self help" book, but he's actually teaching Cognitive Behavioural Therapy without calling it that. Just showing how we use our internal dialog without thinking about it.

It is a constant struggle. I'm stuck spending money on hobbies I used to love trying to find the same enjoyment again but not finding it.

You described my life

Dealing with this as well. Pretty crippling when I find myself without an engaging hobby. It got really bad during the COVID years.

Finding the slow plod out of the depths has be helped by creative activities. I have about 5 projects on the go currently. As ambitious as making a video game to as unimportant as making a small felted sheep.

I didn't get my diagnosis till I was in my 40s but I found the professional acknowledgement to be helpful. I find it a lot easier to forgive myself for the wasted time and unfinished projects. I've also found the ability to forgive myself makes returning to dormant projects a lot easier.

I recently moved to the back and beyond (not helpful at all) but it highlighted how important it is to have people that move you away from your patterned behaviors. Face to face time with another person with ADHD and the same interests is a gold mine for helping break routine getting you to engage and making you feel positive about who and what you are.

Don't get down on yourself for not being able to find the answers right away. Look for the small things that make life easier and the moments that tend to sap you of energy and limit those (I wear only white tshirts and jeans, have 30 odd pairs of the exact same socks to avoid decision fatigue around getting dressed).

Not sure if it's helpful but I'm a post 40 child and I'm still finding new things to do. I don't do as well with learning as I used to but I can attest to the fact that you can still get good at lots of stuff. I've learned things like knitting, mountain bikeing, programming, stone masonry, car repair all fairly competently all in my late 30s early 40s.

For me the no.1 take away is self forgiveness. When you can stop wasting energy on the fact that you didn't accomplish what you wanted, realize that we are biologically hardwired to feel that way and instead give yourself a high five for trying, it definitely gets easier.

Best of luck, hope you get a chance at some point to

This may be adult disenchantment. I think this is a general progression of how we see the world.

I personally still have a ton of awesome things to deal with etc, but absolutely, diving into fantasy dreamworlds is farer away

I feel pretty much the same way... Do you feel more lonely than before your excitement run out?