We ADHDers aren’t just HYPERactive, we can be HYPOactive too.
Hypoactivity makes your brain feels unalert, mentally tired and sluggish. Your brain feels like its full of cotton and you just can’t THINK.
We call it different names such as brain fog or fuzzy thinking, but it all refers to that hypoactivity that’s common with inattentive ADHDers. I call it zombie mode (or the ughhh). Some call it robot mode.
I was in zombie mode for most of my teenage years. My mind was so unalert that it would feel dissociative. Sometimes the fog would lift temporarily but I’d have little to no memory of last six months. But most of the time I’d be in that hypoactive <autopilot>.
Medication is really good at reducing how often I feel foggy. While it can ‘slow down’ hyperactive ADHDers, it can ‘speed up’ hypoactive ADHDers.
I really start feeling the hypoactivity when I’m not pursuing any projects.. or more generally when I’m not mentally stimulated.
When I was younger, I used to say that I NEEDED to be OBSESSED with something or I’d start getting depressed and this is still somewhat true. If I don’t keep my mind active, the hypoactivity sets in.. followed by depression.
Why?
Well, non-ADHDers have a mental ‘stand-by’ mode (think of it like putting your car brain engine in neutral gear vs turning the engine off completely).
ADHDers don’t have that mental ‘stand-by’ mode. So our focus rises when stimulated but completely falls to zero when not stimulated.
I need to be thinking about/ focusing on something all the time or my brain turns off its engine and I start feeling the sluggishness seep in.. leading to secondary depression.
(Some researchers have claimed that this is in fact a symptom of separate attention disorder called sluggish cognitive tempo/ concentration deficit disorder but this isn’t widely accepted)