You say that, but as another anecdote, I'm fit and lift weights, and I don't eat junk food. I wish my sleep were better but that's not for lack of trying.

LoganDark's comment about some people with ADHD being absolutely unable to will themselves to do certain things describes me so well it's scary. It's something I've struggled with for years, and has affected me at work lately.

I've always known I'm not lazy or stupid, and in the last few years I discovered programming and taught myself software development. I fixate on things strongly yet I struggle to do mental work if it just so happens that I find it uninteresting or pointless. It's fucking me up. My therapist even pointed out a few weeks ago that it's a strong sign of ADHD, but I hate the thought of having that... I guess now I really should seriously explore this. I only know that I started feeling like my dev job is pointless even though it's a great job, and my coworkers are fantastic. It's more deep than just pointless but now I can barely will myself do anything related to work...

The brain really is fucked ha

This comment is extremely rude.

"Have you just tried not having ADHD?" is what I've been told thousands of times. Yeah man, I've tried. I am extremely fit, exercise all the time, have a great Vo2 max, lift weights, sleep 9 hours a night, and don't snore. I'm vegetarian and eat very little sugar (I've even done keto for five years with no change in symptoms).

If I was neurotypical, sleep and exercise would help a lot more. But I'm not. I instead have to use dozens of alarms on my phone, pair programming, hyperfocus training, and deadline panic to get through the work week. Home stuff remains in shambles, still haven't figured out how to do the dishes or put clothes away.

And I've got a pretty mild case.

Some of my friends are much much worse off.

You fundamentally misunderstand ADHD and your word choices are very antagonistic.

> poor general mental health which would be solved if the person in question didn’t mouthbreathe and eat sugar, and slept well and exercised regularly.

I cannot do those things.

I've been to physical therapy multiple times for things that are caused by a lack of physical activity. Their advice is the same every time: it would take less than 15 seconds every day to do a single stretch. Here are diagrams showing you how to do them. Look how easy it is.

But even that is too much. I don't want it to be too much, I know it's dead simple and any normal person would be able to do it without a second thought, but that is the problem. I'm not a normal person, and my brain doesn't work like a normal person's does. It does not let me do that.

It does not let me know when I should do that. If I set a timer/alarm, then when it goes off, I can't even listen to it. Either I just can't get up, or I want to finish what I'm doing first and then I completely forget.

This isn't something that I control. It's not something that I chose. And it's not something that I can fix by simply being less pathetic. Because as much as I'm aware of these behaviors and now ridiculous they are, I cannot help them. There is no way for me to just make myself do something.

My brain just only lets me do what it wants.