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Comment by encrypted_bird | Hacker News Reader

Hey, come on... I have ADHD and love reading. No need to use that as a bludgeon. It's unnecessary...

Apologies friend, neighbor comment has it right. Not trying to shade anyone with ADHD, just calling out as a widespread/modern challenge. Same with poor reading skills. Parents, schools, and culture have failed many people, who might otherwise have been avid readers, but instead they don't even know the joy of reading a good book.

Ah, no worries then. I apologize for misunderstanding. :)

I didn't read it that way, I thought the GP was listing it as one of the newer challenges to getting kids (and adults!) to read. IMO it doesn't prevent you from loving to read, but it does make it harder.

Okay, well that's definitely a more interpretation that I didn't see. I may have misunderstood. Thanks, friend.

I knew a friend with ADHD that had a hard time reading. I suggested to him that he visualize and draw an image of everything he’s reading in his mind and apparently that made that a lot easier.

Um, were they not visualizing books as they read them? I'm assuming fiction like novels. How could one possibly read a novel and not visualize everything they're reading?

Oh have I got a treat for you! The ability to make the magic pictures appear in your mind is not actually a universal human experience. There's a broad range of related topics, but the place to start is probably 'Aphantasia'[0].

It's quite interesting to talk about with friends and compare experiences. Good if you're all comfortable enough to allow a little bit of "treating the witness as hostile".

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphantasia

Doesn't your ADHD interfere with sitting down and reading?

not if it's a fantastic book

One part of ADHD is hyperfocus. ADHD is a dopamine deficiency issue, so when something highly stimulating (like a good book, or writing code) causes a release of dopamine the brain locks onto it and won't let go.

You misunderstand how it works. It's not "can't pay attention" like people think. It's "have difficultly directing attention". There's two different failure modes. One is "not interesting enough, so can't keep my attention focused on it" and the other is "too interesting, so can't take my attention off it". You'll find ADHDers that like reading probably read a lot.

For me it made it a little dangerous to read: I hyperfocus on the book and can't get anything else done until I've finished it.

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