People with ADHD often feel relief when they scratch a new car because protecting it requires constant mental effort they don't have. Once it's damaged, that exhausting vigilance can finally stop.
You may have ADHD if you're actually relieved when your new car gets that scratch or dent. The reason you're going to feel relieved is because of a few things with our brain chemistry. First, low executive function means that this is one big thing on your to-do list to protect and to make sure that that thing stays nice, and that's a lot of work. Another thing is that with low dopamine, we have high impulsivity and We can get distracted. Things can happen that are more likely for this to happen. And then when it does happen, we can really feel bad about ourselves and be embarrassed and ashamed. But the reality is it's going to happen. And where most people get frustrated when it finally happens, for us, if it happens quickly, we can be relieved because now we don't have to spend our executive function on it. Now we don't have to worry about it. And as long as it's not a big dent or a big scratch, we still have a really nice new car.
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