On Being Self-Employed and ADHD

If an amusement park made a MythBusters themed attraction, what sort of ride would Adam want it to be? Can Adam talk more about having ADHD and being responsible for your own schedule/business? In this live stream excerpt Adam answers these questions from Tested members Ben Campbell, Andrew and Home with Katrina, whom we thank for their support!
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ADHD: Big Brother with Russ Jones

Intro bumper by Abe Dieckman

Thanks for watching!

[abductedcows]

Experiencing ADHD paralysis while fighting major depressive disorder is the very definition of a vicious cycle. It always makes me happy when I see people with ADHD succeed and thrive. It does bring a strange sense of hope to those that have been spinning their wheels for 40+ years that there is still a chance. Thank you for sharing the resource!

[RoundedWaffle]

I cannot express how much it would mean to hear from Adam how he manages his symptoms

[padoco]

I often describe having ADHD as trying to navigate a dirt path in a dense forest at night with nothing but a dim flashlight.
If anything takes your attention away from the path, it can take a very long time to find your way back to it again.

[vaughnd]

I was not prepared for Adam Savage to call me out so hard with the "You listen to the middle of songs then move on to the next one too" line.

[breaux]

I had a feeling over the years you had ADHD too because of all the little things you do during a build that reminded me of how I am when I’m engaged in a project I’m passionate about. It always gave me another reason to look up to you, but hearing you confirm it really drove that home and I look forward to hearing you talk more about your experience dealing with it.

I know what you mean when you hesitate to call it “suffering” from ADHD because there ARE days when you’re truly suffering from it, but other days it is the driving force behind the greatest things I’ve accomplished in my life and I don’t think I could have done those things without it

[ectoplasm]

One of my biggest hurdles is trying to get over that issue of feeling stressed out or claustrophobic when I need to switch subjects/gears/etc. and not allowing myself to get into the state of anxious, unproductive sort of catatonia where I worry about doing that thing and keep telling myself I'm going to do it and then I don't after hours of telling myself I'm going to do it.

[doriWyo]

Finally having a diagnosis of Adult ADD in my 60s, I can finally understand myself better.

[MaxRomantschuk]

I think I just had a minor epiphany when Adam described having to do a lot of content switching during a working day, and feeling claustrophobic. I have the same challenge and it was really nice to hear someone put that into words. I think neurotypical people don't really get it since their brains just don't react the same way.

[GrantSR]

I used to be an exhibits technician at the California Museum of Science and Industry, in Los Angeles. An interactive museum. I know EXACTLY how fast children can tear things up. Industrial crank handles that last a century in an industrial setting, would last six months in the museum.

[BlahEn]

Wow, 'Claustrophobia' from "gear switching' too many times in a day is such a relatable way to phrase that ADHD feeling!

[briandeschene]

Adam’s advice about giving people something to distract them from your actual goal or to give them an easy “win” is how I get through vehicle inspections. If an inspection is coming up, I don’t fix picky things for about two months prior including “stretching” maintenance items like oil change or streaky/chattery wiper blades. The shop then finds those easy wins which lets them feel and show they’ve done their job *and* made enough few hundred dollars and they don’t look so hard to “make up” some issue that must be resolved. Works with bosses at work too.

[thormusique]

Great show, thanks! As yet another human with ADHD, 'gear-switching' is also my great bugaboo. I'm now in my 60s and somehow thought I'd grow out of it by now. Yeah, right. Decades of meditation practice have really helped me to stay better focused, so nowadays I'm less likely to lose my train of— Oh look, a squirrel! ;-)

[DrSuperKamiGuru]

With my ADD I tend to hyper-focus on things I am interested in, like reading or video games, but it also lets my mind wander while I'm doing monotonous, repetitive tasks and I can go into auto-pilot mode and not get bored. I have also noticed that my brain sometimes doesn't process speech very well so while I might hear and recognize all the words in a sentence, they don't come together with any meaning until I ask the person to repeat what they said. A big thing that helps me is that when I was a teenager my doctor did a really great job of finding the right medication and dosage for me.

[Mr-Mag]

Thank you so much for the ADHD part I was diagnosed in the 70's, I will never forget that day I learned so much because the doctor explained my "super power" to me it changed my whole life.

[JohnyByrne]

It's great to hear Adam's open positive thoughts on living and working with ADHD. This is great to remove stigma. 👍

[jkit]

Please follow-up on the ADHD discussion. Having a child who was diagnosed with having ADHD when I was skeptical that ADHD was a legitimate thing, to now questioning if I have ADHD myself, I’m definitely interested in hearing your take. Thanks for all you do Adam!

[caseycanadian]

I’d like to hear more about your ADHD coping mechanisms around your shop. As a tradesman with ADHD it might be helpful for me and possibly others

[chiphill]

I'm a boomer, and a person with ADHD and Tourette Syndrome since grade school. So, one of the biggest aspects of my life that persisted for many years into adulthood, was the way adults reacted to me: Whoa! Stop! What are you doing? Would you please sit down! Would you please be quiet! Hey! Please don't do that! Why are you doing that? I'll pay you $50 to stop doing that! What's going on here? Hold on! As well as many other, much more derogatory comments. No one understood me at all. Kids like me were considered "Hyper" and a problem. It took years to overcome all of this negative stimuli. In today's world it's much more common to use terms such as "neurodivergent" and to show consideration for those afflicted.

I worked for about 30 years as a mechanical design engineer in various corporate settings, none of which I was prepared for. I only recently escaped the cubicle life and have struck out on my own building and restoring boats. Working for myself has been an huge game changer. There is much less structure, only as much as I create with those I work with. Which gives me space to work when I am motivated, even at odd hours of the day or night. If necessary, I can binge work for 24 or 36 hours to finish a project, then I can sleep as long as necessary to rebound. It's been absolutely life changing. I'll never be able to work for someone else again.



A constant barrage of negative stimuli.

[hughmnyks]

This stream taught me a lot - as did people’s comments. I’ve just translated a 400-page novel, my first in 30 years as a translator. I thought my ADHD wouldn’t allow me to do it, so it was great to hand over the result. But then the author started nitpicking over my punctuation and the claustrophobia is overwhelming. I can’t go thru all those pages and correct something I don’t think is wrong!

[classifiedveteran]

*Mythbusters theme park rides:*
— JATO rocket assisted Chevy Impala
— Drain pipe barreled man-canon with an AB foam discarding sabot
— Giant radio-mast-yoke surgical tubing border slingshot
—165-foot waterslide into a kiddie swimming pool
— Bungie jump apple bobbing
— 7-story seesaw launch catapult
— Boom lift catapult
— Scary merry-go-round _(a bullet-propelled merry-go-round)_
— Firetruck-powered water-jet hover car
— 8'x4' plywood glider
— Rocket-powered surfboard
— Escape slide parachute
— Dynamite surfing
— Helium raft
— weather balloon lawn chair
— Lawnmower from hell
— Electric-car-engine-powered washing machine spin cycle
— Whirlpool of death
— Alcaraz raincoat raft
— Duck-tape airplane
— James Bond ejection seat
— Hydroplaning motorcycle
— 55-gallon pulse-jet gocart
— Air-cylinder-powered jet-boat
— Leaf-blower-powered hovercraft
— Square-wheeled pickup truck
— Rocket-propelled 360° swing
— Airline seating drop crash rig
— Underwater car escape