After closely examining the male lead of my story's quirks, it has come to my attention that he could (reasonably) be declared to have ADHD. But to be blunt about it, I want it to be one of those 'if you look explicitly for x or y symptom, you won't be able to identify it but if you examine everything together it makes sense' type of cases. People around him can tell he's 'built different' but can't put a finger on it. He himself has issues with feeling like a fish out of water even when he's hailed as the top of his class. However doctors say he's fine so he can't really tell what's 'off' to begin with, even if he has an inkling that something is off. I want to write him in a way that people familiar with the disorder will go 'yup, he totally has it' without going too stereotype-y about it. The guy is a master thief, next in line to be the leader of a mafia group. So there are plenty of other things about him he could be considered 'eccentric'. Those facets of his personality really distract others from noticing the ADHD quirks he has. In short, I kind of want it to be a secret kept between him and the reader, who may or may not also have ADHD but I want that connection to be there. I'd especially like to avoid directly spelling it out, or even hinting that he has it, if that makes sense?
I gave you that list of quirks to play with in the other thread, and that would be worth dipping into for some traits, but you're definitely on the right track with what you've said here about adding up to the whole as apposed to a list of symptoms. Yes, there's a DSM checklist of symptoms, but those things don't explain a condition. They might help identify it, but that's where the usefulness stops, in my opinion. ADHD is a very slight evolutionary difference, so slight that eye colors are further apart in DNA variation, or at least that's what I've read. Most people can identify with most of the symptoms of ADHD. It's the degree to which these things affect someone that makes the difference. Everyone loses their keys or walks into a room but can't remember why, but with ADHD, these things are a much more frequent bother. When I walk into a room and forget why I'm there, the odds are, I might not even be in the room I meant to go to when I got up off of the couch. There's a key element that I always had trouble voicing until I heard someone on YouTube express it some time back. It's the concept of "out of sight, out of mind," and it explains exactly the constant forgetful state. In short, if it isn't in the front of your thoughts, it practically doesn't exist. It hasn't been forgotten. It's still stored away somewhere, but if it isn't present and part of the moment, it has likely temporarily vanished from thought. That's why appointments and plans slip by without even occurring to us until something reminds us later. Oddly though, we usually have more thoughts present at once than most people. "Attention deficit" is a misnomer. There's no deficit. We actually pay attention to too many things at once and have trouble focusing on one. Most of us have a high situational awareness, which might be handy for a thief. The problem comes when you're supposed to be concentrating on something that isn't particularly stimulating. All those distractions become extremely difficult to filter out. On the other hand, if the task is engaging, we can often hyperfocus like no one else. There's also this thing called floating attention. Everyone has it. It's the part of your thoughts that are aware of your surroundings. It's handy so things don't sneak up on you, but with ADHD, it's hard to block out. Most of us naturally develop a fidgeting coping mechanism. We fidget with our hands or play with a coin or rubber band, and that occupies the part of the brain that would otherwise draw us off task. Some of us listen to music or audiobooks that others would find distracting while we work for the same reason. I listen to bebop when I write, stuff like Charles Mingus or John Coltrane. It's frantic and energetic and would drive most people crazy while trying to concentrate, but for me, it helps distract that floating attention and allows me to focus. There was an interesting theory years ago about hunter kids in farmer schools. Someone realized that a lot of ADHD traits were suited to hunting, like situational awareness and hyperfocus, and theorized that it might be left over from pre-agricultural days. It's not a theory that many subscribe to, but it still works as a metaphor in explaining why people with ADHD have trouble functioning as easily in a society that runs on schedules and deadlines. Even some of the less prominent symptoms fit the model, like delayed sleep phase disorder. DSPD is a condition in which an individual's circadian rhythms are "off," causing them to naturally sleep during the day and have energy at night, a potential hunter trait, and it's extremely common with ADHD. That's actually a trait I skipped in my list the other day. Your character might be a night owl and have a lot of trouble sleeping regular hours without a pill. I hope some of this helps. Feel free to ask me about anything I didn't cover satisfactorily. Some of this stuff might be hard to depict, but you don't really need to cover everything out loud. As long as you're true to the core features, the little quirks they cause should be enough for your purposes, I would think. Good luck
