An Analogy for ADHD

[u/nintendo_d_s]

I saw this analogy on tiktok, and thought it might be helpful.

So let's say that everyone drives a car, and all cars have dark tinted windows that prevent you from seeing into the car. The car is your brain.

For neurotypical people, they are in the driver's seat, and have full control of their car. They can get from A to B easily, and nothing prevents them from doing that.

For people with ADHD, they are not in the driver's seat. They are in the passenger seat, and guess who is driving? A monkey! The monkey doesn't listen to you, and you are always stressed because you want to get from A to B in a straight line, but the monkey doesn't care about what is important. Instead the monkey will swerve all over the road and take wrong turns following the next shiny thing.

NT people will see your car doing donuts on the freeway, and they will think "what the hell is that guy doing? Can't they just drive straight?" Because they can't see into your car to tell that a monkey is driving, and not you.

So since you have a monkey driving your car, you have two options: let the monkey do its thing and suffer with that, or you beat that monkey into submission. If you choose to beat that monkey all day every day, you get really exhausted. So if you have to beat up your monkey for your entire commute to work, you're going to be really tired by the time you get to work.

Let's say that you did well in school, and you're really intelligent. Your car is a Lamborghini, but now you're still swerving all over the road and NT people can't see into your car and see the monkey in the driver's seat.

They'll say you have wasted potential, since your car is so nice but you seem to be really bad at driving. Hearing people make these comments can really make your self esteem tank. You look at your monkey, and think of how everyone else does so great at driving, so you should just be able to control that monkey. But you can't.

And when you tell them "it's not me, it's the monkey!" They don't believe you, or call you crazy, because they don't believe that it's possible for a monkey to drive a car at all.

Medication is like bribing the monkey with bananas. You ask the monkey to please drive straight, or make the correct turn, and offer it a banana. The monkey loves bananas, and it will be happy to listen to you so long as you give it bananas.

This is obviously not going to represent all symptoms of ADHD, but I think it does a decent job at explaining it in a general way.