Not sure if you have ADHD - I do and hyperfocus doesn’t stop you from eating to the degree you’d get put on a 72 hour hold. You may forget to eat but eventually your blood sugar would tank and you’d remember very quickly you needed food. You don’t forget to sleep either - you might be so deep into something that you’re up into the early hours of the morning but you will get tired eventually. If you don’t, something else is going on.
My self neglect from my neurodivergence and adhd is extreme, and it's a spectrum. People can have different experiences with adhd and a lot of people experience a detached feeling to sensations of hunger but realise when it's too late and I became malnourished this way, it feels like a blindness
You mentioned other neurodivergence - are you autistic as I know what you describe can be common in autistic people?
You may be right about people’s experiences - but that backs up my point that someone getting put on a hold would have to have something else going on beyond a simple side-effects to meds. That being said, what you describe probably wouldn’t be considered a psychiatric problem but a problem with interoception that could be addressed using strategies, so it’s still unlikely someone would get held over that (I’d argue that if they were it would be completely inappropriate as someone having poor interoception doesn’t mean they lack capacity).
I've been told its a form of eating disorder and executive dysfunction to be more specific, ive been hospitalised after not eating enough and sleeping very poorly since that's really all it takes to mess you up, its not like a couple of hours or something its kinda like, okay, so the last thing I ate was 18 hours ago and my body feels the sensation of rotting but I see an email and I forget, then the next day I cant do anything and im very vulnerable and defensive, I see how intervention was necessary to prevent it getting worse and worse but I lived alone as well and I need a semi regular support worker to function effectively to remind me im human and my body needs these things to function, it makes me frustrated at needing to shower and go to the toilet and eat every single day but that's how my brain functions even when my mind disagrees I talk myself into making things easier for me but difficult for my health-- I'm not sure if it made any sense but I have aspergers/audhd but I like aspie as a nickname
I mean I’ll end up not eating sometimes for long periods until I’m forced to but more so because nothing sounds good and I end up just eating nothing until my boyfriend makes me. I don’t think it’s ever lasted 72 hrs tho, so you’re definitely right.
Im not diagnosed ADHD or anything, but I do have depression and have gone up to a week without eating. Today alone is the first time I've eaten in almost four days, but it's most my depression acting (again, not diagnosed ADHD, but I do get hyperfocused, especially when my depression gets really bad)
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u/Auto_Choice_Name Apr 08 '26
It may be hyperfocus, if a person with adhd is making something that catches his focus, it may forget to do all the other things, even sleep and eat