Is ENFP just a euphemism for my ADHD?
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The list of ADHD traits will sound familiar to an ENFP: impulsive, distracted, jumping between ideas, bad at finishing things. And from the outside, the behavior looks the same. But the motivation isn’t.
ENFPs move toward possibility.
ADHD moves away from discomfort.
An ENFP starts something because it feels exciting. They can imagine how great it could be. They assume they’ll figure out the hard parts later. Maybe charm their way through. Someone with ADHD avoids something because they predict the effort will be painful.
Researchers once published a video of a kid with ADHD trying to do math homework on a computer. He spins around in his chair. Makes shadows on the wall. Plays rock-paper-scissors with himself.
Then the researcher changes the task to watching Star Wars on the computer. The kid completely stops moving, takes in every second of that movie. This is what researchers call ADHD hyperfocus: The brain locks onto something that removes the discomfort of the other task. And once relief shows up, the brain wants to stay there.
I know this pattern from my own ADHD. Once I avoided the hardest task on my to-do list by doing crossword puzzles almost nonstop for 24 hours. But I’m not a crossword genius; I’m a genius at avoiding difficult things on my to-do list.
Limiting factors are the ENFP enemy. One chair, one computer, one task — that setup makes an ENFP spin. But with ADHD, you spin so fast you might actually take off.
And of course the ENFP response to that is: “Fly? Great. Let’s go.”
This sounds true to me because people I know will say "because of my ADHD..." as a kind of throwaway cultural expression and then list the things they do that sound totally normal to me, like miss ingredients in recipes. And I always think, sure, aren't those things that everyone does? Who can be bothered to read a recipe properly? But maybe it makes sense I'd think that; I want the finished product and if I want it enough I'll get it, and if I don't it's only a matter of time before there will be something more exciting to focus on.
OMG. I just took your typing questionnaire up on Quistic. And as I went through the questions, all the ones where I could go either way or where my answer actually felt contradictory to me as I was making it, I was saying, but is this just the ADHD that I’m suddenly coming to terms might be true of me (at 68 years old, just in time to retire I figure that out)? So as soon as I had my results, I came back over here to read some of what you have to say about it all and this is the article I land on? Perfect! I missed your live session, haven’t been a paying subscriber yet, but I was up to my eyeballs in conflicting activities anyway.