DnD and ADHD 

'I work for adhd, I do not speak for the brand or company' okay but this line KILLED ME???? XD

"If you've ever told an ADHD person to just make lists, you owe them 10 dollars." Me: **wires 20k from my bank account to my other bank account**

This video was a series of "Oh my god THATS why" for me. I also now need to invest in a stuffed chicken. Thank you for this Az. incredible work.

Oh man, as an ADHD person who has spent my entire life forcing myself into systems that ARE NOT built for me... it is blowing my mind that I could've potentially sought or asked for experiences that ARE built for me, instead of just twisting myself in knots, wrapping myself in performances and coping strategies that are almost solely designed to mimic a neurotypical person. AHHHHHHHHHHH

"Being told to shut up is a little bit devastating" if it's anything like me, you don't even want to speak again for the entire DnD session.

"when you go a little nuts and you teach yourself how to bookbind" was so specific and yet so deeply relatable

One of my neurodiverse players sent me this video with the note: "thank you" attached. I'm blown away by this video. TBH, as a DM, I had no idea this is a struggle my friends and players have-I just read the room and adjust. But little did I know that letting my players follow whims, verbally explain character choices and talk about backstory tangents with each other, relying on stories and skill challenges rather than puzzles and mechanics, and constantly referring to our world map would be so helpful. This video also opened up a whole one-hour conversation with my players about what's working and what's not, as well as discussing if anything in the video would be useful to consider employing. So thank you. This video has made me way more aware and hopefully a better DM!

My Girlfriend turned me to this video because she's in the process of being diagnosed and 4 out of 6 of my players have ADHD. I'm now going to try keep this in mind. Hopefully I can up the excitement at my table up to 11/10! I'm now off to make Spell tokens for all of the characters.

The tears that surged when you brought up Dyscalculia... The feeling of worthlessness is so devastating. Totally deciding it was okay that I cannot do math and never will is the most freeing thing I've understood this year. Thank you for your in-depth analysis and refusal to let these quirky things end with being cute and entertaining, and demanding attention to how debilitating it can be.

I don't even have ADHD but the part about "I play DND to tell fun stories with people I enjoy" hit DIFFERENT my GOD. I really really hate focusing on the mechanics and technical rules because they make me want to scream and/or cry.

“Ban-cakes for you. On the house. “ Az that is a WONDERFUL line and VERY clever. 😂

i have either adhd or asd (waiting on diagnostic), but because D&D is my foremost special interest, I tend to imagine people can just hyperfocus on the game like I do, and I think I've been hurtful to other neurodivergent people before because of it. I really appreciate this video, it gives great perspective and I already have ideas to make the game more accesible to my loved ones :D

regardless of whether someone at the table has adhd or not, who the hell forbids snacks? that's like one of the weirdest most puzzling things I can imagine, like do people who do that not see rpgs as a hobby to be fun? wtf Anyway love this vid, gonna make use of this in my future campaigns.

**holds this video. So Gently in my hands** ;-; thank u I owe you my life

The comedy in this is TOP TIER

“here we have... his dead parents 😌✨💙” i’m fuckin dead 🤣

god you mentioning intrusive sleep- holy crap. HOLY CRAP that is literally my experience with so much of my life. I know I have ADHD but I cannot believe I was never alerted to this. oh my god.

As an ADHD Dungeon Master I NEED THIS

Controversial Opinion: There's a culture of Over Planning in TTRPG spaces and it makes things less fun for everyone. GMs are more and more expected to have intricate, finely detailed plans with stats for every NPC and minutely detailed traps and puzzles. As well as a well honed story with sweeping visual descriptions of every location. It's an incredible amount of work for a GM to prepare so that can make them feel unappreciated when the story isn't engaged with as intended, puzzles aren't solved as intended etc. This can lead to hurt feelings for the GM but also it often leads to a certain amount of railroading, linearity and a resistance to creative solutions or implementing accommodations. That makes things difficult for players with certain Neurodivergences and even just players with certain play styles. It also restricts the amount of direct influence players can have on the story and world building. Which for a lot of people makes it less fun. My advice to GMs is plan less. What you actually NEED to know is the intentions, attitudes and behaviours of your main NPCs. If you know that you can work out how they'll respond to player action and that's the most important part of both telling the story and allowing player agency.

I literally have multiple traumatic experiences with math over my ADHD life. When I mess up numbers during a dnd session, it's hard not to just burst into tears😅❤

The title is just my entire personality

i got an ADHD diagnosis back in like april, and honestly this video was super helpful! my DM uses a ton of apostrophes in her NPC names, and my group lets me nick name the majority of them so that i can remember who they are which i think is cool

Probably never going to see this but you help me realise I had ADHD. So thank you very

Ok not my adhd ass getting distracted by a hole in my wall while listening to this video and having to rewind it because I wasn’t paying attention afahdyfgshsjaj

When I'm running games one of my key principles is that there's never only one way to solve a problem.

It took me 20 years of roleplaying in situations that were awful for my mental health to realize that I have to be in a very specific sort of group because of my neurodivergency. I'm so glad more and more people are discussing these topics and coming up with workarounds to make TTRPGs more accessible for everyone.

As a person with ADD(Like ADHD but not) in a family that consists of mostly neurotypicals, it's really frustrating when my family yells at me for things that I genuinely can't help but doing or not doing. I understand what you mean about the math. When I was little I couldn't do a single math assignment without bursting into tears of frustration. There were times during this video where tears threatened to crawl out because my reaction just "Oh my Irene, someone who actually understands where I'm coming from and why I'm so not prepared for things that get thrown my way." My mom is one of those neurotypicals in my family who's REALLY good with numbers and remembering things, so she's constantly yelling at me when I fail to meet her expectations. Thing is, I have expectations for myself that are even higher, so by the time she even hears about what I've "done wrong" I've already metaphorically thrown myself off the high dive into a pool of sharks. Each time she yells at me for something like that, another shark is let in and the pool just keeps getting bigger and bigger with the more sharks that are added in. I'm the oldest of four, so it's really stressful to me when my little sisters, who are the youngest, act more mature than me and I wonder why I can't be more of a big sister to them. I just realized how long this is when ending it and I apologize profusely.

"If you have adhd and you've just been trying to muscle through without any accommodations.. how are you?" Well you see (:

As a person with ADHD and autism, I completely agree with you RE being a chronic interrupter. It can be so painful when other people interrupt me, and I wouldn't want to cause that pain in others. It's like, a lot of ADHD/autism symptoms that neurotypicals get upset about are generally just weird societal rules (let me stim in peace please lol), but interrupting can genuinely hurt. I've found playing online during lockdown incredibly helpful RE keeping interruptions to a minimum. When on mute, I get the best of both worlds - free to expel all my dumb joke nervous energy from my system while not actually interrupting any of the other players. Since it takes an active choice to press the unmute button, it forces me to think "is this OK?" before I do interrupt. Sorry to leave an essay in the comments lol. I have struggled with D&D for years and genuinely this is the first time I'm hearing someone put words as to why. Am currently in two ttrpg games at the moment and this is going to help me communicate so much better with my group - thank you so much for making this video. (sidenote: fully obsessed with your disney prince jacket. paired with the kerchief - iconic.)

Bro thanks for speaking truth about ADHD, it's helped me re-examine a bunch of my strategies to run games as both someone who has ADHD and as a DM who runs games for player(s) who have ADHD. Also, you'd slay with a Kirk cosplay.

19:06 This reminds me of back when I was in school. When we had parent-teacher meetings, the teachers were always baffled because "Nia looks like she's just staring out of the window, or doodling in her books, but when you ask her to answer a question she can give you a perfect answer. She somehow concentrates even though it looks like she's distracted!" Had that same baffled conversation with every teacher I've ever had throughout my school life lol. It's almost as if not everyone is the same as everyone else? As if we're not all robots who stare straight at the teacher, backs straight, absorbing every piece of information with no other stimulus. Crazy!! (I'm not diagnosed with ADHD, though I related to many points in this video. Perhaps I'll bring it up when I bring up a possible autism diagnosis with my doctor because this was painfully relatable haha)

This entire video is just me going "oh....OH.....Ohhhhhh" and all the struggles of my online classes have been explained

I was one of the best students in highschool, today I broke down and cried because of how bad my grades dropped in college. I was never able to study, but for highschool my good memory was suffiscient to get straight A's, which isn't the case for college. Your videos made me realize that I probably have ADD, but my parents don't believe in those things and keep telling me I'm just lazy and unmotivated even tho I try my best to muscle trough the computer science and mathematics program. My condition is so bad that I can't even focus for 2 minutes without having something else popping up in my head and making me forget my task, no matter how important the task was. My thoughts are constantly scattered everywhere and I get distracted so easily that, since I was 6, I had to work in the hallway during class because I was so distracted by everyone else that I would spend hours analysing everything around me instead of working.

I’m autistic and have ADHD so does and is my fiancée/first DM we both dm regularly I’ve brute forced my way into learning RPG games studying and pouring over rulebooks for hours my two big secrets are using simple rule sets and ignoring rules when I forget them and making up semi consistent replacements

me thinking I have ADHD and trying to get a test date while working on my first ever DND character: HOLLY SH¨¨¨this video is perfect for me, I'm going to watch it in three parts during the weekend and taking 4 breaks to make tea, pee, pet the cats, check my phone and paint my nails.

I have ADHD, and I've been playing tabletop RPG for... 22 years now (ouch). And I never ever connected the dots between my struggles and this, because I had fun even if it's pretty hard sometimes, so thanks a lot ! For the last few months I've been playing on a virtual table with friends, and it's incredible : on the four of us, 3 have ADHD and 3 are autistic (yes, some are both) ; the result is quite messy, but LOADS of fun. Convoluted plans, lots of jokes, we either succeed epically or fail dramatically but it's always in a very, very understanding and loving environment. I love my fellow players and our amazing DM.

*Me, looking at my hoarder of a swamp witch Druid Astra:* Now I know why you are they way that you are.

so THIS is why math makes me want to cry and leave the universe... So often I realize more and more that stuff that’s hard for me is related to adhd, so thanks for this video. It’s super helpful!

This is so interesting. I'm neurodivergent but I don't have ADHD - I have OCD. And oh my god, I just CANNOT function without lists!! Multiple lists. Lists for everything. My notes app is just FULL of all my lists organized into color-coded folders. If I'm ever freaking out because my brain feels like it's filled with disorganized chaotic white noise, I'll take deep breaths and tell myself to make some lists, and it always helps so much. I'm always recommending to people to make lists because that's what helps *my* brain. But now, I will refrain from telling anyone with ADHD to make lists, since you've taught me that your neurodivergency works different from mine lol. Amazing video! I always love your stuff!!

I'm nearly 40 (saying that is painful), and this video was the first time I've ever heard of intrusive sleep, as well as it being tied to ADHD. I've joked for literal decades about having a "screensaver mode" where I would fall asleep in meetings or college lectures, yet be able to wake up again almost immediately. The realization that I am not alone in this is a little staggering, and knowing that it *is* tied to ADHD is incredibly helpful because it makes it that much easier for me to manage in the future. So, uh, thanks! (And honestly, almost everything in this video is applicable to far more than just D&D, so, thanks for that too. :D )

12:05 It's me! I'll absolutely help anyone build any sort of character. For any reason, or no reason, at all! In fact, I recently helped the two newest players to our campaign hit all the notes they wanted for their characters. My favorite was the sweet, tiny-sounding girl who said, "I want a big sword, I want to be able to set it on fire, and I want to be in the middle of the mob, just hacking away at enemies." She's now playing an Aasimar Blood Hunter, and I can't wait to see her wreaking bloody carnage in our first big fight.

Omg I have so many thoughts, coming from an "undiagnosed but after learning more about adhd I'm pretty sure I might have it" pov: -The idea that your DM differentiates for your brain type is awesome! IT'S A GAME. If you're not having fun, to the point of frustrated tears especially, it's basically pointless. -One of my DMs has discord channels for each character and npcs where we have art and info about most of the characters we meet! I also have character notebooks with sections for npcs, places, etc which helps with notes because I can't ever find what I'm looking for by going back in my notes. I also color code things *in* my notes so they're easier to transfer when I put them in their categories later. 😂 -I literally cannot sit still and do nothing. I usually knit during games which gets out some of my frenetic energy but helps keep my brain focused on story. -OMG it wasn't until this last year that I realized why I tend to interrupt so much. It's literally because if I don't say it when I think it, IT WILL BE GONE FOREVER. -I'M SORRY FOR THE LONG LIST, THANK YOU FOR THIS CONVERSATION!!

And here I was beating myself up over somehow just not getting the same experience everyone else seemed to love and being a terrible player… huh. Also, I’m so jealous of your hair! All your costumes and makeup look amazing, wow.

as someone who suspects has adhd and a player who's been feeling really shitty these past weeks for not being able to pay attention/note down stuff as well as i wanted to, i needed this!!! thank you

“I work for ADHD- I do not speak for the brand or the company.” There is an alternate universe where you and Youth Pastor Ryan were born as Himbo Twins. Who fight for Justice and Love.

"Intrusive sleep"... I've never heard that term before, although I do recognize it! I used to go unconscious a lot in class and I've long since stopped calling it "sleeping," because that just makes people think it happens because of being bored or tired. Instead I've been calling it "shutting down"-like you in the video, Azrai-or "going on stand-by,". I figured that, for me, it's a mechanism defending against the effects of prolonged understimulation, such as school was at the time. Thank you very much for teaching me that term Azrai! It's so helpful to be actually able to talk about intrusive sleeping as well as learning other people experience it as well!

AAAA!!! if youre someone that notices themselves interrupting people often when you have a thought that needs to be let out ASAP bcs ITS ABT TO DROWN AGAIN!! talk about this with your group and raise your hand!! Its not like in a classroom but more like the person thats talking can either notice and wrap up that sentence and continue soon if its also important but also can just let you speak then if its not so important, its so much more polite than verbally cutting off what someone is saying and this way people know to give you your room to talk when needed when otherwise youd be interrupting people or forgetting your entire point bcs ur trying to pay attention to the topic, to tell when it would be ok to join the convo and you just cant tell PLUS trying to remember what you have to say!!

My ADHD doesn't affect me in each of these ways, but oh my GOODness is it helpful to have words for things I didn't before. Part of my trouble with invisible information is that, if you asked me how my ADHD affected my gameplay, I wouldn't be able to tell you unless it was happening right then! Thank you SO much for making this; I have some great stuff to take to my next session 0.

Omg i just found you and i cannot express how thankful and grateful I am that you have captions that are not auto generated available holy shit

Omg yes! Once in history class we had to play a game with question cards and I kept getting number related questions like: what year was *insert historical event here*? or: how old was *insert historical figure here* when they died? I can NEVER remember numbers and I wasn’t allowed to get a new question because “that would be cheating”

You have just described my entire D&D experience for the last six years. Thank you so much for putting it into words I didn't know I needed

2 years late, but maybe somebody will still read it and can use it, so here's my tip: Color Coded Dice Sets. A lot of people who start out in the hobby find the different dice hard to tell apart, especially D8,D10,D12. So there are these inexpensive, not very pretty dice that are black numbers on bright, flat colors. I found somewhere where I could buy them as singles. So I bought all dice in the same color, so all d4s yellow, D6 blue, D8 red etc. So if someone wasn't sure what dice to roll I could just say 'roll the green one' or something. You can even color code certain abilities on your sheet to match.

Az, I just....I can’t express all the feelings in my heart in words, but I’m going to try my best. Thank you a million times over for making this video. Thank you for so perfectly articulating absolutely everything that I have never been able to. Thank you for ALL the time and energy (in all forms. Mental, emotional, physical etc. all the spoons lol) that you put into this incredible video. You put so much light into this world and I just need you to know that and feel all the love and appreciation I have for you and your work through these little Internet waves haha. This video truly made my heart swell and just *so many* sighs of relief that someone gets it, ALL of it, AND they put into words for me to show people and be like “this. Watch it. It explains my brains.” I’m forever in your debt. (And if you don’t think I’m sharing this around, then you’re just plain silly haha. My other socials are privated for now so you can’t see, but just know your work IS being shared!!!) 💙💙💙

Nobody: me watching video loving the explanation *Two minutes later* You: talking about how hard it is to focus Me: legit replaying that for the fifth time because I zoned out and stared at a bird trying to see if I'm actually telepathic

Az, this topic is something I’ve wanted to hear about for so long. THANK YOU SO MUCH! You magnificent human being.

That puzzle comment is the truest sentence ever. I have legitimately had panic attacks over puzzles. As a DM, I don't use them ever.

Autism and ADHD are different but share certain similarities, especially difficulty with memory, at least in my own personal experience. This is why I appreciate this video so much, because even if not every problem is a problem I have I can absolutely relate to the frustration and embarrassment that can come up during DnD. I myself am a DM and tend to shower my players with images, detailed descriptions, screenshots from videogames with a historical setting to better give the idea of where they are and what they are doing. That and as hinted, I prefer historic settings over fictional ones precisely because there is a lot of good reference material to use to help my players visualize things. All in all, this was both relatable and helpful, keep up the good work Az! 👍

My brother has ADHD and he uses music as an outlet and anker. It has also helped him a great deal with his concentration, stage fright and creativity over the years. I can see how that can translate to larping and other creative outlets as well. Very interesting, thank you!

5:15 "if you've ever told an ADHD person to *Just Make Lists*, you owe them 10 dollars." hahahaha, so true XD

I don’t know how to say this: but deeply and sincerely thank you. I thought I was a commit-a-phobe or lazy. Thank you.

i’m struggling on figuring out whether or not i have ADHD since from countless hours of research (cause that was all i could think about for DAYS) i’ve found a lot of the symptoms i have... but also my parents say i don’t have it and keep persisting i don’t , so like, i’m just Suffering here. thankfully my dm is already so helpful since he has maps, written letters, makeshift wanted posters, coins, spell cards, item cards, and a shit ton of dice and figures we use for where characters are. my dm still has to deal with me asking about city names, character names, the ac of stuff, and how to write down my stats, etc, but thankfully he doesn’t mind my pestering. (bless you noah my beloved) having a great dm makes my mess of playing so much easier especially since i’m very story and combat centric, and so is he. (and he has fun when i let him develop most of my character)

The knowledge that "Intrusive Sleep" is a thing is making me feel so relieved! Literally could never understand why I would just... fall asleep sometimes, even when I wasn't necessarily sleepy. Well now I know what it might be! Such an informative and helpful video ☺️

Some things that help me (an ADHD haver) at my D&D games: 1. I write notes in character, and in addition to writing down the information I need to remember, I also write down my character's opinions about everything and everyone. At the moment I'm playing a snooty high elf and my notebook is very sassy. This is a nice way for me to engage with the game when it's not currently my turn to speak or react. I also don't take any notes if my character is not involved with a particular scene. If my character wouldn't know this information, I don't bother trying to remember it as a player, and it gives my brain a moment to rest when I don't have to be involved. 2. I know that as a player I can't handle puzzles or anything math related, so I keep my characters at medium or low intelligence scores. My elf has average intelligence with high wisdom (she's a cleric) so I wouldn't role-play her as a ditz, but if there is some sort of puzzle or something that I know I as a player can't manage, it's reasonable for my character to react with a "Corellon help me what is this mess?!" I'm also getting ready to join a Sci-Fi campaign, where I know I'm going to be uncomfortable with a lot of tech-related terms, so I'm making int my dump stat and basing my character's personality off of Zoidberg, so it's completely ok that me, the player, has no idea what's going on half the time, because neither will my character! She's the medic of the team and has no idea how to run this ship and that's ok! :D Just adjusting my character's personality to what I'm capable of roleplaying helps me a lot. It gives me in-character reasons for my irl struggle to retain information sometimes. I won't feel like I'm failing at playing the game when it's perfectly reasonable for my character to also not know what's going on at those specific moments as well. 3. Snacking during combat helps me stay focused. Since I'm not taking notes & writing stuff down with my hands anymore, having munchies or some coffee or tea to sip on gives my brain the side task it needs to continue functioning. 4. Everything you said about Roll20 and DnDbeyond is spot on. I couldn't play the game without these sites. xD

Im pretty sure I have Adhd(Getting tested soon) and I also play and. so much of this is true for me and it means a lot to hear that it's not because I'm a "bad player" that I struggle. I play with pretty chill folks but there are plenty of times when a miss-step in-game, or lack of focus out of game has made it hard to feel as worthy as a player as others in the group. I even once lost a character because completely forgot about one of my character's abilities. so thank you Azrai for making this wee nerd feel a little less alone is my habbits.

That accommodation with the puzzle is absolutely beautiful

At the beginning of this video I was a little cynical as someone else with ADHD thinking you were talking about things purely relating to you and your experiences with the hobby, but *damn* did the back half hit me like a truck. My friends, who I love with all my heart, always get frustrated with me when I don't take notes in our games. I have never been able to convince them that taking notes just doesn't work for me like it does them cuz all the people I play with are avid note takers. This, among us other things, made me realize I need to talk with my group a little maybe.

Can we all agree that you look like a real life disney character? It's insanely good.

This video is making me question if I have adhd

omg as someone with adhd i love the actual roleplaying aspects but combat and numbers and character sheets and all that have always been so awful, how did i not put it together until now (also, if azrai is reading this, your voice sounds great!)

Idk if i actually have ADHD or if I experience similar things because of my "gifted kid syndrome" (aka can't study for shit and will insta forget any work that can't be done in a 1-3 hour time frame) and being generally high strung/anxious, but I relate sooo much to the invisible info stuff. I am physically incapable of figuring stuff out "in my head" and have to count stuff on my fingers, even if it's extremely simple things like adding/subtracting something that doesn't involve the number 10. I also constantly forget where I put shit and am incapable of finding it again, and I can't remember anything either O_O. Also I'm p sure I also get much more sleepy if I'm doing work that's boring and it doesn't need to be done 30 minutes ago. Thanks for the vid, this is actually very helpful in me trying to figure out if I have it or not :)

This explains so much about me. Shit. You do a good promo for the company you work for!

My partner kept asking me to pause it and saying "Wait that's an adhd trait??" We don't even DnD (yet) but this is such a good explanation of how the traits interact with the world around us...

You and CopsHateMoe have made me realize that I didn't actually outgrow my ADHD and become "normal", but that I'm just so used to living with it that I stopped noticing it.

Az’s lovely titles: ✨SNACKS✨ Me, smiling wide through a mouthful of gummy bears: Yeeeeaaaaaah 😎

I … well I was, the sort that just muscled my way through. This explains my obsession with doughnuts and other pastries. This is a video that I hope to lead others to, when appropriate.

one of the best RPG contents I've ever seen!! you're amazing eloquent!

All of this affects my day to day soooo much. But when it comes to things like D&D my hyper focus takes over and I remember almost everything. How ever the game mechanics part is still a thing although not as bad as I am sure it is for others because of my hyper focus super power/ curse.

This is EXACTLY. My experience with DnD and tabletop in general and it also made me realise that I write my larp games to accommodate my ADHD ass omg.

I am very much excite. Something for me to look forward to for the next three days

As someone with ADHD who loves D&D, the specific thing I found helpful is when a game has a voice *and* text chat option running in tandem because I really struggle with 'THOUGHT HAS ENTERED HEAD', and I'm holding this thought with everything I got- and I could stop paying attention to what's being said around me. Or I focus on what's being said, and I forget Thought. So a text chat allowed me to put my thought down where EVERYONE could see it, without interrupting the conversation, and it would eventually be addressed and allow me the room to focus on what's happening. (And to anyonr who think this means 'just write it down' is the same, no! Because I forget the note is there! A chat means everyone else sees it!)

Oh, wow. That chip. The terror it brought.

fr me having everything written down kinda helps, BUT it means having to take the time to write literally every single thing down an then go through that mountain of notes whenever I have to recall something and generally just takes a LOT of time and cause the people I'm playing with (especially the dm) to get very impatient and annoyed with me.

6:11 Oh my god they look soo much like Tarzan's parents I love it!

I have often sent this video to friends and DMs when attempting to explain my struggles with playing ttrpgs. Returning to it tonight because I’ve played so many different kinds of games with different kinds of people as both a player and a DM, and recently said “maybe I just don’t like roleplaying”. I think I need to remind myself I need these kinds of accommodations and I can’t interact like everybody else does.

My worldview has just been blown apart by the idea of "Intrusive Sleep". That is the greatest difficulty I face in regards to academia and I never would've thought of it as being connected to neurodivergence. I just wrote it off as a "lazy" procrastination thing.

Thank you SO much for making this. It was incredibly powerful for me. My partner has ADHD and experiences so many of these things, which I don't think either of us realized were related to his ADHD. It has honestly reframed a lot of things for me. Also, the costumes and sets were glorious!

This has made me realize I might have ADHD. Thank you this really helped with me playing dnd.

don’t mind me, just a newly diagnosed adhd person coming back for my weekly dose of validation and serotonin

Arzai: *is pirate* "The pirate codes are more guidelines" Me: *is happy*

"always been in survival mode, never thought about what would actually make it fun" - Story of my life! Thank you for sharing this! I've never played but would like to, this certainly helps to understand the struggle, putting words to the various aspects of struggle REALLY helps.

I just wanted to tell you that I literally cried while watching this video and that it was perfect in every way (editing, comedy, mise-en-scene, pacing...). I have never felt so seen. It was amazing to experience the articulation--all in one place!--of all the things that come to the surface when my ADHD and I sit at the D&D table. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I'm showing everyone.

started playing a puzzle game on my phone right as you started talking about understimulation lmao

To go with the point of not all ADHD is the same, I am a 37 year old with ADHD, had it all my life but was diagnosed around 32, and I am great at puzzles, numbers, logistics, and my hyper focus is playing board games. I have been playing DnD since I was 16 or so, I am great at building characters and knowing the rules, but I don't feel good as a player in a game. Things brought up in this video are things that cause me problems, like keeping things straight, remembering that I have abilities, and trying to know the history of my character, the history of the world and where I am and what I'm doing every time I open my mouth which makes it very draining for me to play. oddly enough, I much prefer dming. I guess if I'm the one to make the world and the characters in it, I feel like I can keep it together slightly better? Now I just need to get myself to actually build a game... Also, as an ADHD who is good at math, I struggle with the non-math stuff - like storytelling, color theory, drawing and just generally being artistic. Most of my hobbies include computers doing work for me because anything artistic is a struggle. On the topic of problem solving: ADHD don't really think in straight lines. If you talk with ADHD people they can sometimes interject with random sentences that don't seem to apply to the conversation, and when you ask them why they said that they will give you a line of random logic that generally makes little sense to anyone but the ADHD person. So, ADHD people can take random bits of information from everywhere and pull them all together to form a plan or solve a problem that most other people wouldn't think of.

Oh my god I literally had intrusive sleep an hour ago trying to do stat homework. I've been having that problem forever! I'm so glad to hear there's talk about it!

God finally somebody talks about this Az you are a blessing 🤲

I feel so VALIDATED. no wonder I keep forgetting my spells!!! Thank you, I hadn't considered making myself props! Also I love the way you do Cal's scars

As a non-adhd-haver this is very useful for understanding and helping my friend with his cosplay and dnd stuffs,, also Az I’ve commented before on your videos but dude I love your voice and look, I’m so glad you’re feeling more like yourself☺️☺️☺️

I love the idea of using physical objects as reminders for the abilities one has on their sheet, though I must admit my experiences with ADHD and objects are a little different. Az loves it when things are small, but when I have or am handed a number of small items, that's actually a source of tension for me, because I am immediately afraid that I will lose those objects. Like the moment I'm not looking at them, they don't exist any longer. Though I've had a lot of success with dyslexia friendly and very pretty character sheets.

As far as I know I don't have ADHD however I am Autistic and that thing you said about literally falling asleep trying to do maths? Mood.

I've just been diagnosed with ADD (literally yesterday) and never heard of intrusive sleep until watching this, but I've been struggling with exactly those symptoms for years so I'm now looking into it in more detail so thanks for the dnd advice and making me aware of intrusive sleep