ADHD and Hobbies

Posted on May 9, 2019

ADHD and Hobbies - picture of a puppet

Everyone has hobbies right? Or if they don’t they want one. Hobbies are the things that keep us sane when work sucks, or life sucks, or whatever. Having a thing you do that makes you happy is important.

One of the hard parts of having ADHD is that I am not great at finishing things. I am an expert at starting projects, probably one of the best in the world at starting things.

I am unclear if my passionate curiousity is part of my ADHD or if it is just who I am, but I am in love with learning new things. Not enough that I will ever have a bachelors degree, but I am constantly researching and learning new things.

Take those first three paragraphs and you can imagine what my hobbies look like. I have many hobbies, I rarely finish projects, and I constantly aquire new hobbies. It has taken actual will power on my part to not continue buying things for hobbies I don’t actually do.

What is great about this “problem” is that I am never bored. If I don’t feel like doing one hobby, I can jump over to another without feeling guilty or anything.

Here is the list of current hobbies that I am activly participating in:

  • Puppet fabrication
  • Minecraft
  • Music production
  • Quilt piecing
  • Dungeons and Dragons
  • Ukulele Playing
  • Knitting
  • Writing
  • Drawing

Each one of those branches off into its own little side branches. Which leads me to new things to research and try out.

One of the “problems” I currently have is I am in a place where I can spend money on hobbies, instead of just looking and never buying. Because of my ADHD I lack impulse control so not buying things is super hard.

Since the internet makes buying things so easy and a lot of the equipment I need to do things I am fascinated with is no longer hard to optain I have been able to explore things I couldn’t before.

Puppet building is the greatest example of this. When I first made puppets about ten years ago I used inferior materials. The good stuff was to difficult to obtain and so I made do with what I had on hand. Now I can find amazing materials that take my puppets to the next level and they show up in a couple days.

I have often thought that I should prioritize my hobbies. Pick the ones that are my favorite and focus on those. I have even read that focusing on multiple things makes you mediocre at all of the things. But I do it all for fun so who cares. Just like when I was entertaining I will be a Jack of All Trades, Master of None.

If you look at the list of hobbies that I work on and take out the games, you are left with a list that is all about visual story telling. Making puppets, making clothes, making music, drawing storyboards, and writing a story. If I would take the time, I could make a movie. I probably won’t, but I am developing the skills to do just that.

What I need to do is figure out how to make my hobbies into a Voltron like hobby. Combine them all into one super hobby. That would be so awesome. Or maybe I should just make a mascot costume.