this post was submitted on 24 Jul 2025
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ADHD
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My ADHD makes it so I can't read books for shit anymore, even though I would go through several every week as a kid. For anyone else having this problem, one thing that sometimes helps me is to listen to someone read the text while reading along. This could be an audiobook, but there's also an extension for Firefox called "Read Aloud: A Text to Speech Voice Reader" to get through pdf files.
I love The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I read it through as a teenager without an issue. Then as an adult, I "re-read" it again through audiobooks.
I've been trying to read the book itself again, but I keep losing track and thinking back to the audiobook, surprised at how easily I followed the story when I heard it read out loud. I may have to try using the audiobook while reading along this time. Thanks for the tip!
I think I just have access to social media and YouTube now, so my required stimulation levels to read without getting a compulsion to do something whenever it gets slow are so much higher.
When I'm not at home, I can read for hours (e.g. at my parents' house)
This could also just be from ADHD burnout. Many ADHD kids make it through to adulthood by burning up 10 times the energy of our peers. By the time we do get there our reserves can be absolutely shot. I haven't made it back to reading books yet but I have found that I can sink into new non-digital hobbies like horticulture. My guess is that it uses a mental energy well that I haven't tapped yet, at least not completely.