Mental Health

I was also diagnosed with the trifecta as well, it's not unusual and it's usually the ADHD that causes the anxiety that leads to depression, take care of the ADHD and you might get the other two sorted out. Now I don't think I have the same issue you've described but are you currently medicated or in therapy? If not, why not?

Oh fuck adhd without autopilot must suck ass, it's my only escape sometimes. Really feeling for you. Are you on medication? I would try medication ASAP, ritalin, vyvanse whatever. Legally is ofcourse easiest if possible. Otherwise if you have a campus near, try befriending some people there, they very much are students drugs. Caffeine can be a huge help too or huge burden so either take loads more or cut it depending on what your taking. You can get a good dosage going with a morning coffee and then keep it up with black tea for instance. There also are caffeine pills of course if you need to dose without tea throughout the day.

Ultimately that feeling of having to concentrate "through your thoughts" are your nervecells pumping dopamine in every direction. If you get a sluggish feeling like your thoughts are stuck in mud and youre thinking feels like wading through water that's your nerve cells no longer having sufficient dopamine to think. There is jack shit you can do about that it fucking sucks ass. This is not a failure on your end, your nerves had to "burn" dopamine like a coaltrain going uphill and now there simply is none left. I don't know how I survived before taking medication and I hope I never have to find out.

Also be mindful of alcohol, cut it if you are taking any. The effect is way longer lasting than the buzz, the buzz is an increased dopamine release, but this needs to be replenished which for adhd people like us, who already need to be mindful of their dopamine levels can kill the entire day after dead even if we're not "hungover".

I don't have any answers, only validation because I experience the same issue. I've been fired from a bunch of blue collar jobs for issues stemming from the reasons you described and pursued engineering in order to find work that was mentally engaging. Joke's on me, I'm stuck doing work that is similarly mundane and under stimulating. I dont even get the little boost that moving around can provide. 

I assume you are getting help and some form of therapy if you received a diagnosis and taking tests.

I don't know if this will help and I am sure someone more qualified can correct me, but maybe you can make improvements with framing things in a different way.

Like you say you have an over-active imagination, perhaps try and frame an element of work towards a goal or make a checklist of what you need to do and reward yourself when you complete say 50% of the goals in the day and try work yourself up to 75% and then 100% of goals. Make it into something you can interact with and look at it like a game and a form of motivation.

I don't know, for me I can do things in short bursts when I try and force myself to try move forward and I think the longest streak was when I was able to "hold myself accountable" for doing a certain amount of tasks in a day.

For me, a common thing that seems to help is to do something and "reward" myself if I make progress which seems to be a generally positive reinforcement to me.

So I guess try and frame it into a reward system to make yourself feel like you achieved something instead of a burden. I do not know if that is wrong or more harmful but maybe it can help?

I mean I am coming to terms that I have a little bit of everything while I learn about myself and the closest I got to a diagnosis was an unofficial one of ADHD, Depression and Anxiety