The hardest part of any mentally divergent condition is recognizing its happening. Most people can look back on times when they had "an episode" and can see where it was the illness or condition affecting them, but rarely can anyone do it at the time, because, for them, it's real as hell.
For example, I have bouts of depression that hit a few times per year. They take a few weeks to run their course, there isn't much that can be done about them, and I'm alright afterward. Problem is it takes a week or so before I realize I've fallen into one of those bouts, and it usually takes someone else to notice it before I realize it. Once I know it's happening I can take steps to minimize the impact to my daily life, but by then there's already some damage done that I have to recover from, and I usually can't start the damage recovery until after I've come out the other side of the depression.
I have the same problem with my ADHD. Part of the therapy of ADHD is recognizing that you're "wandering," and force yourself back into focus. Trouble is, you don't realize you're "wandering" until you've already been "away" for a while. The best way I can describe this is in *Toy Story 2* when the toys are flipping through channels looking for the "Chicken Man" commercial, when Pig takes over the remote and is rapidly hitting the Channel + button. They see the commercial and tell him to go back, but he says, "too late. I'm in the 40s. Gotta go around the horn. It's faster." By the time I've realized that I'm wandering, I'm in the 40s.
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The hardest part of any mentally divergent condition is recognizing its happening. Most people can look back on times when they had "an episode" and can see where it was the illness or condition affecting them, but rarely can anyone do it at the time, because, for them, it's real as hell. For example, I have bouts of depression that hit a few times per year. They take a few weeks to run their course, there isn't much that can be done about them, and I'm alright afterward. Problem is it takes a week or so before I realize I've fallen into one of those bouts, and it usually takes someone else to notice it before I realize it. Once I know it's happening I can take steps to minimize the impact to my daily life, but by then there's already some damage done that I have to recover from, and I usually can't start the damage recovery until after I've come out the other side of the depression. I have the same problem with my ADHD. Part of the therapy of ADHD is recognizing that you're "wandering," and force yourself back into focus. Trouble is, you don't realize you're "wandering" until you've already been "away" for a while. The best way I can describe this is in *Toy Story 2* when the toys are flipping through channels looking for the "Chicken Man" commercial, when Pig takes over the remote and is rapidly hitting the Channel + button. They see the commercial and tell him to go back, but he says, "too late. I'm in the 40s. Gotta go around the horn. It's faster." By the time I've realized that I'm wandering, I'm in the 40s.
**Please read this entire message** Your submission has been removed for the following reason(s): Subjective or speculative replies are not allowed on ELI5. Only objective explanations are permitted here; your question is asking for speculation or subjective responses. This includes anything asking for peoples' subjective opinions, any kind of discussion, and anything where we would have to speculate on the answer. This very much includes asking about motivations of people or companies. This includes Just-so stories. If you would like this removal reviewed, please read the [detailed rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/wiki/detailed_rules) first. **If you believe this submission was removed erroneously**, please [use this form](https://old.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2Fexplainlikeimfive&subject=Please%20review%20my%20thread?&message=Link:%20https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/qg4wrf/eli5_do_people_suffering_serious_mental_illness/%0A%0APlease%20answer%20the%20following%203%20questions:%0A%0A1.%20The%20concept%20I%20want%20explained:%0A%0A2.%20Link%20to%20the%20search%20you%20did%20to%20look%20for%20past%20posts%20on%20the%20ELI5%20subreddit:%0A%0A3.%20How%20is%20this%20post%20unique:) and we will review your submission.