title: ADHD and Temporality: A Desynchronized Way of Being in the World.
abstract: ADHD is, I argue, an impairment in sense of time and a matter of difference in rhythm; it can be understood as a certain being in the world, or more specifically, as a disruption in the experience of time and a state of desynchronization and arrhythmia. Through excerpts of interviews with adults diagnosed with ADHD and observations, I illustrate how impairment in time is manifested in an embodied experience of being out of sync. I suggest that the experience of ADHD is characterized as 1) an inner restlessness and bodily arrhythmia; 2) an intersubjective desynchronization between the individual and its surroundings; and 3) a feeling of lagging behind socially due to difficulties in social skills. In closing, I argue that an increasingly accelerating society is augmenting the experience of being out of sync rather than eliminating it.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Communication and Psychology , Faculty of Humanities, Aalborg University , Aalborg , Denmark.
authors.forename: Mikka
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nielsen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D060432:Anthropology, Medical; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D003718:Denmark; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010507:Periodicity; D013997:Time Factors
keywords: ADHD; desynchronization; phenomenology; rhythm; temporality