Until recently my life with ADHD felt like a bunch of small piles of good intentions strewn around the house. [View in Browser]( [Esquire Sunday Reads]( [How to Feel Normal]( [How to Feel Normal]( There has been a change in my life that is massive and boring, miraculous and quotidian. After decades of failing, flailing, and frustration, I am on medication and in therapy for ADHD. My brain is finally beginning to work properly, and the biggest breakthrough is the smallest: now I rinse the last dish. Perhaps you think of ADHD as a racing mind, a restless energy, a propensity to focus a little bit on a lot of things, but for me, the symptoms were all in the sink. Iâd always been good at starting to do the dishes. Iâd come in hot every time, then get 85% of the way through and burn out. My mind would flash to any of the other dozen tasks Iâd left 85% done, and Iâd rush off to finish one of those. A dirty dish and a fork left to be tended to at a later time, when I was 85% into something else. There was always a little bit of laundry left unfolded, a bill or two left unpaid, a to-do list almost all crossed off. Thatâs what my ADHD looked like in adulthood: small piles of good intentions strewn around the house. If you or someone you know has it, you already know what ADHD looks like. But what is it? âADHD is a neuro-developmental delay,â says Eric Tivers, a clinical social worker and CEO of ADHD reWired, a community and coaching service for people with the condition, like him and me. âItâs a dysfunction in how the brain regulates the transmission and communication of dopamine.â And that dysfunctional distribution of dopamine doesnât only result in inattentiveness, it also allows for a kind of hyper-focus. âItâs not a deficit of attention, itâs an inability to apply the correct amount of attention at the right times. Itâs a regulation disorder, at the heart of it.â [Read the Full Story]( [MORE FROM ESQUIRE]( [Lee Jung-jae is King of the World]( [Lee Jung-jae is King of the World]( The King of the World, at least for today, is a walking, talking sunâquite possibly the most generous, charismatic of such entities you'll ever meetâpulling anyone within earshot into his orbit, radiating warmth. An enemy to no one, a friend to all, yes, even you. It's afternoon in late November and the ball of scorching plasma in question is the actor Lee Jung-jae, who, by way of Squid Game, went from being one of Korea's most bankable celebrities to one of the most recognizable stars in the world in just one season. [Read the Full Story]( Â
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 [The Best Zip-Up Hoodies Are So Much Cooler Than You Remember]( [The Best Zip-Up Hoodies Are So Much Cooler Than You Remember]( The zip-up hoodie gets a bad rap. Close associations with a certain bumbling tech billionaire have turned the once innocuous style into fashion anathema, a far cry from the days of Steve Jobs and his enviable rotation of identical Issey Miyake mock necks. The zip-up, though, deserves your respect. Its merits are self-evident. And if the scores of (very good!) options available now are any indication, the industry's coming round to the idea, too. Which means today's zip-up sweatshirts often look as handsome as they feel softâso long as you take the time to pick a grown-up version, and then style it with purpose. [Read the Full Story]( [How to Love Your Parents Even If You Hate Their Politics]( [How to Love Your Parents Even If You Hate Their Politics]( Many people I know have parents who are suffering from Early Fox News Dementia, ranting about the perfidy of Anthony Fauci and the possibility of catching critical race theory from an open jar of mayonnaise. But at the same time, they want to give their children parental advice and guidance, though now through the prism of their separate bespoke realities. They want to remain parents, but only on their own racist and hurtful terms. My counsel to these childrenâstemming from what my closest friends and I experienced, all of us immigrants in our forties from different parts of the worldâis to orphan yourself. [Read the Full Story]( Â
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 [40 'Star Wars'-Themed Gifts That Are Actually Really Cool]( [40 'Star Wars'-Themed Gifts That Are Actually Really Cool]( At the rate all these new Star Wars movies and games and TV shows come out, it's almost always going to be a great time to give a gift to a Star Wars fan that celebrates, well, being a fan of Star Wars. But right now, we're in something of a lull. The latest trilogy concluded with Rey making it with Kylo Ren right before he died (plus some other stuff), the new video game consoles didn't release with a huge Star Wars title, and all the Star Wars TV offshoots are still very much "coming soon" and "in the works." That being said, The Mandalorian is gearing up for a third season of Baby Yoda fanaticism, and Disney+ is chock-full of re-re-rewatching potential. So if you're on the lookout for a gift that honors the intensely emotional feeling those blue letters on the screen inspire, here are 40 ideas for awesome Star Wars merch, from collectible collaborations to unexpected crossovers. May the Force...well, you get it. [Read the Full Story]( [On The Road With The Big Red Dirigible Of Christmas Love]( [On The Road With The Big Red Dirigible Of Christmas Love]( It's a week before Christmas, and one minute I'm futzing with recyclables, living what constitutes a basically normal life, and the next a plain brown package arrives at the door, a little gift I've sent myself. It's an item that, out of context, might make me seem scary or, if I were my own neighbor, might in fact scare me. I'm thirty-three years old, and I've bought myself a Santa suit. [Read the Full Story]( Follow Us [Unsubscribe]( | [Privacy Notice/Notice at Collection]( esquire.com
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