Part of it is pacing yourself on the energy weeks. Just because I have the energy to work 12 hours a day on a project doesn’t mean I should.

Another part is ensuring I have a good combination of fun/unstructured time with friends, time with SO and time alone. In time alone I’ll tend to listen to a book and play something stimulating like slay the spire.

As for rest it took me a long, long time of fighting it but eventually one day it mostly clicked for me: I’m now in bed around 1030 up around 7 and feel good at that level of sleep. I know that if I stop playing games and just watch some TV and pet the dog I’ll start to get tired.

Yes executive dysfunction makes those deliberate choices harder but it’s not insurmountable. I will say trying to keep myself in sync with my partner has also helped tremendously. I try to go to bed at the same time as them every night.

A lot of “ADHD” and “Autism” things are actually normal human behaviors but amplified.

My partner is “neurotypical” (inasmuch as that’s actually real) and has some “oh that’s autism/ADHD” behaviors that are similar to my ADHD but nowhere near as severe.

Humans are a weird bunch. Most of us are normal. Some of us have exaggerated behaviors compared to baseline, but that doesn’t preclude baseline from exhibiting similar behaviors.

It is possible that wasn’t white noise storage but rather encrypted images.