While you're right that it's not an explicit ADHD thing, it is very much a symptom of it. How To ADHD made a video about motivation and points out some of the emotional aspects of it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OM0Xv0eVGtY which can cause the problematic low self-esteem and people-pleasing behaviour. But there has been a lot of connections with ADHD and Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria which can further connect to the behaviours in the OP.

Another good Additude article was written from a question sent in, "How can I stop people-pleasing at work?".

In short: Everyones ADHD affects everyone differently but this definitely has strong connections to ADHD.

[–] Zink@programming.dev 4 points 6 days ago

there has been a lot of connections with ADHD and Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria

Reading this phrase is like watching my life flash before my eyes. I’m struggling to think of issues I’ve had over the decades that I couldn’t relate back to that crap.

[–] rhadamanth_nemes@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

Wild to read about RSD and see myself in every single sentence.

[–] Hobthrob@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Thank you for the rundown and links. It's news to me but that does indeed sound like there's a connection there.

I'll have to look into that more at some point. I appreciate your effort to help educate a lot.

[–] teddypolice@feddit.org 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

To corroborate this, I have ADHD, just stumbled into this meme and thought "Hey I'm in that picture, cool.".

I've had almost 40 years being undiagnosed and thus unmanaged hyperfocusing on random but sometimes-useful knowledge. Deeply insecure about personal competence, perfect example for chronic imposter syndrome. I feel called out.

[–] Hobthrob@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

It is very interesting to read about everyone's experience with ADHD, and how different it really expresses itself.