Part of the problem is a lot of math is taught as pure theory. Unless you’re one of the few people who finds math theory interesting on its own, it’s soul-crushingly boring to someone with ADHD and feels like you’re being taught how to waterboard yourself. It didn’t help that my math classes were invariably taught in the oldest building on campus which probably had a single functioning AC unit. Physical and mental torture.

I managed to struggle through it, but only because I found physics interesting and it forced me to learn the underlying math well enough that I could progress to the next level.

Are you… me?

That’s how I am now! 😭

I am like this as well for the most part. I’m going to need a lot of paper in order to do complex math (and I was a math minor in college), none of it in my head except the derivative of e^x.

That said, on rare occasions – twice in my half a century life – my brain has instantly popped out the answer to a math puzzle and I was correct. But do I know how I arrived at that answer? Nope. My brain told me and that’s all there is that I’m consciously aware of. One of those instances was the winning point for my team in a Math Olympics type competition.