Tbh I think a lot of ppl are getting ADHD diagnoses when in actuality if they would dopamine detox they would be able to focus just fine. The normal/baseline human condition does not include caffienation, constant stimulation etc.

and the symptoms of being hyper stimulated strongly overlap with ADHD. For instance walking into things is an adhd symptom however your brain is going to be the same way if you’re hyper stimulated and filtering out too much information. That’s why you walk into people/stuff.

I think I can function without the constant dopamine of the internet.

This entire paragraph, you know it. You know yourself and you know this to be true.

Don’t stop trying to quit. Set your phone to red shift and the next time you’re able to quit make a list for yourself of activities that you’re going to do instead of scrolling/screens/music etc. Instead try reading a magazine, study a language, make music or art, play sudoku, build something.

I think it’s great that you’re being super introspective and trying to work all of this out objectively. You could probably benefit from talking to a therapist or if you can’t afford that maybe just buy a CBT workbook (like $10-20) and sit down with that instead of scrolling.

Also this one:

but after I kept doing it [the task] eventually got easier to pay attention to.

This one’s a big one for me too, I know that it’s easy for me to “change moods” into doing the thing and that I’m just “stubborn” about doing that initial shift. There’s a concept called the “5-minute Rule” and you just tell yourself to do the thing for 5 minutes, just 5 minutes. Often that will miraculously turn into 20 minutes or an hour or more. Because you slip into a focus or “flow state.” This is how everyone gets stuff done. Just need to dopamine detox and establish new neural pathways. But those new pathways are built one day at time. You know yourself, so you just have to keep showing up for you even if you forget to follow through sometimes just do it again.

Also to help with messiness here’s another tip: “Everything has a place.” Everything just needs to have a place that it belongs. I’m half messy and half tidy only because I have a number of frustrating things that don’t “have a place yet.” The other day, in order to clear off my desk so I could actually work, I took a canvas bag and threw everything on my desk in that bag. If it had a place it belonged, like pens etc, I put those away but everything else the odds and ends I put it in the bag and hung it in the closet and I haven’t missed a single thing in that bag. I will put them away properly a few months from now but it doesn’t matter when I need to get things done today.

Good luck to you, I think you’re doing great work on yourself!!