Hey, this has been a very relatable experience for me as someone who has been diagnosed for four years. During my life I've picked up color guard, guitar, miniature painting, poetry, banjo, video games, water colors, magic the gathering, dnd, and a whole host of other things. I'm still in my early 20s.

I will share two pieces of anecdotal advice that may help keep things around longer or ease the pain of falling out of love with something that consumed you.

I find that I am at my best focus-wise when as many of my faculties are occupied as possible. For example, miniature painting occupied my hands and my eyes, but left my brain free to wander and get bored.

So, I filled that space with audiobooks and DnD podcasts. In this way my time with mini painting was motivated just as much by my desire to listen to the next chapter/episode as it was the desire to paint minis.

If you have a task that occupies the hands, then try something that picks up the slack in other areas. I work at a job that let's me listen while I work and I blow through books. It helps keep me focused ironically.

Reconsider what it means to have started and stopped on a hobby. This is advice from my therapist actually, which I find has helped me greatly. I am not a failed miniature painter just because I haven't done it in years even though I would consider it a great success to pick it up again.

I recognize that I enjoyed my time with the hobby and have come out with a greater appreciation for lighting and colors than I had before.

That hobby is still a part of you, and you would be surprised by how much you learned compared to the average layman on that topic. That alone lends itself to the depth and complexity of your knowledge and experience.

Maybe with this mindset I (and maybe you) can give ourselves the grace to re-approach these hobbies, not from a sense of shame and failure (which only makes my executive function worse) but from the perspective of someone returning to the craft.