PDA comes up regularly in my ADHD skills and accountability group, often before anyone has language for it. Someone describes a sudden drop in capacity. Someone else talks about feeling flooded by a task they technically know how to do. It is usually followed quickly by self-criticism. Lazy. Inconsistent. Bad at follow-through.

What they are describing is not a motivation problem.

Twice exceptional, or 2e, describes adults who have both high intellectual ability and a form of neurodivergence, most often ADHD or autism. In adulthood, this combination does not look like exceptional performance. It looks like sustained overcompensation.

If you’ve ever felt like your brain is doing everything at once and nothing at all, or like your sensitivity and restlessness are constantly at odds, you’re not imagining it. You might be navigating something called AuDHD, a term that describes the overlap between autism and ADHD.