A MANIPULATOR’S TIMELINE
mirror you
gain your trust
test your boundaries
cross your boundaries
blame your reaction
rewrite the story
convince everyone they’re innocent
A college student with ADHD once explained why their essays end up filled with so many parentheses:
“Neurotypical people think in straight lines. My brain thinks in a giant web where every single concept is physically holding hands with twelve other concepts.”
In other words, their thoughts don’t unfold in a neat, step-by-step sequence. Instead, one idea immediately triggers several related ideas at once. While writing, it can feel impossible to ignore those connections because they all feel relevant and important, even if they branch off from the main point. Parentheses become a way to temporarily “park” those side thoughts without losing them.
So the essay ends up reflecting the actual structure of their thinking: layered, branching, and constantly interlinked. What looks messy on the page is really an attempt to capture a mind that doesn’t move in a straight line, but in a network where everything is connected to everything else.
Turns out that child who could sit and read a 500-page fantasy novel in a single afternoon without moving, eating, or hearing their parents call their name, but took six hours to finish a simple three-sentence homework assignment, wasn't choosing when to behave. They were just experiencing their very first intense, dopamine-fueled hyperfixation spikes.