Thanks. I’m going to get out of bed and socialize poorly tonight because of this.
Maybe I’ll report back tomorrow how poorly it went.
I just got back! It went well. I felt awkward half the time, but I got to have some real conversations with some old and new friends.
I have some new friends that I’ve only interacted with in really busy contexts, and it was nice to chat with them in a calmer space. I woulda missed the chance if I didn’t give it a shot tonight.
Damn, brb, I’m gonna go put some stuff away even if I don’t know where to put everything
If only we applied ourselves.
I think that’s the joke. I heard this a lot growing up and it obviously didn’t help.
You must not have heard it enough because I heard it seriously all the time and I’m doing great and like sure I can’t sleep and stuff but I’m totally fine and doing great now as an adult and it’s totally unrelated that I’m not employed and super anxious about literally every moment awake because who knows what’s coming but honestly I’m super fine so not to worry.
(That was so hard to write without punctuation, but that’s how it feels)
I feel like if only I had worked up to my potential, my life wouldn’t be a shambling corpse-to-be.
As it turns out, our potential is really high in a select few categories, and that makes it look to authority figures like we’re good at everything.
me explaining to my family that the only thing I actually know is how to formulate a proper search query
I feel personally attacked, lol
I’ve yet to get the official diagnosis. But im on track.
Don’t give up, it took me eight years from my suspicions to actually getting a diagnosis. The hardest part was finding psychiatrists, making appointments, going to the first appointment, and then going to the following appointments.
Apart from stimulant prescriptions, what is the benefit of getting diagnosed with ADHD?
I posted elsewhere about this, but ADHD can mess with your emotions. I thought for a while that I was bipolar because of how quickly my moods could change and how strongly I felt things like anxiety or disappointment or frustration. Now that I know what it is, in the moment I’m able to pull myself out of depressive spirals caused by hyperfixation etc. I’m also able to better work with the peaks and troughs of my productivity. Plenty of other helpful reasons too!
ADHD-tailored therapy.
Meds alone are not going to solve the problems that ADHD causes, especially when it is untreated throughout one’s life. There’s the additional primary impacts like emotional disregulation and alexithymia (and many others), as well as the secondary impacts of emotional traumas from struggling and failing to do things that are simple for neurotypical people and being given no quarter societally for those challenges that are rooted in the physical neurophysiological differences in the prefrontal cortex of ADHD brains.
In addition, stimulant meds are not the only meds for ADHD and not effective for all people with ADHD. They are the first line treatment because they have far greater statistical efficacy than other meds in most cases. Their main useful mechanism of action though, is not really their “stimulant” properties but their action as dopamine/norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors.
The advantage is you’re no longer doubting yourself. Self diagnosis is not sufficient.
That makes it easier to select therapy that specifically suits ADHD. For me, It also lead to me actually using self help practices and trying to read books on it. A diagnosis gave me a framework to base my path to improvement on.
A diagnosis also demonstrates to others, that you’re not just lazy.
Im at the “psychiatrist referred me to psychologist for testing” stage. As of like, a few days ago. Otherwise identical, 7+ years of wanting testing (and having insurance and money to do it), before even making an attempt at getting treatment.
Psychiatrist seemed confident meds would seriously help tho! Although i guess they are kinda paid to say that i guess?
They are not at all paid to say that. That said, the meds were a game changer for me.
Isn’t it strange that we have a government-ran education system that seems to identify those with significant potential for social change/upheaval and then manages to turn them into aimless mental health cases without the necessary learned skills such as how to study, how to overcome challenge, etc? Surely that couldn’t be by design to maintain the status quo and weed out or disenfranchise potential challengers to it before said challengers had a chance to inspire action, could it?
Honestly, I don’t think your thinking is correctly placed.
I do not think people with ADHD or other neurodivergencies are by design thought of, in first hand, as opposition Opposition that will be oppressors of the system. If anything, it’s a second hand thought. Of course the surpressed will attempt to revolt on a personal or collective plane sooner or later. But really, I don’t think people with ADHD are pre-identified as rebels by the system. I think it’s more historicallly sensible that people with ADHD are just trouble inside school. They ask too much and remembers too little. It doesn’t fit the practice of teaching. That’s it.
I recognize the community, but I’m referring specifically to “gifted and talented” programs as referenced in the meme, not just ADHD.
I also recognize they were not originally intended to be filters for society and likely had good intentions at inception, so I’m suggested they have been co-opted as a means of social correction by evil actors over time
I can see the appeal of thinking that your genius is being suppressed by an evil cabal who is afraid of your power, but it’s much more likely that the system is designed for neurotypicals because there’s more of them.
