Sorry for the negative post but this disorder is genuinely terrible. I was diagnosed a few months ago and from the report I received it seems like I have an extremely bad case of it.
I lost 8 percent of my final grade in an operating system class because I submitted the wrong file.
Fine, I have syncthing setup between my desktop and laptop so I’ll just check if the assignment is on my shared folder in my desktop. It’s not.
Ok, I’ll turn on my laptop and grab the file itself. Oh, I have a boot error and now I need to open up the recovery environment to see if the hard drive is even being recognized.
It’s not. Now I have to open up the laptop and reconnect it.
At this point it’s been 30 minutes of me scrambling to get my laptop up and working again and I found the damn assignment there. I emailed my professor and I’m praying that he reevaluates the assignment because the earlier submission had nothing on it. It was just the default assignment.
None of this shit would have happened had I taken just one second to check over what I submitted a month earlier.
I hate reading articles pertaining to ADHD as if it’s some quirky condition that just takes a little bit of time and medication to work through. Its not. I have to constantly remind myself that I’m even conscious in order to function at all, and now I have to sustain extra mental effort to do a relatively hard task.
The only thing that keeps me going is my boss saying “nice work” when I diagnose an issue successfully. It feels infantilizing, as if he knows there’s something going on with me that’s making it hard to cope with the demands of life but “atleast he’s trying his best, atleast he shows up to work, this customer said he had a friendly attitude”.
The fact that you even have the hyperfocus to try and fix the technical aspect was due to adhd. Most people don’t even bother to understand the computer they’re using.
This may be a not well-liked opinion, but I think ADHD is severely overdiagnosed. And I believe the biggest reason for that is our extremely competitive society. And also a misunderstanding about what it means to be happy or fulfilled.
Another reason could be that people who do not have ADHD share some of the symptoms because of how our society interacts with technology/media.
People are looking for an explanation why they can’t reach what they believe is a necessity. But it’s often just a bar that is way too high for the average person. And it should actually be okay to not reach it.
There is probably a bunch of other health issues that also share this problem.
If ADHD is a superpower for someone, it quite obviously isn’t a mental health issue for them (anymore). They either never had it in the first place or they have gotten rid of it.
ADHD may be overdiagnosed in some ways eg. children young for their grade, hyperactive boys etc. but it is definitely underdiagnosed in other ways eg. primarily inattentive, girls/women etc.
It is clear from research that men and women are probably equally likely or close to it, to have ADHD but the ADHD tends to manifest differently due to socialization. i.e boys tend to exhibit outward hyperactivity and impulsivity while girls tend to exhibit inattention and inner hyperactivity i.e restless mind, squirm in their seat etc. and are more commonly misdiagnosed as having anxiety, depression and other conditions that can mimic aspects of ADHD.
Inattentive ADHD (which is what I have) tends to be underdiagnosed because quite frankly, people tend not to care that much about you having ADHD until you inconvenience them because of it. Inattention is arguably less disruptive to others than hyperativity. i.e the space cadet vs the kid bouncing off the walls.
Sure, I know that there are multiple problems with the diagnosis! I was specifically talking about a tendency of pathologizing everyone who doesn’t fulfill societal expectations or who deviates from the norm in some aspects of their life.
ADHD would mean someone has severe problems in all aspects of their life. Not just in one aspect, for example only in school/work/university.
I feel it is getting increasingly unbalanced in favour of seeing the issues in people instead of addressing the issues in the system.
The thing is… getting the support you need doesnt magically “fix” ADHD. Much like a wheelchair or crutches will not “fix” a broken or missing leg. It just makes it so you are on a more even playing field as everyone else.
Does society sometimes pathologize benign behavior or attribute normal immaturity for ADHD? Yeah. Society pathologizes a lot of arguably benign behaviors and traits. Are a lot of symptoms of ADHD still going to be a problem in a society based on luxury space communism? Yep. Even in a perfect utopia you are going to have to do things that you dont want to do. You are going to have to remember to eat, drink and take medication. You are going to have to regulate your emotions and how you interact with others.
ADHD diagnosis is about identifying who needs additional support. i.e cognative behavioral therapy, medication, accomodations etc. It is a way for a healthy society to offer additional support to people that need it.
There’s this movement nowadays that tries to spin every bad thing into a good thing, to the point where people are proud of having ADHD, autism or mental illness. I mean it’s great that you accept yourself, but to be PROUD of having a mental health issue us just weird
It’s nice that there’s a community of people out there who suffer from the same things you’re suffering from but it’s annoying. You shouldn’t be proud of having any mental disability. It’s just that, a disability, and most of us would be far better off if we didn’t have this curse. It’s nice that I can hyperfocus when I really need to. I can study for exams & certifications last minute and still pass, but its not a sustainable strategy. People with ADHD are significantly more likely to live drastically worse lives than neurotypicals.
I can kinda understand Autism, to an extent. Certain forms of high-functioning autism - like the one I have - are more akin to mild learning disorders. Deliberate practice and effort can mitigate a great deal of the issues.
On the other side, I’ve seen people with more extreme forms of the condition and I can’t imagine having to deal with that. I know I can be difficult to deal with and I work really hard to try to mitigate my shortcomings with others - especially people who don’t know me well - but I pale in comparison to the difficulty of people with more extreme forms of Autism.
In this way, I think ADHD and Autism are probably similar - there’s a spectrum of impact the condition has. The milder forms of the condition may actually feel like a superpower to those that shape themselves to utilize their quirks in their favor. The problem arises when all forms of the condition are considered beneficial when they are demonstrably not.
Hell, even I have problems that no amount of learning can ever overcome. You can’t exactly teach yourself how to pick up on the subconscious body language queues that most people just know inherently. I’m totally blind to that stuff and it makes intense conversations incredibly difficult and a little terrifying.
It is a superpower, just not in the mandatory education decree we live in nowadays.
I guess the worst part must be that everybody sees you as defficient, when actually it’s the society they build which blocks and hurts your hyperfast brain.
I feel you. And what helped me the most was to start taking Methylphenidate.
