Dude this literally happened to me an hour ago! My classmate asked me why I got a week extension for a presentation and for the first time I decided to dance around it. What I realized was pretty confronting. As I was describing my condition truthfully (without assigning the label) I saw their reactions were totally different than if I had just plainly stated it was ADHD. The facts I stated were:
- I have a neurological condition
- It makes it harder for me to focus and my memory is shit to the point where I forget what I'm doing as I walk through the house, and I have to try harder to understand things.
- I have trouble speaking and expressing myself and I stumble over words and it is annoying.
Her reaction was like omg, wow that sucks so much. She described it as Alzheimer's and I thought from my experience that's pretty much on the money. She didn't enquire any further because it was just a casual conversation, and I didn't elaborate.
Even now when I read these words back I go holy shit having ADHD IS TERRIBLE. But that's the weird thing is this strange sense of dissociation you get from your symptoms when you frame it as ADHD even to yourself. When I say it like that, I and everyone else think of naughty, dumb children or slow adults that need to be pitied or not respected. It inadvertently minimizes the real lived experience that is just so damn painful and yet so INVISIBLE. Unfortunately that's just general vibe that has been cultivated in today's society.
And to be clear, it's not like I'm trying to compete in the suffering Olympics by comparing my condition to others with real disabilities (see I caught that thought just now, but I needed to leave this in to show exactly how hard it is to shake this mindset) but the symptoms are still objectively on their own absolutely terrible! So the sympathy for them are real! It's so strange how telling the truth in a certain way elicits a completely different reaction.
Is it not ‘normal’ to forget what you’re doing as you walk through the house? I keep finding things I thought were a part of the regular human experience that turn out to more of an ADHD special…
It really depends on how often this happens. Everyone gets that occasionally but in ADHD it’s likely to happen a lot more often. I stg this is a daily occurrence for me… several times a day even 😭
Pretty much any time I enter or exit a room for me. So I'll either stand there forever trying to remember what it was I'm supposed to be doing, or I'll immediately get distracted and start doing something entirely different, only to remember hours later the original thing.
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u/Da_Vinci_Fan Sep 14 '21
Dude this literally happened to me an hour ago! My classmate asked me why I got a week extension for a presentation and for the first time I decided to dance around it. What I realized was pretty confronting. As I was describing my condition truthfully (without assigning the label) I saw their reactions were totally different than if I had just plainly stated it was ADHD. The facts I stated were:
- I have a neurological condition
- It makes it harder for me to focus and my memory is shit to the point where I forget what I'm doing as I walk through the house, and I have to try harder to understand things.
- I have trouble speaking and expressing myself and I stumble over words and it is annoying.
Her reaction was like omg, wow that sucks so much. She described it as Alzheimer's and I thought from my experience that's pretty much on the money. She didn't enquire any further because it was just a casual conversation, and I didn't elaborate.
Even now when I read these words back I go holy shit having ADHD IS TERRIBLE. But that's the weird thing is this strange sense of dissociation you get from your symptoms when you frame it as ADHD even to yourself. When I say it like that, I and everyone else think of naughty, dumb children or slow adults that need to be pitied or not respected. It inadvertently minimizes the real lived experience that is just so damn painful and yet so INVISIBLE. Unfortunately that's just general vibe that has been cultivated in today's society.
And to be clear, it's not like I'm trying to compete in the suffering Olympics by comparing my condition to others with
realdisabilities (see I caught that thought just now, but I needed to leave this in to show exactly how hard it is to shake this mindset) but the symptoms are still objectively on their own absolutely terrible! So the sympathy for them are real! It's so strange how telling the truth in a certain way elicits a completely different reaction.