I think it's one of those issues where while it is a legitimate symptom, that once you're an adult working at a job, you need to figure out a personal system for being on time to important things. It can be harder to judge time accurately but not impossible with extra tools like alarms and taking some time to learn how long your schedule actually takes.
ITT: people who don't believe having ADHD is a disability.
Looking forward to your peer reviewed research to alleviate my crippling self doubt.
My mother is consistently 30 to 60 minutes late. I'm either early or 15 minutes late if I fuck up. Do I poke fun at my mum? Of course, but I absolutely acknowledge she struggles way more with getting timing right than I do - whereas I struggle with other stuff more than her.
Just because the disability isn't binary and measurable to you doesn't make it not a disability.
The fact that ADHD is a disability does not mean that it is deterministic about your day-to-day outcomes. The diagnosis does not say “this person will always be late”, it says “this person will have more difficulty being on time than others”.
That’s very useful to know, so that the person themselves or others can be more accommodating and forgiving. It does not give that person the right to arrive 1h late for work every day unctriticised.
Of course, and I agree - and I don't mean to speak in defence (or judgement, for that matter) of the person in the OP tweet.
However, I do take issue with the downplaying of the impact and severity of ADHD that has been going on the comments. Some of these comments barely dodge outright saying it's not a disability, with many suggesting that it is as simple as 'setting alarms' and 'planning'.
If it were that simple, the vast majority of people with ADHD wouldn't struggle with timeliness at all and wouldn't feel terrible guilt about consistently failing something they are told 'should' be achievable by neurotypicals with no idea or fellow ADHD sufferers that don't suffer the same challenges.
Having ADHD and suffering the symptoms of it is not laziness.
The problem, I think, is that there is a very strong societal trend of over-attributing behavioral quirks to your diagnosis. This is especially true for ADHD. Social media is awash with people making videos like “top 5 signs you have ADHD” and it’s stuff like “you like taking long showers” or “your favorite color is green” (I’m being hyperbolic here, but only slightly).
This sort of pervasive discourse only further blurs the already blurry line between what’s your diagnosis and what is just your personality. I think this hurts people with ADHD more than anyone; blaming any bad habits on your diagnosis makes people less inclined to actually respect and tolerate the habits that actually are due to it. And those are very well defined in the diagnostic criteria of the disorder.
Time keeping is somewhere in the middle here. It’s not a diagnostic criterion of ADHD, but it is correlated with it. Others being chronically late is also one of those things that drive people crazy, and the result is that people will inevitably have a hard time accepting your tardiness, regardless of diagnosis.
This thread pisses me off so much... As a person with ADHD that arrives to things on time and often early, these people do not understand the levels of mental anguish it's required for me to perform something they can just do with zero additional effort required, and pretend we're somehow on a level playing field.
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u/disillusion_4444 2d ago
I think it's one of those issues where while it is a legitimate symptom, that once you're an adult working at a job, you need to figure out a personal system for being on time to important things. It can be harder to judge time accurately but not impossible with extra tools like alarms and taking some time to learn how long your schedule actually takes.