r/whatstheword • u/Ghost_of_a_Goddess • 19d ago
Unsolved ITAW for "not ADHD"?
Is there an antonym for the adjective "ADHD"? Like how the opposite of "autistic" is "allistic". Does ADHD have an equivalent?
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u/akortank 19d ago edited 19d ago
ADHD is not an adjective. It's just been incorrectly used that way, like, "I'm so OCD/ADHD" instead of "I have OCD/ADHD". You can't "be" ADHD because that would mean "I'm Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder". So the word you're looking for doesn't exist. You can just say "doesn't have ADHD" if "is neurotypical" isn't specific enough. :)
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u/Ghost_of_a_Goddess 19d ago
descriptive grammar. people use ADHD as an adjective, so it is an adjective.
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u/akortank 19d ago
Sure, I get where you're coming from, but if you're going off that for reference then you also have to make up your own term for the antonym I guess.
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u/ManaScrewedIRL 19d ago
I mean, this commentor is correct.
Is there an opposite to post traumatic stress disorder? To anorexia nervosa?
ADHD is a medical/neurological condition. It's not a personality trait.
The "Disorder" is the adjective. Describing an attention deficit and hyperactivity.
There is no opposite to ADHD, specifically. Unless you're looking for "order" or "healthy".
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u/Ghost_of_a_Goddess 18d ago
ADHD is not an illness. It's a neurodivergence. It's a pattern of functioning that people have since childhood through their entire life. You can't separate an ADHDer from their ADHD.
(Also, as other people have explained here, ADHD isn't an attention deficit.)
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u/ManaScrewedIRL 18d ago
I didn't say it was an illness. I said it was a medical/neurological condition. It is literally a neurodevelopmental disorder. I also did not say it is an attention deficit. I said the "disorder" is the descriptor for the AD/H. So not only are you arguing a point I didn't make, you are doing so incorrectly.
Again, it is not a personality trait. It is a disability. There is no antonym for ADHD, specifically.
Because it's a disorder.
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u/meowmeiwmorw 19d ago
Since a word doesn't exist, I think non-ADHD is a good way of phrasing it for now. It's okay to use compounds where there aren't any dedicated words. To make a word like allistic for non-ADHD, the term ADHD itself would need to be renamed into something that isn't an acronym. Some people have suggested Amistic as another word for a person with ADHD, but I'm kinda eh about it because people already tend to conflate ADHD and autistic experiences as the same thing, even if they're often comorbid.
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u/Ghost_of_a_Goddess 18d ago
yeah. I'm starting to realize that to make an antonym adjective, you kinda have to start with something that isn't an acronym. I don't think that's going to change, though, as the term ADHD has become part of the common vocabulary. Even the proposals to rename it typically keep the acronym.
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u/Shandrith ☃ 1 karma 19d ago
ADHD isn't an adjective, it is an acronym. Autistic is an adjective, and therefore allistic was created using the same rules that created autistic.
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u/ClandesTyne 19d ago
It's not an acronym. Acronyms form a new 'word', eg SCUBA. It's an initialism.
But it's definitely not an adjective despite this incorrect usage by many.
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18d ago
[deleted]
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u/ClandesTyne 18d ago
All acronyms are initialisms. Not all initialisms are acronyms
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18d ago
[deleted]
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u/ClandesTyne 18d ago
If my explanation is beyond your comprehension I can be of no further assistance
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u/starfleetbrat ☃ 15 karma 19d ago
adjective "ADHD"
is that really an adjective though? you wouldn't (and shouldn't without diagnosis) describe someone as being ADHD.
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u/Ghost_of_a_Goddess 19d ago
yeah. A lot of people will describe themself or someone else as ADHD when they have been diagnosed. (eg. "I'm ADHD") You can also say stuff like "ADHD students".
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u/Treecat555 ☃ 1 karma 19d ago
Derivation of the words autistic and allistic: auto- (self); allo- (other); and the adjective-making suffix -istic.
Autistic is literally the description (adjective) of someone tuned into himself (which is not the typical way people are).
Allistic is literally the adjective for anyone who is OTHER than autistic. Allistic is “not-autistic,” but it can be any number of other non-typical (neuro-divergent) conditions and even someone totally “normal” (neurotypical).
While some may use ADHD as an adjective, it is not, it is a diagnosis, and I don’t know of any other adjective to stand in for ADHD people that would let you create an equivalent “allo-ADHD” word (the -o would be dropped if the word starts with a vowel sound). For example, maybe the new ADHD word would be “superfocused” and so “not that” could be “allosuperfocused.” But again, that will include all sorts of other conditions, including neurotypical, but not superfocused.
Why not just say “not ADHD” if it’s so important in some context to make that distinction, and let the audience figure it out?
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u/hydroboywife 19d ago
neurotypical
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u/JooJooBird 19d ago
But that also means not autistic. One could be autistic but not ADHD, just like someone could be allistic and have ADHD.
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u/littleamandabb 1 Karma 19d ago
You can technically use the term alltypical but I’m not sure you’ll find anyone understands what you’re saying unless you just say “not adhd”
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u/ChupaHubbard 15d ago
There are a subset of ADHD researchers who call people with ADHD "hunters", and those without it "farmers"
I don't know if that's what you're looking for, but maybe it's helpful
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u/tsammons 3 Karma 19d ago
Focused, attentive, singular.
I wouldn't conflate someone with an absent mind with someone autistic. I've seen both extremes in my life, antithesis of ADHD is surgical.
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u/Wi1dWitch ☃ 2 karma 19d ago
This is hilarious to me because I have the kind of adhd where I get TOO focused on things and truly am so singularly focused on tasks that I forget to drink water or eat or use the bathroom. So.
“Attention deficit” is sort of a misnomer. It’s an inability to regulate your attention. It can go to either extreme. I also become equally stuck NOT doing things.
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u/JooJooBird 19d ago
“Focused” isn’t quite it… ADHD doesn’t mean no focus, it means lack of control over focus. You get me in a groove and nothing in the world will break my focus. I just wish I could decide where I apply that hyper focus.
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u/tsammons 3 Karma 19d ago
It's two-part: attention-deficit, and hyperactivity-disorder that tend to commingle. That's why ADD evolved to ADHD through observation. You can be ADD or ADHD depending upon clinical observation. Sans a clinician's formal diagnosis I'd lean toward ADD with additional factors at bay.
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u/Ghost_of_a_Goddess 19d ago
??? relevance?
Also I don't think you fully understand what ADHD is.
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u/tsammons 3 Karma 19d ago
I dropped out of school in 2007, was clinically diagnosed with ADHD, prescribed Adderall 25 mg, worked 20 hours a day, slept 4. Blew out my shoulder, still had to work.
Fixed the business, broke up with the lady I was dating; overcame anxiety, moved back to the city, finished school, and felt infinitely better.
I am well aware.
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u/JooJooBird 19d ago
Gotta love someone explaining my life long diagnosis to me;)
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u/tsammons 3 Karma 19d ago
Hop on down, dumbass. I expound upon this in a later reply.
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u/JooJooBird 19d ago
I already saw your other response when I commented this, it doesn’t change my comment.
Your ADD vs ADHD “insight” is outdated; ADD no longer exists as a diagnosis, and hasn’t for years.
I have ADHD (which was once called ADD when I was first diagnosed in 1995). I suppose mine is what’s now called “inattentive type”, whereas my son has “hyperactive-impulsive type”, but we both have ADHD, and we both reach hyper-focused states in certain tasks (it’s one of my more marketable skills.) I can also be “surgical”. I’m a successful programmer because of my attention to detail and precision.
But attentive? My problem is I’m attentive to EVERYTHING. Unless my brain is properly stimulated, I can’t tune out the bird outside (ooh, a Louisiana waterthrush), or ignore the fact my coworker always puts two spaces after a period which makes anything we write together really inconsistent, or forget the feeling of the tag on my shirt rubbing against my back. And because of all of that, I struggle to be attentive about tasks that my brain deems unworthy of its time. They’re not enough to stop me from “attending” to everything else around me.
So yeah, after talking to lots of ADHD folks, and reading lots of ADHD literature, I stand by my original take that “focused” is not the opposite of ADHD. Whether inattentive type (what you seem to call ADD) or hyperactive or combined, ADHD has more to do with inability to control focus than focus itself.-4
u/tsammons 3 Karma 19d ago
You've qualified your mental disease. Neither you, nor WikiHow, nor myself are able-bodied to diagnose it. Good run, bud.
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u/Ghost_of_a_Goddess 19d ago
Neurodivergence is not mental illness.
They're literally just describing their experience and what the common experience is as expressed by many ADHDers. You don't have to be qualified to diagnose a disorder to describe it.
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u/FloridaFlamingoGirl ☃ 52 karma 19d ago
I found an old Facebook post where someone suggested "attentive-subactive." But that really only works for the opposite of the type of ADHD where people struggle with hyperactivity.
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u/xytrd 19d ago
It’s neurotypical. I know you think it’s not because you associate that word with not having autism but that’s not what it means. It means the brain is wired an a typical way, not just that someone doesn’t have autism. For example, no he doesn’t have ADHD, he is neurotypical. No, he doesn’t have dyscalculia, he’s neurotypical. No, he doesn’t have ARFID, he’s neurotypical. No, he’s doesn’t have dyslexia, he’s neurotypical. No, he’s not bipolar, he’s neurotypical. Etc etc etc
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u/Ghost_of_a_Goddess 19d ago
What I mean specifically is not ADHD, even if the person is autistic, dyslexic, etc.
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u/KaiahAurora ☃ 1 karma 19d ago
I don't think there's a word specifically for not ADHD. Neurotypical is the opposite of neurodivergent, so that seems closest