5 ms·

As an adult who struggles with ADHD that can be severely impairing, I’ve learned quite a few tricks from TikTok’s ADHD advocates. It’s definitely a coin with t

by jnovek 4y ago

As an adult who struggles with ADHD that can be severely impairing, I’ve learned quite a few tricks from TikTok’s ADHD advocates. It’s definitely a coin with two sides. Edit: I’ve also learned to accept things about me that I can’t change. For example, I have a better outcome if I plan to be distracted rather than trying to fight my way through distraction.

ralusek 4y ago
Devil's advocate: I'm sure the people learning about their non-existent dissociative identity disorders also feel as though they're learning useful information and tricks. That being said, I'm in no way implying that the internet can't contain useful information.
- jnovek 4y ago
  Sure, that’s the other side of that coin I was talking about. :-) Personally, I suspect that people who incorrectly self-diagnose are desperate and grasping at straws. They misdiagnose themselves because proper diagnostics are really hard to get in for. However, I would be willing to bet that people who misdiagnose themselves with DID still have some other underlying mental health condition that they are misunderstanding.
  - naravara 4y ago
    I think popular cultural conceptions of what a "diagnosis" is are kind of weird. It seems more like people categorizing themselves with immutable labels rather than accepting that it's just a way to refer to/characterize your subjective experience. I remember talking with one guy who was genuinely sad when his psychiatrist told him she might need to revisit his autism diagnosis and she thinks there might actually be some other class of diagnoses that fit his condition better. You would think she told him he had cancer or something. It helped him a lot to know that there was a box he could fit into and not having a box was distressing for him. It had him feeling unmoored and unstable. Now after reevaluating she did end up settling back on autism and his relief was palpable.
    - kayodelycaon 4y ago
      I wouldn't dismiss labels so quickly. Having a label gives you context to understand what is happening. It gives you a path forward with your treatment. It gives you access to documentation, support groups, and a community who are dealing with the same things. Changing a diagnosis means you likely lose all of these and have to start over. Then there is medication that can significantly change how your mind works. I likely have long-lasting damage to my nervous system from the anti-psychotic I need to function.
- mtlmtlmtlmtl 4y ago
  Maybe they could at least learn that dissociative identity disorder and schizophrenia are not the same thing. Then something good could come out of it after all.
quasarj 4y ago
I personally hate seeing all the ADHD stuff, I feel like most of those people are faking/wrong as well. But I don't know, maybe I just have ADHD? I just feel like they are always like "this is life with ADHD" and I'm like "what? that's just life? isn't that how everyone is?"
- SQueeeeeL 4y ago
  I think a counter argument that makes a lot of sense to me is that our modern society is so novel, interconnected, and overstimulating, that it makes sense the prevalence of ADHD and depression have increased massively, especially compared to the populations of 50 years ago.
  - colordrops 4y ago
    Perhaps it's not a "D" Disorder but a normal reaction to the malignent nature of our society.
    - SQueeeeeL 4y ago
      I feel like many disorders are just a reaction to environmental factors. The brain is insanely plastic and can learn useful adaptations to survive very unnatural psychological environments. It's basically just a machine learning model being trained on bad data, the model hardware is typically fine, but the weights are going to be very messed up from only learning on atypical situations. Conditions like anxiety are productive if you're living through a famine or war. IMO therapy is basically just learning to down-weight the shitty data and up-weight the healthy data.
    - inversalAutoDoc 4y ago
  - kodah 4y ago
    Another counter-argument is that interest in pop-psychology has risen over the years and that rise also aligns with abuses of psychological labels. Maybe some subjects should not have casual interests.
Balgair 4y ago
I'll echo the sentiment. I was unaware that thing I saw as 'normal' were more on the 'adhd' side of the spectrum than the 'normal' side. Learning that I was simultaneously not alone and 'rare' has been quite helpful. The reddit for adhd memes have been fun to go through. https://old.reddit.com/r/adhdmeme/top/?sort=top&t=all https://old.reddit.com/r/adhdmeme/top/?sort=top&t=all The socks one was a childhood fight in our family constantly. I hated certain socks and my siblings loved them. I can remember my dad berating me in a walmart parking lot about my sock preferences and still associate walmart with parental shame to this day. The way the inner sewn lining on the toes got occasionally stuck on my toenails when walking. They still gives me the creeps and heeby-jeebies, just these little mind grabbing zings with every 'wrong' step.
- mtlmtlmtlmtl 4y ago
  The sock thing always annoyed me but not to the level you describe.I do have this same thing with bathing in the ocean and getting sea plants stuck around my toes. And the way they'll brush against your skin out of nowhere while swimming. Utter revulsion.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

by jnovek 4y ago

ralusek 4y ago

Devil's advocate: I'm sure the people learning about their non-existent dissociative identity disorders also feel as though they're learning useful information and tricks. That being said, I'm in no way implying that the internet can't contain useful information.

jnovek 4y ago
Sure, that’s the other side of that coin I was talking about. :-) Personally, I suspect that people who incorrectly self-diagnose are desperate and grasping at straws. They misdiagnose themselves because proper diagnostics are really hard to get in for. However, I would be willing to bet that people who misdiagnose themselves with DID still have some other underlying mental health condition that they are misunderstanding.
- naravara 4y ago
  I think popular cultural conceptions of what a "diagnosis" is are kind of weird. It seems more like people categorizing themselves with immutable labels rather than accepting that it's just a way to refer to/characterize your subjective experience. I remember talking with one guy who was genuinely sad when his psychiatrist told him she might need to revisit his autism diagnosis and she thinks there might actually be some other class of diagnoses that fit his condition better. You would think she told him he had cancer or something. It helped him a lot to know that there was a box he could fit into and not having a box was distressing for him. It had him feeling unmoored and unstable. Now after reevaluating she did end up settling back on autism and his relief was palpable.
  - kayodelycaon 4y ago
    I wouldn't dismiss labels so quickly. Having a label gives you context to understand what is happening. It gives you a path forward with your treatment. It gives you access to documentation, support groups, and a community who are dealing with the same things. Changing a diagnosis means you likely lose all of these and have to start over. Then there is medication that can significantly change how your mind works. I likely have long-lasting damage to my nervous system from the anti-psychotic I need to function.
mtlmtlmtlmtl 4y ago
Maybe they could at least learn that dissociative identity disorder and schizophrenia are not the same thing. Then something good could come out of it after all.

quasarj 4y ago

I personally hate seeing all the ADHD stuff, I feel like most of those people are faking/wrong as well. But I don't know, maybe I just have ADHD? I just feel like they are always like "this is life with ADHD" and I'm like "what? that's just life? isn't that how everyone is?"

SQueeeeeL 4y ago
I think a counter argument that makes a lot of sense to me is that our modern society is so novel, interconnected, and overstimulating, that it makes sense the prevalence of ADHD and depression have increased massively, especially compared to the populations of 50 years ago.
- colordrops 4y ago
  Perhaps it's not a "D" Disorder but a normal reaction to the malignent nature of our society.
  - SQueeeeeL 4y ago
    I feel like many disorders are just a reaction to environmental factors. The brain is insanely plastic and can learn useful adaptations to survive very unnatural psychological environments. It's basically just a machine learning model being trained on bad data, the model hardware is typically fine, but the weights are going to be very messed up from only learning on atypical situations. Conditions like anxiety are productive if you're living through a famine or war. IMO therapy is basically just learning to down-weight the shitty data and up-weight the healthy data.
  - inversalAutoDoc 4y ago
- kodah 4y ago
  Another counter-argument is that interest in pop-psychology has risen over the years and that rise also aligns with abuses of psychological labels. Maybe some subjects should not have casual interests.

Balgair 4y ago

I'll echo the sentiment. I was unaware that thing I saw as 'normal' were more on the 'adhd' side of the spectrum than the 'normal' side. Learning that I was simultaneously not alone and 'rare' has been quite helpful. The reddit for adhd memes have been fun to go through. https://old.reddit.com/r/adhdmeme/top/?sort=top&t=all https://old.reddit.com/r/adhdmeme/top/?sort=top&t=all The socks one was a childhood fight in our family constantly. I hated certain socks and my siblings loved them. I can remember my dad berating me in a walmart parking lot about my sock preferences and still associate walmart with parental shame to this day. The way the inner sewn lining on the toes got occasionally stuck on my toenails when walking. They still gives me the creeps and heeby-jeebies, just these little mind grabbing zings with every 'wrong' step.

mtlmtlmtlmtl 4y ago
The sock thing always annoyed me but not to the level you describe.I do have this same thing with bathing in the ocean and getting sea plants stuck around my toes. And the way they'll brush against your skin out of nowhere while swimming. Utter revulsion.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]