3 ms·

ADHD is the latest in a very long line of "vaguely applies to everyone" diagnoses. The history of psychology is full of them. Asperger's was in vogue a few year

ADHD is the latest in a very long line of "vaguely applies to everyone" diagnoses. The history of psychology is full of them. Asperger's was in vogue a few years ago, chronic fatigue syndrome is for people who like scary diagnoses, irritable bowel is one with a reputational devil may care, codependency is a bit antique, long COVID is topical. Any sufficiently motivated person can diagnose themselves with these. And boy are there motivations: have one of them and you instantly become special. (And yes before anyone says it, there are many genuine cases.)

ChainOfFools 3y ago
Have you ever done that trick where you position your fingertip in just the right spot where the nerves on the retina converge, causing your fingertip to disappear from the field of view? When I first did this there were two surprises, the one I expected, when I saw my fingertip vanish. And then a bigger one I did not expect, which is noticing I had never noticed this deficiency before, despite it being literally right before my eyes my entire life. When I was a teenager I held something approximately like your view on ADD, (there was no ADHD variant yet). That it was mainly a crutch, a blame-deflecting explanation for failure sought by those who couldn't get their shit together for character flaw reasons. This attitude made me turn down an offer by one of my professors, who also happened to be a clinical psych., to connect me with someone who might be able to diagnose whether or not I had this issue. I went without a diagnosis for another decade before circumstances press me to reconsider my position. The very first time that I took medication that was prescribed to me was like that optic nerve blind spor revelation, but in reverse (and magnitudes larger in effext): a deficiency that had been with me my whole life, but completely invisible not because I could not see it, but because I saw everything through it, suddenly vanished. The effect is difficult to summarize in a few words but it's as if I had gone my whole life not knowing that I needed to wear reading glasses (in a world where they were still quite rare and uncommon) - attributing my inability to remain engaged with any text longer than a few sentences without becoming strangely fatigued to a lack of willpower or mental conditioning - and then putting them on. "_this_ is what everyone else sees?!"
TalEs 3y ago
This is why self-diagnosis isn't an actual standard, but also your statement is that of ignorance. ADHD can be seen more of a chronic condition, people do forget minor details once in a while, but when you start to have that happen almost daily, even after a few minutes or hours, that is more akin to ADHD. Another analogy is, everyone has to urinate, but when you have to urinate every 5 mins, that is a problem, that is ADHD. ADHD affect the ability to perform executive functions first, which is it's main trait, it also come with it's own set of other problems like memory, so writing off ADHD as a trend, is reductive, imo. It's not something actual sufferers label themselves to feel special, it's more like society labels them to call them lazy or "special".

ChainOfFools 3y ago

Have you ever done that trick where you position your fingertip in just the right spot where the nerves on the retina converge, causing your fingertip to disappear from the field of view? When I first did this there were two surprises, the one I expected, when I saw my fingertip vanish. And then a bigger one I did not expect, which is noticing I had never noticed this deficiency before, despite it being literally right before my eyes my entire life. When I was a teenager I held something approximately like your view on ADD, (there was no ADHD variant yet). That it was mainly a crutch, a blame-deflecting explanation for failure sought by those who couldn't get their shit together for character flaw reasons. This attitude made me turn down an offer by one of my professors, who also happened to be a clinical psych., to connect me with someone who might be able to diagnose whether or not I had this issue. I went without a diagnosis for another decade before circumstances press me to reconsider my position. The very first time that I took medication that was prescribed to me was like that optic nerve blind spor revelation, but in reverse (and magnitudes larger in effext): a deficiency that had been with me my whole life, but completely invisible not because I could not see it, but because I saw everything through it, suddenly vanished. The effect is difficult to summarize in a few words but it's as if I had gone my whole life not knowing that I needed to wear reading glasses (in a world where they were still quite rare and uncommon) - attributing my inability to remain engaged with any text longer than a few sentences without becoming strangely fatigued to a lack of willpower or mental conditioning - and then putting them on. "_this_ is what everyone else sees?!"

TalEs 3y ago

This is why self-diagnosis isn't an actual standard, but also your statement is that of ignorance. ADHD can be seen more of a chronic condition, people do forget minor details once in a while, but when you start to have that happen almost daily, even after a few minutes or hours, that is more akin to ADHD. Another analogy is, everyone has to urinate, but when you have to urinate every 5 mins, that is a problem, that is ADHD. ADHD affect the ability to perform executive functions first, which is it's main trait, it also come with it's own set of other problems like memory, so writing off ADHD as a trend, is reductive, imo. It's not something actual sufferers label themselves to feel special, it's more like society labels them to call them lazy or "special".