Even ADHD-oriented media is often being dishonest with people who suspect themselves to have this condition, being toxicly positive and showing ADHD as a “superpower” as if you can hyperfocus your way to success. It is neither a gift nor even an equal exchange between advantages and drawbacks like “you’ll be always late but also always creative!” It’s a crippling thing that may ruin career or end a relationship. There is nothing good with ADHD.
Absolutely. People want there to be a fair trade-off, but life just doesn’t work that way. I’ve seen similar romanticization of autism too, especially with the “savants”.
Sorry. Most of that shit has been my fault, and people like me.
In recent times, there’s been a push to reclassify certain disabilities from … disabilities, into “neurodivergence.” in an attempt to destigmatize certain disorders, and cast them in a new light as part of human evolution.
The idea that life is a min-maxing situation comes from the “just world fallacy”, the fallacious belief that all good and evils “must balance out”. Someone born with some profound disability might have no overarching heartwarming lesson for society to learn, and life might just be about abject cruelty.
I don’t know if the community appreciates or hates that change, but, I’ve seen autism go from being called something quite hateful (/r) in the 1990s, to becoming a spectrum, to people working with autistic people and just calling them “different”.
The romanticization might come from movies like Rain Man, and the few high profile savant cases (on ASD), e.g: I recall speculation that Bill Gates and Elon Musk both had Asperger’s Syndrome.
I think it’s definitely had the positive effects that you mention. People are far less cruel, more understanding, and also WAY more willing to go seek help with these types of problems than they used to be.
The negative effect is that anytime something becomes romanticized, it’s human nature for people to adopt it as an identity, which introduces a lot of noise to the conversation, and we lose some of our objectivity toward it, as now there’s an emotional attachment to the label itself. For example:
Back in the day (early 2010s?) of tumblr, when people first started collecting mental health labels like personal trading cards.
Or now, with the plethora of pseudoscientific misinformation about mental health on tiktok: random people are just making up terms or symptoms and pitching them in a nearly universally relatable way like horoscopes.
If you offer people a label that makes them feel part of a group, supported, and potentially explain why a bunch of things in their life are hard, it’s in our nature to gravitate toward that.
All that being said, I still think it’s a net-positive effect. This is just what happens anytime something clinical enters the mainstream conversation.
Nah, super focus is totally a thing, just not everyone does it.
My wife can’t sit in a computer chair for 8 hours straight playing a game/editing a video/writing something/reading Wikipedia really hard, but I can.
And no, I can’t control it so it’s not a superpower, it’s random enforced focus and it’s only sometimes a helpful thing. Usually the work I do when doing it gets worse much faster and it does major damage to your body to sit in 1 position for that long not peeing.
Rather that relationship doesn’t even start, not because you insult someone (that happens, but you’re forgiven), not because you are not likeable (I thought I’m that for a long time, and lots of moments I am), but because you just don’t (despite being hit on by people amazingly beautiful and interesting and intelligent and sending electric shocks your way by simply texting you).
Though I guess someone giving you chances for over a year qualifies as a relationship which ends at some point. Just dysfunctional.
There is nothing good with ADHD.
It gives incentives to be a kinder person. You feel emotions connected to hurt\comfort more acutely than those connected to prestige, power, dominance. You dream far and swift. You don’t care about lying (EDIT: I meant that you don’t lie, not the opposite).
Any time I want to say what you said and recount all the suffering, I notice that I like it more than the alternative.
Also I still think it can be an equal exchange in a world more friendly to ADHD people.
Even ADHD-oriented media is often being dishonest with people who suspect themselves to have this condition, being toxicly positive and showing ADHD as a “superpower” as if you can hyperfocus your way to success. It is neither a gift nor even an equal exchange between advantages and drawbacks like “you’ll be always late but also always creative!” It’s a crippling thing that may ruin career or end a relationship. There is nothing good with ADHD.
Absolutely. People want there to be a fair trade-off, but life just doesn’t work that way. I’ve seen similar romanticization of autism too, especially with the “savants”.
Sorry. Most of that shit has been my fault, and people like me.
In recent times, there’s been a push to reclassify certain disabilities from … disabilities, into “neurodivergence.” in an attempt to destigmatize certain disorders, and cast them in a new light as part of human evolution.
The idea that life is a min-maxing situation comes from the “just world fallacy”, the fallacious belief that all good and evils “must balance out”. Someone born with some profound disability might have no overarching heartwarming lesson for society to learn, and life might just be about abject cruelty.
I don’t know if the community appreciates or hates that change, but, I’ve seen autism go from being called something quite hateful (/r) in the 1990s, to becoming a spectrum, to people working with autistic people and just calling them “different”.
The romanticization might come from movies like Rain Man, and the few high profile savant cases (on ASD), e.g: I recall speculation that Bill Gates and Elon Musk both had Asperger’s Syndrome.
What’s your take on this?
I think it’s definitely had the positive effects that you mention. People are far less cruel, more understanding, and also WAY more willing to go seek help with these types of problems than they used to be.
The negative effect is that anytime something becomes romanticized, it’s human nature for people to adopt it as an identity, which introduces a lot of noise to the conversation, and we lose some of our objectivity toward it, as now there’s an emotional attachment to the label itself. For example:
All that being said, I still think it’s a net-positive effect. This is just what happens anytime something clinical enters the mainstream conversation.
Life is 3d6, not point buy.
I’m beginning to suspect “superfocus” is just what normal people do when they focus.
Nah, super focus is totally a thing, just not everyone does it.
My wife can’t sit in a computer chair for 8 hours straight playing a game/editing a video/writing something/reading Wikipedia really hard, but I can.
And no, I can’t control it so it’s not a superpower, it’s random enforced focus and it’s only sometimes a helpful thing. Usually the work I do when doing it gets worse much faster and it does major damage to your body to sit in 1 position for that long not peeing.
Rather that relationship doesn’t even start, not because you insult someone (that happens, but you’re forgiven), not because you are not likeable (I thought I’m that for a long time, and lots of moments I am), but because you just don’t (despite being hit on by people amazingly beautiful and interesting and intelligent and sending electric shocks your way by simply texting you).
Though I guess someone giving you chances for over a year qualifies as a relationship which ends at some point. Just dysfunctional.
It gives incentives to be a kinder person. You feel emotions connected to hurt\comfort more acutely than those connected to prestige, power, dominance. You dream far and swift. You don’t care about lying (EDIT: I meant that you don’t lie, not the opposite).
Any time I want to say what you said and recount all the suffering, I notice that I like it more than the alternative.
Also I still think it can be an equal exchange in a world more friendly to ADHD people.
EDIT: And it can be used against fear.