It sucks, because I’m undiagnosed and have never gone to get checked by a professional, but I relate to practically every single meme I see in this community, and have been told by numerous people(including a psychologist in training) that I probably had ADHD, or at least ADD if that is even considered a thing anymore. But then I see comments on half the posts saying “oh everybody does this, ADHD isn’t real and are just people trying to claim they’re special” and I think damn, is that true? Or are these people just ADHD themselves and projecting their experiences on all of society? Or is ADHD just extremely common in society? Am I ADHD? Will I ever truly know the answers to any of the questions? Maybe if I actually put effort into finding answers, but I will instead continue to scroll while I procrastinate falling asleep as I should’ve passed out 4 hours ago.
I think it’s a combination of a few things.
There are a lot of people who still have the mentality that ADHD is over diagnosed and is bullshit. That’s a carry over from my childhood for sure. I see so many millennials still quote boomers complaining about ADHD these days.
Secondly, the current short form social media is decaying everyone’s attention spans. As a result of this many people who may not have ADHD have some symptoms from damaging their attention span.
ADHD is likely more common than we give it credit for due to a lot of negative connotations to diagnosis, even today.
With all of that said. I am not a doctor, nor an expert. So take this with a grain of salt.
Edit: additionally, my doctor and much of what I have read said. A diagnosis is less important than understanding your strengths and weaknesses, how it impacts you and how you can build systems to remain effective in the areas you want to. So it matters less if you have ADHD or not, and matters more how you respond to the individual behaviors that lead you to believe you have it, and how you mitigate them. They did said, a diagnosis is most important if you are looking to medicate. That’s the important conversation with your doctor.
I got my diagnosis under a year ago, and the way I’ve intellectualised it to myself is:
I’m in the top 5-10% for scatterbrained-ness or enthusiasm, or bottom 5-10% for working memory or personal project completion.
That’s it. If I was among the 5-10% shortest people, I wouldn’t have a “height deficit disorder”, but learning some tricks would be helpful, there are tools (or in our case meds) to help, and I’d possibly need accommodations sometimes. Ideally the world would work on universal design principles and include the extremes, but unfortunately it isn’t so. Same principle applies.
Fun Fact; ADHD is associated with development of dementia.
Ffs.
oh
[3rd Panel]
Car crash.
don’t google and drive!
I don’t remember shit. Is that an ADHD symptom? Guess I’ll go plumb the depths of the purple links
I think it’s less a symptom and more part of the whole.
Working memory (what most people think of as short-term memory) dysfunction is very common among ADHD folks and is likely part of the executive dysfunction that’s the core of ADHD.
For example, a hyperactive type may be hyperactive as a means to stimulate executive function, thereby improving working memory as a result of increase in neurotransmitters (I forget which ones).
At a macro/diagnostic level, psychologists may consider it a symptom in their questions to help them differentiate. But everything I’ve read points to it being part of the executive dysfunction.
Not really how it works for me. I still remember everything, I just can’t recall it it without promoting. In the example above I’d recall all the times I looked this up as soon as I started typing but wouldn’t recall the actual effects until I started reading the links. Good news is I wouldn’t have to re-read the articles every time.
Me laughing and about to save this meme to post on hexbear
I’m already on hexbear
