this post was submitted on 17 Aug 2023
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ADHD memes
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I hate these lists. Almost all of these are completely normal. Stop trying to diagnose yourselves. There are more people who do most of things on this list than people who do none. Does that mean most people have ADHD?
Edited: removed the swearing. There was no need for it. I still stand behind the sentiment.
Well, mental disorders are spectrums. It's not either you're completely sane or you're the mayor of cuckoo town. It goes in shades.
If you identify with five or so items on that list of 21, that's fine. You're still in the "nornal" zone. If you identify with 16, like I do, that's ADHD. And I do have an official diagnosis from an actual psychiatrist, thank you very much.
Ah but 15 out of 21 is also normal right?
Like 0-15 normal
16 - 21 ADHD
?
The change between normal and ADHD happens at 15.55.
And 22+ is super ADHD
Oh phew, thanks.
Also isn’t it called AD4K when it gets past 22?
You don't have a hard Border, it's the job of professionals to say If you are "normal" or have ADHD
I think Identifying with number 16 would put you in the eating disorders category though.
I'll show myself out now...
Up until recently i thought of myself as a neurotypical person who just happened to find ADHD content relatable. How dare I, a run-of-the-mill idiot and fuck-up, appropriate a real mental disorder in an attempt to explain away all my flaws?
Well anyway it turns out I have ADHD. So yeah, everyone may relate to these things every once in a while. But if you're reading this and you find A LOT of these things relatable, and they happen often, and you can think of lots of examples of times they have caused you major problems, and you feel a lot of shame and guilt and anxiety about the whole thing, I would encourage you to get checked out.
Ah, the old Everyone does this argument.
Yes, but to what extent? How severe is it? That's the important part that neither you nor this list touch on.
When you have 17 planners with 8 pages written in and constant sense of panic over a workload that is never done it's def beyond the "lol I can't pay attention sometimes too" crowd. Some people just don't know what it's actually like to be neurospicy.
For me, it's more like single pieces of paper hat I forget exist as soon as I put the pen down, to then live six months of my life in blissful ignorance of the consequences.
I'm pretty sure I have several of these six months going at any given time, and I have no clue what for.
I feel like gatekeeping stuff as a non practitioner is harmful. I know it doesn't help my guilt when I doubt my - diagnosed and medicated - ADHD because I don't have 17 planners with 8 pages filled it.
I think I had one around somewhere though I never touched....
I mean. A lot of people have ADHD. Most of them don’t know or are in denial. So.. yeah that list makes sense.
All of this is completely normal, yes. However, frequency and intensity are typically the separating factors between neurotypicals and those diagnosed with ADHD.
So it looks like we need to bring over the "no gatekeeping" rule from reddit huh?
Here's a question: What if, say, you've already been diagnosed, and you enjoy relating to other people who have the same issues as you? Just a thought.
Agreed
Yeah, whenever I see ADHD memes I immediately go: Fuck, that happens to me all the time.
Like exactly half the list is applicable to me.
Then I do some more research into symptoms and when it comes to the main ones I go: Nah, I don't have that problem at all (like being tardy).
This is like asking health questions on the internet, the answer will always be cancer.
You don't have to be chronically late to be diagnosed with ADHD. I am never later for anything, but that's due to some good coping mechanisms I learned over the years (that basically amount to "do nothing before the event and leave an hour early")
It's possible to have ADHD and good coping mechanisms that mean you don't meet every single hyperspecific criteria on a list like this. Hell, you might even cope so well that you didn't get bad grades in school. The diagnostic criteria looks for focus deficiency, executive dysfunction, impulsivity, restlessness, poor working memory. There are standardized tests for this.
You said it 1/2 the list applies to you. Okay. For me 100% of the list applies. And each point have been a specific trait of my life.
Yeah I did the same, then I looked into the DSM V and read the symptoms and went... uh... yep! More attention deficit than hyperactivity for me but yeah, it started with memes
The reason places like WebMD tell you that you might have cancer is so you go see a real doctor. It's not because it thinks you probably have cancer, but because you shouldn't rely on WebMD if there's even a small chance you might.
So if lists like these create false positives, I'm okay with it. It means some people with ADHD will finally get help and live their best lives. It means people with some signs of ADHD, but not enough for a full diagnosis, might still find value in the techniques people with ADHD use to deal with those symptoms. And even in the case of people with no issue whatsoever, it's just good to take your mental health seriously.
And hey, even if none of that mattered, there's still a huge stigma around mental health and neurodiversity. If it helps people understand what ADHD people are going through ("It's like this common experience, but to a high level on a frequent basis"), that's good too.