Post by Amtram on Aug 24, 2014 14:08:24 GMT -5
Still ruminating about that Jeff Emmerson article from yesterday, because this is another statement he made. And he's not the first or the only one to say it. I think that probably anyone who's ever told another human being that he/she has ADHD has heard this. The truth of the matter is that ADHD is a collection of traits that may occur individually and occasionally in neurotypical people, but which are occur collectively and at maladaptive levels in people with ADHD. If you lose your keys sometimes, that does not mean you're "a little ADHD." If you regularly misplace multiple items that are essential to your life like your keys, glasses, wallet, groceries, children, and so on, and you spend hours EVERY SINGLE DAY trying to track things down that you know you had just a moment ago, and you try really hard to put things in the same place every time (REALLY HARD) but forget to do so nearly every time and this is a driving force behind pretty much everything in your life, that's more like ADHD. Except that you also have trouble with lots and lots of other things because you have almost no impulse control and poor working memory and goddam, you wish it were as easy as just losing your keys every once in a while.
I try not to get offended when people say stuff like this, because really, a lot of people don't mean anything by it and they have no idea what it's really like to deal with this day in and day out. But seeing it perpetuated on the internet by someone who claims to be an ADHD blogger just irritates me.
I mean, if you get dizzy a few hours after missing a meal, you don't say "maybe I'm just a little diabetic!" Hunger shakes are normal; diabetes is much more than just hunger shakes.
If you hear your mother's critical voice in your head after you flub a job interview, you don't think "I must be just a little schizophrenic!" Hearing a remembered deprecating voice in your head is normal; schizophrenia is much more than remembering something bad someone said to you when you've failed at something.
Putting your shirts on hangers all facing the same way in the closet doesn't make you "a little bit OCD!" Wanting things to be orderly is normal; OCD is much more than putting things away in neat order.
A diagnosis of ADHD requires the presence of 6 or more symptoms. If you have two or three, you're not "a little bit ADHD." It requires these symptoms to be disruptive to your life enough to be considered a disorder. If they're an occasional annoyance, you're not "a little bit ADHD." The symptoms need to be present in multiple areas of your life. If you're fine except when you're in a rush or the kids are making a commotion, you're not "a little bit ADHD."
I try not to get offended when people say stuff like this, because really, a lot of people don't mean anything by it and they have no idea what it's really like to deal with this day in and day out. But seeing it perpetuated on the internet by someone who claims to be an ADHD blogger just irritates me.
I mean, if you get dizzy a few hours after missing a meal, you don't say "maybe I'm just a little diabetic!" Hunger shakes are normal; diabetes is much more than just hunger shakes.
If you hear your mother's critical voice in your head after you flub a job interview, you don't think "I must be just a little schizophrenic!" Hearing a remembered deprecating voice in your head is normal; schizophrenia is much more than remembering something bad someone said to you when you've failed at something.
Putting your shirts on hangers all facing the same way in the closet doesn't make you "a little bit OCD!" Wanting things to be orderly is normal; OCD is much more than putting things away in neat order.
A diagnosis of ADHD requires the presence of 6 or more symptoms. If you have two or three, you're not "a little bit ADHD." It requires these symptoms to be disruptive to your life enough to be considered a disorder. If they're an occasional annoyance, you're not "a little bit ADHD." The symptoms need to be present in multiple areas of your life. If you're fine except when you're in a rush or the kids are making a commotion, you're not "a little bit ADHD."