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Nina's avatar

Yeah, this all sounds like total nonsense to me. You seem to be essentially saying that as long as autism or adhd is not totally disabling for an individual there are no benefits to diagnosing it and we shouldn’t. Well, I’m very bright and I did well enough in school despite having never been able to pay attention to an entire lecture, not even when it was my favorite subject that I was passionate about and was super determined to pay attention. And yeah I’m still bitter at how hard I tried and how shitty I felt about it. And yeah I would be neither homeless not in a hospital if I didn’t have ADHD meds - I can function, I have compensatory strategies. But when I started Ritalin and it killed the noise and attention pulling that I was constantly fighting all day at work I went from having to fight my own brain every day to be a mediocre attorney to being a fantastic attorney with little effort and much happier. Before I took it the first time I couldn’t have even told you that there was that noise. So tell me, how is anyone in the world hurt by me taking Ritalin on work days? I get enough food and sleep. How does it make the world better for me to suffer and resign myself to not being able to reach for my dreams? I don’t get it.

Autism diagnosis are sought so people can feel like a normal zebra and not a defective horse - so that they can stop trying to change things that are impossible to change about themselves and focus on figuring out accommodations and how to get the life they want (including socialization) - not as an excuse for anything.

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Megan Kazembe's avatar

Great essay but the title is off, it sounds like rage bate. Never should you say ADHD is stupid, even when making a point. I agree social media is the cause for the rise in misdiagnoses. I've seen people making videos saying "3 signs you have ADHD" and one of the signs will be not being able to focus in class. Yes not focussing in class can be a result of ADHD, but it doesnt mean you have it. The way you wrote this piece, saying you immediately judged your patient, although you knew nothing of her mental health outside of your conversation is one reason people are scared to open up and express themselves to medical practisers. You made a good point, the idea of being mentally drained it trending, but it is a reason issue, and a disorder is never stupid

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