PSA about ADHD

rabbitindisguise:

bestial-eyes:

✦ADHD is not a personality quirk

– some things that tag along with ADHD are:

        ~sensory processing disorder

        ~executive dysfunction

        ~poor fine motor skills

        ~sensory overloads (that lead to meltdowns)

        ~sensory seeking (self stimming)

        ~hyperfixations

        ~moderate to severe memory problems

        ~Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria– is an extreme emotional sensitivity and emotional pain triggered by the perception that one is being rejected, teased, or criticized. The emotional response is complete with suicidal ideation and people suffering from RSD often get misdiagnosed with serious personality disorders. RSD is only seen in people with ADHD and the emotional sensitivity/reaction is much more severe than that of a neurotypical person.

✦Some other fun ADHD things! 

          ~inability to regulate emotions

          ~no concept of time

          ~noticeable public stimming (resulting in stares from neurotypicals) 

          ~no impulse control

          ~insomnia

          ~listen but cannot absorb what is being said 

          ~no volume control 

          ~increased inability to focus when emotional

          ~difficulty stopping a task and transitioning to the next 

          ~social anxiety

          ~higher levels on generalized anxiety

          ~extremely forgetful 

          ~”all or nothing” mentality  

@ neurotypicals- some things to be aware of: 

– you cannot hyperfixate. only people who are neurodivergent can hyperfixate. please don’t use that word when describing your latest obsession 🙂

– please don’t stare at neurodivergent people who are stimming in public

– be respectful of those who actually need fidget toys so they can subtly stim in public 

– if we forget something you tell us it is not because we don’t care, we just have a million other thoughts racing through our mind and no way to filter through them. 

– please be gentle with us. no don’t tip toe around us and treat us like we aren’t human, but be aware that even offhand comments can trigger RSD. no we aren’t being too sensitive, our brains are wired differently than yours. 

ADHD also can have weird as heck coping mechanisms like:

– always talking in a monotone voice because expressing any high state emotional arousal (really happy, sad, excited, angry, etc) causes you to be loud and get in trouble in class

– procrastination

– seemingly crying all of a sudden for no reason, except there’s been loud noises/bright lights/whatever that neurotypicals just don’t notice

– you forget your keys, your umbrella, your wallet, and your life’s purpose in one night. Don’t worry, you know eleven things about blue lobsters. Your wall is sticky notes. Your binders are sticky notes. You always forget at least one thing.

– having a routine that is set in stone for every morning

– having an entirely different routine every morning because you always forget to do something before you leave. The time it takes to walk back to your room is factored into how long it take to get ready.

– quadruple checking everything because you forget the information your just absorbed a literal second ago

– studying way more than others or way less than others for the same results

Also:

– the reason neurotypicals don’t hyperfixate is because hyperfixation caused me to sit in my room for an entire day and a half without eating because I was doing something I needed to focus on and getting food would interrupt that. I didn’t sleep that night. Hyperfixation is a “maladaptive” behavior, and is often seen as Too Extreme and Unhealthy. Lots of people experience varying levels of it though- or not at all. If you think you’ve experienced a period of time like that, you should fill out one of those self surveys for ADHD and probably depression. Hyperfixation can cause major issues fulfilling basic life tasks and learning to deal with it can be very important.

– ADHD has three subtypes; inattentive, hyperactive, and mixed. Some ADHD people fulfill the stereotype of talking fast, getting distracted by anything, etc. Some people will space out at a moment’s notice, and information goes through their brain like it’s a sieve. A majority are mixed, which includes enough symptoms of each type to be diagnosed as both. This means ADHD people will almost never have symptoms that you expect, and you can’t really diagnose ADHD people yourself unless you have some very intimate knowledge of all their difficulties in school, home life, etc. On top of that, coping mechanisms like the ones I just listed above make it even harder to tell if someone has symptoms in the first place, and there are as many of them as people with ADHD. So please, please, don’t use “ADHD” as an adjective unless the person already identifies with it.

– “no impulse control” often leads to doing/saying things that are regretted immediately which is partially why social anxiety, higher rates of depression, feelings of isolation, and RSD exists. The thing that probably would have saved people from mountain lions or bullies actually is pretty useless in most other situations.

– sorry for the clicky pens but I actually have no regrets