Thread: "We're all a little ADHD"

No, we're not. In the case of ADHD, the reason people seem to think we're making up the differences as an excuse has a lot to do with the diagnostic criteria, which just sound like a list of bad habits

1/

I think as a lot of us know ADHD is named based on the way we inconvenience others and the diagnostic criteria describe procrastination, trouble with organisation, inability to stay focused and I know for a fact some people think we're just pathologising bad habits

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I think we should see the other way round: that ADHD is badly and vaguely defined because they diagnose it based on "bad habits" and hence everyone has the same bad habits, which leads people to conclude we're all a little ADHD

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But if we're to understand ADHD at the cognitive/neurological level, then shouldn't it be described this way rather than at the behavioural level? Not to say we can't describe behaviours as a result of neurology...

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but rather we shouldn't pathologise a behaviour then form diagnostic criteria based on that. This seems like putting the cart before the horse to me and neurodiversity seems to have this issue where medical diagnosis is concerned, generally speaking.

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I'm a combined type but describing myself as a combination of hyperactive and inattentive doesn't seem particularly meaningful to me, as neither of those descriptors are an explanation of the behaviours I exhibit, let alone the underlying cognitive mechanisms.

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I'm inclined to say that we would have much clearer criteria for ADHD if we begun by understanding how we are wired differently and personally I've always liked the succinct idea that we have an interest driven neurological system

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I also find that to generally describe our brains as understimulated and therefore stimulation seeking explains quite a lot. At the same time, we struggle with executive functioning and working memory.

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So behaviour aside, I'd argue being a ADHDer just boils down to being unable to start tasks when we're uninterested and being unable to stop when we are, combined with issues with working memory.

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I think this creates a clearer distinction because everyone procrastinates and can be disorganised, but only ADHDers have executive dysfunction and working memory issues.

E.g. Most people don't struggle with remembering to eat or motivating themselves to eat

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I also like that this has the potential to explain hyperactive thoughts and rapidly switching focus as stimulation seeking combined with working memory issues (i.e. Immediately forgetting what you were thinking about), which means it can explain cognitive tendencies too

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We should also consider coping mechanisms and how that can shape behaviour over neurology. A lot of us know that anxiety can be tied to ADHD, possibly as a coping mechanism that helps us perform to the standards desired by others.

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So defining ADHD would then be a matter of internal experience and cognitive patterns rather than simply external behaviours, because neurodivergent folk have a habit of hiding abberant external behaviours by the time we are adults, at great cost to our mental health

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Moreover, I dislike that the common counterargument to "We're all a little ADHD" is usually the emphasise frequency and severity, which falls back into stigmatising and pathologising ADHD imo.

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This is not to deny that ADHD is a disability (which I think it is for most, if not all of us, especially lacking proper support) but rather to say that going back to arguments about severity and functioning are ultimately self-defeating, insofar as acceptance goes.

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ADHD is knowing I made the thread in response to something I saw, maybe a week ago, but can't for the life of me remember what it was because I took so long to do this