Read on Twitter
my torrential executive dysfunction says what’s good, friendo https://twitter.com/qiuetstormin/status/1311218403886223362
I’m sorry for negatively amplifying a rando but it’s genuinely enraging when people make assumptions about others’ health, and use those assumptions judgmentally
ADHD is epidemically under-diagnosed in women and girls, especially those in a low-income family or who are Black or Latina. When I finally got diagnosed I was in my 30s, and the treatment literally changed my life.
Things I had previously understood to be treatment-resistant symptoms of depression or anxiety? ADHD. Things I thought were just my own inexplicable inability to not get my life together? ADHD.
Don’t get me wrong: The depression and anxiety were also real. The being an imperfect person stuff was also real. My ADHD medication wasn’t & isn’t a panacea, I still work hard at being good and being better. But fuck fuck fuck did it all get easier when I knew what was up!
When I took the occasional adderall in college, I thought it “didn’t work on me” because I didn’t get the speedy superhuman effects that my friends got. It “didn’t work” because it was, you know, actually working.
Sam Vimes, from the Discworld novels, is an alcoholic described as having a set point that's *way too sober*, so he needs a few drinks to get to normal. This is not really a great way to characterize alcoholism! But it is a GREAT way to characterize ADHD, and what the meds do —
Meds work differently for everyone, but for me, ADHD medication doesn't give me superpowers of focus and performance and cognition, it just gets me to normal. Once I'm at normal, the rest is up to me.
Anyway, back to the original guy who I quote tweeted: Don't make assumptions about other people's brain chemistry. ADHD doesn't make you or me special. It just makes us people who have ADHD. And we're lucky that we know we have it, because too many people don't.
