rising above the discourse but j wanna say that in all this adhd/self diagnosis chat i haven't rly seen anyone talk about the fact that yes, most symptoms/traits for adhd (+ mental illnesses- ocd, anxiety, depression, etc) ARE common and experienced by most ppl from time to time

but what makes something a *disorder* is the frequency, intensity, and distress caused by those symptoms. for adhd and autism you have to demonstrate that those traits have been consistently present since childhood.

the ocd assessment tool specifically asks how much distress you feel when experiencing each symptom – not "do you have intrusive thoughts" but "how difficult does this intrusive thought make your life"

yes, everyone sometimes forgets to lock the door or turn the stove off or whatever! that's normal. what's not normal is spending 2 hours repeatedly checking every socket in your house before you can leave because you are so convinced you have accidentally left something turned on

it's normal to sometimes leave your keys at home! it's not normal to do it multiple times a week!

despite the fact that if u are marginalised, self-diagnosis has to be the first step bc no-one is ever going to look at you and say "this looks like adhd", because it doesn't, because adhd looks like white male children behaving aggressively –

despite the many and manifest issues with diagnostic criteria for these kind of conditions – and despite the fact that diagnoses are so hard to access – pls recognise that prevalence, intensity, and distress are all part of the diagnostic criteria for a reason.

because those are the facets which *make* something a disorder and not normal – because your attention or your relationships or your anxiety are *disordered*, they are not normal, there is something askew

it's incredibly dangerous to dismiss people self-diagnosing as "self-pathologising" when part of that process is recognising that things you are told are normal and common are not in fact normal and common in the way you experience them.