I see memes from this adhd community all the time on my feed, and every time I’m like - isn’t everybody like that? What’s so special about it? Like the metronome one, isn’t that how everyone with a three digit iq feels but hides it to different degrees? Or the one about being disappointed when you suck at something you never tried - how is all this stuff adhd specific? 90% of the stuff I see here is like that.

A lot of the “adhd” people I’ve seen online are 200% self diagnosed and use it as a replacement for a personality, because having adhd is fashionable - to the detriment of the credibility of the real adhd people - which is probably why people react the way that this meme hints at.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

ADHD isn't some thing that makes you experience things that other people don't experience. It just makes those much much more frequent, stronger and harder to control. Your response is exactly what this meme is about, not enough people take ADHD seriously and many ADHD folks suffer unnecessarily because of that. ADHD is a condition that has a wide range range of symptoms and is not just "haha, I can't focus on things as well as others". There's also a chance that you and your family have undiagnosed ADHD which makes it seem to you that everyone lives like that when it's simply not the case.

If you're the type of person to actually listen to us then please watch this 3-part video because it really puts into the perspective what ADHD is. Of course this video is a bit dated and doesn't cover our experiences too much but that's understandable as it's about the neuroanatomy behind ADHD to lay a foundation to understand ADHD.

Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyZtYzFq4WY

Part 2: https://youtu.be/M8dLiH1LFx8?si=7NUMGSDFXrvd4ixe

Part 3: https://youtu.be/sPFmKu2S5XY?si=XToMJ3kvrt5TiW97

Edit: ADHD also has a big overlap with other neurodevelopmental disorders or things like depression. And speaking of depression, a lot of people with ADHD have it which means that although some of the things are not directly caused by ADHD they're still indirectly caused by it which makes it alright to discuss in this group. Role of those kinds of groups is to make people find comfort by showing that there are other people that are experiencing the exact same things. Sharing your success stories is also encouraged to motivate people to not give up and try different things till they find something that works for them.

[–] Draghetta 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Thanks for the reply, that’s exactly what I was going for. I hope it was clear that my observation was genuine and had no intention whatsoever to troll.

I do take adhd seriously, and I have met some who quite clearly suffer from it - but I have also seen plenty of posers, if you listen to the internet everybody has Tourette or OCD. My point in that paragraph was not that adhd is not a thing, but rather that the abundance of posers who just want to feel special gives the condition the lack of credibility that you and I both denounce.

As for me suffering from it, it is quite possible having struggled with depression as well. I am very annoyed by the “self diagnosers” so I try to practice what I preach. Not that I could possibly find out properly, as adhd is not taken quite seriously where I am from.

Thanks for the resources, they’re on top of my watch list.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The problem with the idea that it is unusual that "everyone" on the internet has ADHD is that the internet (and especially people making comments/posts) is not a random sample of the population.

The internet is GREAT if you have ADHD and are trying to get a dopamine hit, which is pretty much the constant state of ADHD due to dopamine dysfunction. It's a fire hose of content and people to interact with. At any given moment I would expect a greater percentage of people with ADHD to be online than those without ADHD.

It's also worth asking, if fakers didn't exist would people with ADHD be treated any differently by society? There has been scorn towards people with ADHD as lazy or undisciplined for decades. It long predates the current widely viewable videos of people faking disorders for attention.

[–] LetKCater2U 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I wish I could upvote your comment twice 🙌🏽.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

There is also the fact that algorithms will feed adhd people more adhd content because the algorithm can tell they relate to the content. That creates a bit of a bias where it looks like everyone around you have adhd when really you might be caught in an algorithm loop instead.

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