I would argue what we call ADHD and related neurographies are conditions of brain-wiring, which as a whole just...is what it is. Ie “neurodiversity.”
There are bugs in the system, and these smaller wiring patterns can have negative effects, whether rather inherently on their own or, in combination with others, or under specific conditions.
Rejection-Sensitive Dysphoria
Sensory processing disorders
These smaller pieces suck, I really can’t think of a whole hell of a lot of neutral or positive effects, but I can rhapsodize at length negative ones.
Many of the behaviors/cognitions associated with ADHD within the conditions of standard education disrupt or are disadvantages in or according to that system according to interpretation. This is where “symptoms” of ADHD are ultimately caused by neurography that can also have positive effects, or neutral. They’re “bad” in a particular situation or by a particular interpretation.
Missing or forgetting “important details”—important to whom? Why? Determined how?
Focusing on “irrelevant or unimportant subjects, steps, problems, details, etc.”—irrelevant or unimportant to whom? Why? Determined how?
I can’t remember people’s names to save my life. I can tell you what shoes the person with that face was wearing and that one kept coming untied; they walk with an uneven stride, taking longer steps with their right leg than their left and the left knee bending less; they had some kind of NYC accent; they used an iPhone but not apple earbuds or airpods; they had a green bag repaired with red thread. I talked to and looked at them for less than a minute today, but I’ve met and been told their name 5 times. Sometimes I can remember noticing they’d written their name tag with blue sharpie and wrote the letter u without a tail, and the name was something ultimately derived from Greek. Damned if I know what it was.
For example. People are often exasperated I can remember a name, and creeped out when I can rattle off a bunch of weird shit like that. Or, “what did that guy say their name was? That guy with the green bag?” “What guy with the green bag?” “THAT guy, the one with the knee thing?” “WHAT?” “The name’s Greek...come on, you know who I’m talking about, the guy with the green bag with the red repair!” “Why would I notice that about the BAG?”
If that sounds like anyone famous, yes, now that you mention it, Sherlock Holmes is ADHD as all hell, and if he had to do paperwork for a case to be considered done his closure rate would be 0, because that shit’s boring. And he forgot which form he was supposed to use.
And somehow managed not to learn about the sun-centric solar system thing, and that is Conan Doyle canon. So school must have been an interesting adventure.
In an education system—or social system, since, SHOCKINGLY, ADHD exists outside the classroom as well, or even context, details are subjectively “important” or “unimportant,” so remembering “important details” as a symptom can be avoided by being flexible about priorities. ADHD doesn’t have to be a disadvantage.
Not being able to goddamn do the thing no matter much you want to is not a contextual disadvantage, it’s a life-wrecking disability.
And here, my dudes, we have the problem with ADHD and understanding/treating/talking about it, which is if you only look at it from the outside at how it disrupts a system, the “symptoms” you notice are the ones relating to disrupting that system. I know. Take a moment. Adjust that system and hey, look, no disruption!
If you look from the inside at how ADHD affects someone and their life, the symptoms you notice are the ones that disrupt THEM and THEIR LIFE, even after adjustments have been made. You can change an assignment or classroom setup to work with an ADHD brain, and if the problem is executive dysfunction or perfection paralysis, that brain is still going to struggle Doing the Thing.
So yes, please, DO make learning (and working, and living) conditions that aren’t so easily disrupted! This is a good thing to do for everyone, since ADHD isn’t the only thing that disrupts them. There are problems in the systems that CAN be addressed, if not eliminated.
But DON’T just focus on the disrupted system, because there are internal problems that will show up in any system.
DO focus on the disruptions to the individual as they see/feel/consider them. That’s where the “disorder” is, the things about them that affect them.
Step 1: Bloody well ASK. Start with people already identified with ADHD, ask them what makes things hard. Ask what they’d change if they could, about themselves and the world around them. Ask what they can’t seem to do, or stop doing, no matter how hard they try. Ask what they wish the world would stop doing, or do instead. Ask what hurts. Ask what’s a pain in the ass.
From everything I’ve seen in conversations and just roving the internet, EXECUTIVE DYSFUNCTION is the worst. And The Worst. Just not being able to do something, like you’re stomping the gas pedal to the floor over and over and the car won’t move. That shit sucks.
For many late-identified, “too smart/successful to have ADHD” people, Rejection-Sensitive Dysphoria is big bogey #2, and do I have opinions about calling it “afraid nobody likes me disease” rather than “fear or thought of failure or inadequacy is Everything because it is so damaging and Bad” or something. This one drives perfectionism, people-pleasing, and over-performance...unless it shuts them down, causing apathy/disengagement, resistance/resentment, and under-performance. Someone may do GREAT in school, then hit college, or grad school, or work/adult life, and have it fall completely to pieces around them, because the RSD had gone from a driving force to a crushing one. That shit sucks, it gets all tangled up with Executive Dysfunction, and the both of them screw up everything, not just spelling tests.
Thank you, this has been my TED talk.
(Seriously, that shit SUCKS.)
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