Trial things that made me appreciate my ADHD this week:
- It’s a really effective barometer for how well the attorneys presented their respective cases. If they couldn’t hold my attention (and I actually know what’s going on), then they sure as shit didn’t have the jury’s attention.
- I picked up on a ton of little behavioral quirks (thanks, hyper-awareness!) from witnesses and jurors, which is super helpful for discussing credibility/perceived credibility.
- Zero tolerance for bluster/time-wasting.
- Knowing that I may have my struggles with completing assignments, but at least I don’t submit things two months late.
I would like to thank the Klutz knitting book for helping me learn how to knit/crochet because it’s been helping me wait/destress/sit still for half of my life and I would be objectively worse off without it.
and diagnosis! therapy starts in a month! hurrah! the ADHD/anxiety feedback loop from hell fucking sucks but it’ll be nice to finally tackle both of those at once.
I kind of lucked out because it turns out that my primary care doctor also has ADHD! it was reassuring to be able to talk about how hard it is to be a student in a high-pressure environment because you basically have to do 200% just to keep up with the course material, and that doesn’t even get into juggling jobs, networking, exams, etc.
some of the items on that particular ADHD inventory were a little questionable, not gonna lie. “running/climbing” were in the hyperactivity/impulsivity category, and like. I fuckin hate running and my parents know I was never a climber, but am I an impulsive spender and eater? fuck yes I am and it’s Not A Good Thing (side note: I am very very thankful that my vices are nice things like makeup and yarn instead of alcohol/drugs because otherwise things would be much worse). “not able to play quietly by themselves” was also in that category, but that doesn’t work as well when your hobbies are all pretty quiet activities by nature?? like...it’s kind of hard to be loud while you’re making things with Legos or reading, but it’s sure as shit possible to completely fail to clean up the Legos or leave things half-built (still a problem when I knit/write fic tbh).
my parents can definitely corroborate the long-term behavior part, especially re:schoolwork (middle school was a super fun time for that). my dad and I were talking about some of the survey items and he was like, “yeah that explains...a lot”, like the Agenda Debacle of 2005. he didn’t say it directly, but I got the impression that he wishes we (as a family) could have gotten a clue that something was off or someone had intervened a lot sooner so that he and my mom could’ve helped me work around it.
at the time I was in elementary school, nobody would suspect that a “smart” little girl who generally keeps to herself and reads a ton of books (but sometimes she makes outbursts and she punched a kid that one time) and can do good work (when she can remember to do it, if she would just apply herself) might have the same thing that the little “class clown” boy who can’t sit still does, just focused (or unfocused, as the case may be) differently, and anyway, ADHD is just an excuse to medicate loud little boys into being better students, right?
throw in parents raised in a culture that isn’t as fluent in talking about mental/behavioral health (and doesn’t necessarily view medication in a positive light) and it’s easy to mistake all of those slip-ups, a perpetual failing at chores, and amazing ability to constantly forget everything from keys to lunch to entire assignments as a lack of organization, especially in a child (she’ll grow out of it, she’ll get it together, if she would just apply herself)
this whole time, I thought it was some personal failing when instead, I’ve been dragging my brain along kicking and screaming with little more than sheer force of will and a lot of creativity. it’s gonna be nice to get everything on the same page.
*Makes post promising big announcement soon* *Forgets to make the announcement post for like. A month.* Well, if that doesn’t just perfectly sum up what we’re about --
HEY! WOW! THATS A LOT OF FOLLOWERS! In fact it’s a whole 61 more than the benchmark this post was originally meant to happen after imagine that
So, in celebration of this blog reaching its first major milestone, Ad(HD)ventures will be seeking out its first new artist! We’re only looking for one for now, because the blog is still very young, and we’d rather keep it small to begin with, and see how things go afterwards. The goal, though, is to eventually have a diverse range of comic artists here so that we can represent as much of the experience of having ADHD as we can!
So! If you’re an artist with ADHD and you want to get involved with this blog, then keep reading below the cut! If you don’t fit that description, but this post pops up on your dash, we’d still very much appreciate the reblog! Signal boosts are very welcome!
Alright, first off, I wanna make this very clear: we understand that circumstances vary wildly, and people have different comfort levels with sharing information and different needs in terms of privacy, so you have our word that the applications submitted here are not going to be posted publicly. Ever. Only two people - the current admins - will be reading it, and we won’t disclose any info from it that you yourself aren’t open about/okay with being public knowledge, and even then we’ll be careful to make sure we’re not crossing any boundaries. The applications of people who we don’t pick will be deleted once we’ve chosen our artist, so the info you give us won’t be sitting in the blog’s messages or anything. And, lastly, if you are chosen, how much of the stuff on your application goes on your mod page is completely up to you, aside from mod name, pronouns, how comfortable you are talking about your experiences personally, and an art sample. That’s it. That’s all the public will have to see, and that’s only if you’re accepted.
Also: it’s hard to say when we’re next going to be looking for artists, but whenever that happens, don’t feel like getting turned down once means you can’t apply again! With that in mind, what should your application have?
TUMBLR URL AND SKYPE NAME: Just so we can contact you. If you’re chosen, we’ll add you to a skype group chat to make communication easier.
PRONOUNS: Kinda important for us to make sure we’re addressing you properly.
AGE: Only because there’s potential for more adult themes to be brought up. While we’re not planning on allowing any actual NSFW art on this blog, ADHD does effect virtually all aspects of life, including sexual situations, and for this reason we’re probably going to ask that all contributors be 18 or older. Sorry about that!
YOUR ADHD: Okay, here’s where we start getting to the important stuff. First off:
1) Are you professionally or self-diagnosed? We are likely going to have more of a bias toward professionally diagnosed folks, but ONLY because ADHD is very similar to a handful of other disorders. We’re also aware that sometimes professionals can still misdiagnose, so it’s not like a professional diagnosis is a guarantee, either! But please do be honest about this. Self-diagnosis is often an important step to getting a professional diagnosis, and through that, access to more help! And really, whether you’ve got that diagnosis, or you’re just pretty darn sure yourself but haven’t been able to get in to a doctor for any number of reasons, this factor is still way less relevant to us than the next one.
2) Please, with as much detail as you can, describe your experiences to us! Everything you think might be connected to ADHD, anything at all, if it comes to mind, include it! What type do you think you have? Are you medicated? What sorts of everyday activities does ADHD interfere with for you? Do you have other disorders as well? Again, I want to reiterate, this will only ever be read by 2 people; we won’t share this information with anyone - we just want to make sure we have people with very diverse experiences, and if you’ve got a perspective on ADHD not represented currently by this blog, then please, by all means, tell us all about it! This right here is going to be the single most crucial element affecting our ultimate decision, so don’t hold back!
ART SAMPLE: This one’s another significant factor, but not nearly as much as your experiences. We’re not expecting the Mona Lisa here; as long as it’s easy to tell what’s going on in the comics you plan to draw, then no worries. They can be black and white or colored, neither is likely to have much of an influence in the long run. Just make sure that the sample you give us is representative of the style you plan to use for any comics you make! While not a rule, I will make a suggestion: keep it simple!
And...that’s everything! If there’s any other information you want us to know about that didn’t fit elsewhere on the app, you’re welcome to squeeze it in between your ADHD experiences and your art sample. You can just drop the application off in our submit box. Don’t feel pressured to pull the whole thing together all at once, though! We won’t make our final selections until a month from today (September 18 - so your deadline is October 18!), so you’ve got plenty of time to organize all your thoughts (although...since this is an ADHD blog, I can understand if some procrastination happens. I mean, look how long it took me to finally put together this post. But still.).
Please do keep in mind, as a final note: the goals of this blog are to build community and to peacefully educate, and to do so in both cases by using humor. Comics posted here should not be mean-spirited, although dark humor is not off limits; nor should they be accusatory of neurotypical people. We want this blog to be a positive place - we know ableism is a big problem and understand being angry about it (trust me on this one, we’re both not very shy about calling out ableism when we see it), but here is not a place for anger. Here is meant to be a place to relax and have a good laugh, and to maybe even help foster understanding where ignorance once was.
With all that said, we wish you all good luck, and can’t wait to see your applications!
