#durdle speaks

[adhd-culture--is]

adhd (+ autism) culture is having a breakdown because your teachers insist you would be so good if you just put the effort into your work because they 'know' you're smart, you're just holding yourself back

like i fucking need someone to hold my hand through it or else i cant do it because it feels like torture. i need positive reinforcement and constant instructions or else i get stuck and shut down.

i don’t really think all teachers (and even professors) understand how painful it can feel to be told that you’re holding yourself back.

i never had this quite exact issue, but especially in uni i have encountered professors that respond to me reaching out for help (“i don’t know how to ensure i get a good grade on this upcoming test, can we talk about how i can apply the study guide better this time?”) with just affirmative platitudes (“you’re your own worst critic, just study and you’ll be fine!”) and it can be super soul-crushing honestly, especially when you spent the day building up the courage to approach them.

i super feel you anon, and i imply educators everywhere to beware of how non-constructive compliments (“i know you’re smart”) can really fuck with a student’s ability to approach you in the future. it can sound like you’re telling them to just figure it out on their own.

[adhd-culture--is]

adhd culture is always being tortured by the desire to play into the self-aware, hyperbolized humor of “squirrel brain” (haha im so Quirky i get distracted by shiny things and butterflies)

and the burden of knowing that a small subset of people take this characterization at face value and see ppl with adhd as cute lovable children incapable of counting to 4 instead of just like. adults who struggle with numerous specific (but life-relevant) cognitive tasks

like. you guys know i’m joking right. when i put the shiny button at the bottom of a poll you know it’s in like, a narrative irony way right. please tell me you don’t think im one of these people

[adhd-culture--is]

weekend checkpoint

there’s something i need to do, time to put on some music and Go

i haven’t showered in a while, it’s about time

maybe i’ll pick up 2 things in my living space

i haven’t let myself relax, it’s time to do that

i’m feeling lonely, maybe i’ll text someone

i’m feeling ok, thank you though :]

✨shiny button

Voting ended onMar 4, 2024

[adhd-culture--is]

AuDHD culture is going through cognitive tests during the ADHD diagnostic process and realizing that these are tests for children that have been clumsily retrofitted for adults, and that they look strikingly similar to the puzzle games you played during your autism speech therapy when you were a kid TWENTY YEARS AGO (also the copyright date on the test is from about 20 years ago)

Like, why am I playing with blocks and doing tangram-like puzzles? And why has nothing been updated?

And why did the release form I signed say “I acknowledge that my child yada yada yada” like no there is no child I am doing this for ME

my adhd test had me reciting numbers like it was music class

[adhd-culture--is]

ADHD culture is when you have your first evaluation appointment and the psychologist says "I can't officially diagnose you from only one interview, but I am definitely seeing signs of ADHD"

Is this a common thing that happens during evaluations?

in my limited experience, yes. it's relatively common to walk away from a first evaluation without any real answers, this happened to me when i first went in for an ADHD eval and i 100% get that it can be very frustrating

it sounds like your psych is willing to think it through more and reach a more definitive conclusion. i hope you're able to go back to them because they sound very responsive and professional!

[adhd-culture--is]

Follow-up to https://www.tumblr.com/adhd-culture--is/784172840402534400/adhd-culture-is-when-you-have-your-first?source=share :

ADHD culture is when your evaluation results come back negative because you're really good at doing puzzles and taking tests, and because your parents don't think you showed any signs of ADHD during childhood.

i got scolded after my ADHD evaluation for trying too hard to pass the number memory game

[adhd-culture--is]

hope everyone’s day is going well! remember to work on That Thing You Need Done, one little piece at a time :]

[adhd-culture--is]

hi guys, super quick, blameless PSA about submitting posts to this blog! if you provide a statistic about ADHD, i am going to try the best of my ability to fact check it beforehand. there’s a lot of misinformation out there these days and i think it’s important that we don’t contribute to that.

i received an anon in my box claiming that only 5% of adults with ADHD have college degrees. this sounded vaguely believable to me, but also a suspiciously dramatic statistic especially since it probably wasn’t encompassing global statistics and rather a western demographic. i only did one search online so this isn’t exactly thorough, but i did find that chadd.org had some resources stating that 15% of young adults with ADHD had a 4-year degree, as opposed to the control group of 48%. still a staggering difference, and admittedly also without stating where the samples were taken. i wonder if anon’s misunderstanding could have come from a misquote of the estimation that 2-8% of college students have adhd. just a theory though.

i love the idea of sharing statistics and research here with you all, but i encourage you to provide sources if you intend to do so — not because i don’t believe you, but because a citation is a perfect opening for someone to do more research and reading on the topic.

happy belated halloween!