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Mental illness, attention deficit disorder, and suffering

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Re: Mental illness, attention deficit disorder, and suffering

#21

Post by thevagrant »

GavinMcG wrote: post #16

The author really does not do a great job, here, at least in saying something sensible as a response to DeBoer's piece. The core premise seems to be that: > I find it so very irritating that there is no term for my so-called ⸢attention deficit disorder⸣ that does not have the word “disorder” baked into it. I know what a disorder is, and this isn't one. But the author then argues against a strawman: > Why does any dev…

That's right, the point of being diagnosed is that there is a range of symptoms, which left untreated amount to significant negative life outcomes.

Re: Mental illness, attention deficit disorder, and suffering

#23

Post by cbfrench »

TrackerFF wrote: post #7

I have ADHD (ADD), and was diagnosed after 30 - though I've greatly suffered from it since my teenage years. Sure, it is a big part of me, always has been, but I don't really make it part of my identity. I can't control it like a superpower, and there are serious consequences if you're not careful. I've noticed that in the ADHD community, there are some very vocal people that will wear the diagnosis with pride. I mea…

Exactly. I can point to specific ways in which my (at the time, undiagnosed) ADHD has negatively impacted my life: I never finished my PhD because I couldn’t execute a dissertation. The coping mechanisms that had served me reasonably well during my young adulthood suddenly stopped working during the pandemic. So, I became unable to motivate myself to a deadline, which had generally been a powerful force to motivate my attention and efforts. Based on my raw intellect alone, I should have been able to contribute more substantively than I have (or, frankly, than I will ever be able to do). I feel that loss.

ADHD is a curse, and I will never be able to see it as anything but that. Am I grateful to know why I am the way that I am? Certainly. But I will never be able to get onboard with the “ADHD as superpower” line that some fellow ADHD folks have adopted. Glad they can see it that way, but if someone offered me a way to 100% cure it tomorrow, I’d take it and never look back. Getting medicated has made a difference in my life, to be sure, but I can’t imagine ever seeing this condition as a positive aspect of my identity.

Re: Mental illness, attention deficit disorder, and suffering

#25

Post by Mandatum »

GavinMcG wrote: post #16

The author really does not do a great job, here, at least in saying something sensible as a response to DeBoer's piece. The core premise seems to be that: > I find it so very irritating that there is no term for my so-called ⸢attention deficit disorder⸣ that does not have the word “disorder” baked into it. I know what a disorder is, and this isn't one. But the author then argues against a strawman: > Why does any dev…

I think the main gripe sits with how we label it and the way we associate with the label. Yes, in a medical context we can use words like retard, but it's not acceptable to use this word in front of a patient because often the medical definition isn't known.

To the same degree disorder may be an acceptable label by a clinician, but we need a different word for regular everyday use - because if I come into work and tell everyone I have a disorder, they're going to make assumptions. And then back into the closet that information goes.

I'd say a lot of people don't share information about their neurodiversity for this very reason. The fact the top comment here argues about the linguistics rather than the content or spirit of the article, tells me we're not ready for that yet. Which is surprising given the readership of this website likely caters to more neuro atypicals than average.

Re: Mental illness, attention deficit disorder, and suffering

#26

Post by gaze »

DeBoer does the classic thing of "Inventing a guy to get mad at." Are there people who think their ADHD has no downsides and give them superpowers? Sure. There's a lot of people on earth and a distribution of opinions. Why not let people commiserate over their suffering and celebrate the quirks they've leveraged into strengths?

Re: Mental illness, attention deficit disorder, and suffering

#27

Post by lr4444lr »

thenerdhead wrote: post #14

The part I hate most today is that if you relate to a video on ADHD/DID/Depression/Schizophrenia/etc, you will be fed the content until you convince yourself you have a “character trait”. That’s a serious problem with long term effects on society. I’m very sure I sit somewhere on the spectrum and have depressive disorder markers as well. But the last thing I want to do is to promote these traits. I am not proud of th…

This.

I blame the medical profession for not better promoting the concept of normal human variability in these traits, too, and educational leadership for not differentiating career oriented education around people's strengths and weaknesses there in secondary school at least.

Re: Mental illness, attention deficit disorder, and suffering

#28

Post by Barrin92 »

"Many of the downsides of ADD would be less troublesome for everyone, if our world was a little more accepting of difference, a little more willing to accommodate people who were stamped in a slightly different shape that the other cogs in the machine"

I think this is true. We're working and learning in institutions that are incredibly restrictive for people who operate a little bit differently, and it's telling how common ADD is as a colloquialism and not just as a diagnosis.

Foucault used to compare schools to prisons, and joke that the former is the only institution in democratic societies where someone still tells you when you can use the toilet. It's not always so easy to tell with ADD like behavior if the person is pathological or the environment, because you can actually make a pretty decent case for the latter, unlike for some other mental illnesses.

Without playing down the need to help people who do suffer from mental illness, not prematurely pathologizing people and framing them as aberrant is important. In particular with the inflation of ADD diagnoses of young children going hand in hand with a change in culture that seems to have largely robbed children of any opportunity to actually live like kids.

Re: Mental illness, attention deficit disorder, and suffering

#29

Post by FollowingTheDao »

GavinMcG wrote: post #16

The author really does not do a great job, here, at least in saying something sensible as a response to DeBoer's piece. The core premise seems to be that: > I find it so very irritating that there is no term for my so-called ⸢attention deficit disorder⸣ that does not have the word “disorder” baked into it. I know what a disorder is, and this isn't one. But the author then argues against a strawman: > Why does any dev…

If the authors life is not being impacted by his ADHD then he does not have ADHD. The clinical diagnosis for a mental illness is that it impacts your life in a negative way. His attention deficit does not impact his life in a negative way, therefore it’s not a disorder.

The author frankly does not know what he’s talking about. And, clinically, he does not have ADHD.

I have a mood disorder (NPSLE). I am on permanent disability and I have been hospitalized several times.

Even though I know my disorder comes with a gift, and rather unappreciated gift because I do consider myself neurodivergent, I also know at times I want to die at my own hands. And I also know it makes me unable to work.

I think the threshold for where we think some Neurotype is affecting our life has been lowered dramatically.

Re: Mental illness, attention deficit disorder, and suffering

#30

Post by kvmac »

orangepurple wrote: post #15
freemint wrote: post #9

Medicated AD(H)D of Hacker News, did your medication (please specify) influence your personality? If so how?

Daily 20 hour water (& salt) fasting reduced my desire to jump between tasks. Less scatter-brained too. My thoughts stay on rails longer. Didn't change my diet much; I don't eat many refined foods or carbs other than occasional bread. Years ago in college I was prescribed Adderall but it didn't make me focus more. It made me compulsively clean my apartment, masturbate, tweak out, and occasionally be extremely paranoi…

Do you think that it might be harmful to discourage the use of a medication for everyone simply because the medication affected you in a way that you didn’t find helpful?

I have severe ADHD and Adderall has played a huge role in allowing me to do things (like building a successful career as a software engineer) that never would have been possible without it.

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