The lighter side of ADHD
Isn't it strange that we have a government-ran education system that seems to identify those with significant potential for social change/upheaval and then manages to turn them into aimless mental health cases without the necessary learned skills such as how to study, how to overcome challenge, etc? Surely that couldn't be by design to maintain the status quo and weed out or disenfranchise potential challengers to it before said challengers had a chance to inspire action, could it?
Honestly, I don't think your thinking is correctly placed.
I do not think people with ADHD or other neurodivergencies are by design thought of, in first hand, as opposition Opposition that will be oppressors of the system. If anything, it's a second hand thought. Of course the surpressed will attempt to revolt on a personal or collective plane sooner or later. But really, I don't think people with ADHD are pre-identified as rebels by the system. I think it's more historicallly sensible that people with ADHD are just trouble inside school. They ask too much and remembers too little. It doesn't fit the practice of teaching. That's it.
For me it was hiding my emotions while dying of anxiety inside. I thought it was normal for people to have multiple streams of thought at once and to wake up with your mind immediately racing til bed. I did it though, college, kids, house, corporate IT career, until I couldn't handle the grind of daily life and burned out hardcore, several times. Also drank excessively for 20 years.
Thankfully, you can get treated for depression and anxiety for decades, then spend thousands of dollars to get an official ADHD diagnosis, maybe. And the stimulants make my anxiety and depression so much better, and they are super easy to get. Also, no one will question if you really have ADHD, support all the way. Then, back to the grind which you'll run right into with a smile everyday. I love it! It's the best!
They called us 'gifted' to justify our separation from others.
I'll go for the "Don't get diagnosed" and "Kill yourself in your 30s" strat.
Edit: For anybody actually trying to unassigned variable themselves, please be adviced. There are CEOs on your way out and be carefully NOT to take any of them with you. That would be AWFULL and HIGHLY illegal. We ABSOLUTELY DESPERATELY need those CEOs, so please be carefull with them.
Same, thou I'm not sure I can wait out the last couple years to 30. Might be fun to have my birthday be my deathday tho
You uh...ok? It does not sound fun to have your birthday be your death day :(.
I'll be honest this makes me feel so much less alone. I should have completed my engineering degree by now, but honestly not blaming COVID itself but the situations around it and the isolation among other things sent me down a never ending spiral to the bottom. I come to learn I barely holding on by a thread most of my life and it started to unravel at 21-22. Getting ADHD takes forever in the UK, I just hope I can survive or find something to hold me up until that. I went from potential family top earner to a lost loser who is anxious when seeing people nowadays.
I'm now one further in the "incapacitated for years" state
Wtf .. is this real?
I got diagnosed recently and don't want my job back. Freelancing is the way to go. Stay away from corporate culture, stay strong.
I wish I could be like you.
I also have recently-diagnosed ADHD, and could never do freelance because I feel constantly burnt out and unmotivated all the time, even when doing absolutely nothing. I have to be in a structured environment with clear goals, or my life completely falls apart.
Not going to assume anything, but ADHD can manifest itself in different ways depending on your gender. And there's also the fact that it is a complex disability. You're lucky enough to have the type of ADHD that allows you to be productive. My parents have the same kind. I'm unlucky enough to have the "gifted child who grows up to disappoint their parents" type of ADHD.
I relate to this tweet hard, because it describes my life to a T.
Yes for sure, it wasn't easy. I left my job and hit rock bottom for roughly 3 yrs, spent long time with psychedelics and then my first mushroom trip gave the right perspective- is this how normal should feel like?
I didn't know shit. I thought maybe I was psychopathic, maybe sociopath, then assumed I'm just stupid. The doctor initially diagnosed me for Anxiety, that still left a lot of ocd behavior and helped little with social anxiety. That meant I couldn't work with people, avoided client calls even.
After diagnosis it kinda felt I'm cheating because things were so much easier now. I could run circles around the peers who made me insecure. Dont get me wrong I'm still jobless and drowning in debt, but hopeful instead of crippled with depression (huge win)
I was in GT classes in middle school and my freshman year of high school and I absolutely did not belong there. But, you know, I liked teaching myself things so obviously I should be put in the class that made me do extra boring bullshit work.
Why yes, I did end up dropping out of high school and getting a GED.
Never been evaluated for ADHD, but I have basically all the symptoms my daughter, who definitely has ADHD, has, or had them at her age.
Yeah I swear if they take away my meds and say just get over it
Not to diminish the struggles of those with ADHD, but this is also a thing for neuronormative folks. Society simply tells us all to be brilliant in order to be useful for others. But the problem is that not everyone of us are the same and if we don't live up to expectations, we also end up disappointing ourselves. So, we try to keep up to please others, neglecting ourselves, and hence leading to burnout.
This hits a little too close to home. Still working on the anxiety and depression as an adult, but burnout has been a something I have done my best to put my foot down on, especially after my last job gave me panic attacks.
I almost failed 1st grade because I didn't understand the concept of homework. I had a huge pile of it stuffed in my desk. Eventually, they called my dad and I was given a chance to do the weeks of assignments and catch up. I didn't do them because I was bored and spent most of the time in my own mental world. I finished the whole stack in a weekend. I got the dreaded "GT" designation in elementary and was accepted in this "pre-AP" program in middle school. Most people would view this as a mistake, but due to my specific circumstances, the alternative would have been worse.
The burnout bordered on abuse. I had less homework in the actual Highschool AP classes. Hell, I had less homework in University. Apparently, the parents threw a big fit as their kids were staying up until midnight finishing homework several nights a week. The solution was to the lower the requirements to stay in the program. We were fucking 12! My hair was falling out by the end of the year. The first 2-3 weeks of summer I did nothing but sleep as I was exhausted. I have no idea how I managed to force myself through that for 3 years straight, while going through puberty, rapidly declining mental health, and still failing to find the right kind of stimulation.
When I got the diagnosis as an adult, I went through a mourning period at all of the things I could have done better. Once the plastic in your brain settles, doing things as an adult is significantly harder. It is what it is though, and I still have done amazing things with my life.