this post was submitted on 23 Jul 2023
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This is my life every time I try to talk about the ADHD I’ve struggled with since childhood. “Oh everyone has that issue!” Well then maybe “everyone” has ADHD to some degree? I don’t have a fuckin monopoly on it.
I think the thing is that "everyone" is wired to gather berries and run from predators and "mental illness" is our brain saying "I hate this, where did all the berries go?"
Like if you tried to make the family cat push buttons for 8 hours and it refused to do so you wouldn't say it had a mental disorder, you would say it has a brain evolved to fit a cat's needs. Why are people with brains evolved to fit a human's needs any different?
I agree that the complicated and abstract lifestyle most of us lead factor into our well-being and mental state, but I think it is extremely reductionist to say all mental illness stems from this issue.
Heartily agree, I was needlessly hyperbolic there.
Right? It's like yeah maybe they've experienced these symptoms to a degree at times. But is it demonstrably affecting their ability to function in life? Maybe ADHD.
I think everyone has experienced the symptoms of ADHD to some degree. The difference is the severity of the symptoms and how much they interfere with your ability to get tasks done.
I experienced the symptoms all my life but didn't get formally diagnosed until I was in graduate school and (among other things) couldn't just sit still and read an article start to finish in one go like everyone else.
When I started taking medicine for it, I couldn't believe how...easy my daily life became. It fixed symptoms I didn't even know I had. I didn't realize until that point how much I couldn't focus while driving to and from school/work, how often I interrupted others while they were speaking, all kinds of stuff.