this post was submitted on 09 Sep 2023
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ADHD memes
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ADHD Memes
The lighter side of ADHD
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I see memes from this adhd community all the time on my feed, and every time I’m like - isn’t everybody like that? What’s so special about it? Like the metronome one, isn’t that how everyone with a three digit iq feels but hides it to different degrees? Or the one about being disappointed when you suck at something you never tried - how is all this stuff adhd specific? 90% of the stuff I see here is like that.
A lot of the “adhd” people I’ve seen online are 200% self diagnosed and use it as a replacement for a personality, because having adhd is fashionable - to the detriment of the credibility of the real adhd people - which is probably why people react the way that this meme hints at.
ADHD isn't some thing that makes you experience things that other people don't experience. It just makes those much much more frequent, stronger and harder to control. Your response is exactly what this meme is about, not enough people take ADHD seriously and many ADHD folks suffer unnecessarily because of that. ADHD is a condition that has a wide range range of symptoms and is not just "haha, I can't focus on things as well as others". There's also a chance that you and your family have undiagnosed ADHD which makes it seem to you that everyone lives like that when it's simply not the case.
If you're the type of person to actually listen to us then please watch this 3-part video because it really puts into the perspective what ADHD is. Of course this video is a bit dated and doesn't cover our experiences too much but that's understandable as it's about the neuroanatomy behind ADHD to lay a foundation to understand ADHD.
Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyZtYzFq4WY
Part 2: https://youtu.be/M8dLiH1LFx8?si=7NUMGSDFXrvd4ixe
Part 3: https://youtu.be/sPFmKu2S5XY?si=XToMJ3kvrt5TiW97
Edit: ADHD also has a big overlap with other neurodevelopmental disorders or things like depression. And speaking of depression, a lot of people with ADHD have it which means that although some of the things are not directly caused by ADHD they're still indirectly caused by it which makes it alright to discuss in this group. Role of those kinds of groups is to make people find comfort by showing that there are other people that are experiencing the exact same things. Sharing your success stories is also encouraged to motivate people to not give up and try different things till they find something that works for them.
Thanks for the reply, that’s exactly what I was going for. I hope it was clear that my observation was genuine and had no intention whatsoever to troll.
I do take adhd seriously, and I have met some who quite clearly suffer from it - but I have also seen plenty of posers, if you listen to the internet everybody has Tourette or OCD. My point in that paragraph was not that adhd is not a thing, but rather that the abundance of posers who just want to feel special gives the condition the lack of credibility that you and I both denounce.
As for me suffering from it, it is quite possible having struggled with depression as well. I am very annoyed by the “self diagnosers” so I try to practice what I preach. Not that I could possibly find out properly, as adhd is not taken quite seriously where I am from.
Thanks for the resources, they’re on top of my watch list.
The problem with the idea that it is unusual that "everyone" on the internet has ADHD is that the internet (and especially people making comments/posts) is not a random sample of the population.
The internet is GREAT if you have ADHD and are trying to get a dopamine hit, which is pretty much the constant state of ADHD due to dopamine dysfunction. It's a fire hose of content and people to interact with. At any given moment I would expect a greater percentage of people with ADHD to be online than those without ADHD.
It's also worth asking, if fakers didn't exist would people with ADHD be treated any differently by society? There has been scorn towards people with ADHD as lazy or undisciplined for decades. It long predates the current widely viewable videos of people faking disorders for attention.
I wish I could upvote your comment twice 🙌🏽.
There is also the fact that algorithms will feed adhd people more adhd content because the algorithm can tell they relate to the content. That creates a bit of a bias where it looks like everyone around you have adhd when really you might be caught in an algorithm loop instead.
If you indeed relate very often with adhd memes, you might in fact have undiagnosed adhd. Or autism. These two disorders bleed into each other and have a very high comorbidity
I can’t really see myself going to a doctor and saying “could you please test me for adhd? see there is this community that posts adhd memes and I find them relatable”
I space out all the time when I’m not captivated, but I have no particular struggle focusing on stuff I really care about - in fact the world disappears when that happens. I might be wrong but it doesn’t look like adhd.
Issues with attention are one of the smallest problems of adhd. It's only named after that because that's what parents and teachers notice on kids and get annoyed by. The same way as you get to be labeled a "high functioning" autistic if you learn how to not annoy others with your problems.
The world disappearing when you're doing something you care about feels very adhd tbh. The underlying issue with adhd is that our brain often fails to get positive feedback from doing small things like completing tasks, then over time the brain starts resenting having to do these things because there's no reward, and it tries to force you into looking for something more rewarding to do. When It does find something rewarding to focus on, it latches into it and doesn't let go.
Me, personally, I feel like I have two moods only: distracted and annoyed. If my focus is on something rewarding I'm distracted by it and think about nothing else. I forget about troubles and tasks and responsibilities. I feel rested and happy. When that's not the case, I get so annoyed that just existing feels painful.
This is exactly how a lot of people get diagnosed so I recommend you to do that too if you suspect having ADHD.
I did that (I didn't tell the doctor about the memes ) but I told the doctor how I felt. I had to fill out a questionnaire and the doctor diagnosed me with anxiety and depression but told me all the ADHD behaviors I thought I was having was normal for everyone. This was a couple years ago and was put on SSRIs which I felt didn't do much so I stopped taking them a year ago and I feel no different.
@Draghetta @[email protected] lol being able to concentrate very well only when something interests you and not at all when it doesn't is **stereotypical ADHD** 😁. You don't have to be diagnosed if by now you've learned to cope with it, but read up on on it at least. People with ADHD who know they have it even if not diagnosed by a doctor can find more peace and better ways to handle it.
I forgot to read the second part of your comment so I will make it as a separate comment:
Self-diagnosis is the first step to the official diagnosis, stopping at just that is totally not the way to go and I hope that that's not the case for majority of people. Also about the personality thing, when you live your whole life with undiagnosed ADHD and then one day learn about what ADHD does to you you realise that a lot of what you thought is your "personality" is actually ADHD symptoms. So people joking about their personality being ADHD is understandable.
Rather than it being fashionable a big part of human population has it and symptoms make it easier to get addicted to social media which makes it seem like there are more ADHD people online than offline. Tbh learning about anything through social media is a bad idea because there's always some kind of bias or misinformation.
Fair enough
I also may have just missed what you're talking about because reddit and now lemmy have been the only social media where I participated in ADHD groups.