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Follow Your ADHD Flow

adhdftw.com

18 pointstwapi6 comments

I do get a little sick of this ADHD thing

Back in the mid 90's I hardly ever had a client/patient who claimed to have ADHD.

Then as if by magic the ADHD disagnosis started to spread outside the school gates. Parents and teachers concerned about their disruptive, uncontrollable, taughty children.

NORMAL CHILDHOOD BEHAVIOUR suddenly became something we could diagnose and prescribe unnecessarey powerful medicines to children.

YOUR NATURAL STATES #

I’ve found I personally have three states of being…

Hyperfocus, where I’m deeply focused on one thing and phenomenally productive. Physical, where I have lots of energy, but little mental focus. Burnt out, where both my mental and physical energy are low.

Three things that, as a "common o garden" introvert, I struggle with almost every day and I am not a ADHD card carrier. There should be NO! card carrying for ADHD.

HYPERFOCUS #

Just yesterday I spent a lost 5 hours learning a new song on my acoustic guitar. I of course was extremely focussed to complete the sing and give me some pleasure.

PHYSICAL #

Like every human being on the planet!

BURNT OUT #

It’s not uncommon for everyonwe to feel burnt out.

I used to manage a full time job, Volunteer as a therapist three night each week (for 10 years), engaged in constant continued professional development training, managing my family and friends.

WOW! I got tired sometimes.

ALL THESE COMMON HUMAN EXPERIENCES ARE JUST YOUR EVERY DAY HUMAN EXPERIENCE.

As someone with diagnosed & medicated ADHD, it genuinely, truly affects my every day life. After medication, I remember thinking “oh, this is how normal people’s brains work”. I’ve been playing most of my life on hard mode. I won’t debate whether it’s over-diagnosed, but it’s 100% a real thing and it’s incredibly discouraging to see people dismiss it.

I sincerely hope that you treat your patients with more empathy than you've displayed in this post. ADHD is real, there are decades of hard science to back it up, and it has a significant impact on people's lives. What you're doing here is at best not helpful, and is likely harmful.

> I’ll often throw Bob Ross videos on in the background or listen to a podcast while doing these kinds of tasks, just to keep myself entertained.

> I take leisurely walks with my dog. I go for a hike or swim or bike ride. I read a book

Whoever wrote this article has a pretty normal and functioning brain. If you are truly burnt out from a neurological issue you cannot do these things, and background noise is the last thing you want to add

Card-carrying ADHD here and I have no problem doing exactly the types of things they describe while doing tasks on the "physical" section. I might fold laundry a bit slower or something if I get too engaged with what I'm listening to, but

Did you misread that as being the "Burnt out" section?

I don't disagree with the recommendations, and do most of those myself. A big caveat though is most 9-5 jobs aren't very forgiving or compatible with this. I've only been able to do these when on break from work TBH.

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