#adhd tag
It’s a bittersweet concept, seeing characters in fiction tackle the symptoms of mental illness/neurodiversities with such tact, when we don’t often witness this in reality.
I’ll read a story with a well-rounded character, who is written with an accurate portrayal of Autism, by an Autistic author. And it’s kind of… heartwarming? To see the others in said story react with understanding, to things such as sensory overload, or meltdowns, or to finally see someone be so encouraged to speak on a special interest. All the while, they never infantilize this individual, nor do they mock him. They don’t make him out to be weak, unintelligent, or less than. He has many other aspects to his personality. He is smart, witty, caring, and independent.⁽¹⁾
Because he is a person. He is an adult. He just so happens to have Autism and ADHD.
I’m in the same boat, and despite those moments being fiction, reading them makes me feel justified in existing as me.
Maybe it’s some deep-rooted, internalised ableism I still have towards myself. But whenever I experience those negative symptoms, all I receive from my family is ridicule and taunts. I don’t feel like a valid person struggling with my own conditions. I feel like I need to get over myself. (/nav)
It makes me wonder, how many others are in the same boat?
We shouldn’t guilt people over things they can’t change. It will only make things worse. Besides, it’s not that hard to be supportive. Or, at the very least, not to be a dick.
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(⁽¹⁾Note:You don’t have to be “independent” to be a rational person, or an adult, or anything. I was only describing this character. There is nothing wrong with needing help, or having a disability that does not allow you to care for yourself.)
cleaning with ADHD is a nightmare. it’s an endless cycle of finding a half-finished chore and stopping the one you were already working on, then remembering that something else needs to be done and getting started on that, then finding half-finished chore and
i have the solution! i call it ‘junebugging’.
have you ever seen a junebug get to grips with a window screen? it’s remarkably persistent, but not very focused. all that matters is location.
how to junebug: choose the location you feel you can probably get some shit done on today. be specific. not ‘the bathroom’ but ‘the bathroom sink’. you are not choosing a range, you are choosing a center; you will move around, but your location is where you’ll keep coming back to. mentally stick a pin in it. consider yourself tethered to that spot by a long mental bungee cord.
go to your location. look at stuff. move stuff around. do a thing. get distracted. remember you’re junebugging the bathroom sink and go back there. look at it some more. do a different thing. get distracted. get a sandwich. remember you’re junebugging and go back to the bathroom sink.
nt’s will go crazy watching you, and if they demand to know When You Will Be Done you will probably have to roll them in a carpet and stuff them up the chimney. you’re done when you feel done, or you’re too bored to live, or it’s bedtime, or any number of other markers, you get to pick. but the thing is, by returning repeatedly to that one spot, you harness the ‘hyperactivity’ part instead of wasting all that energy battling with the ‘attention deficit’ part.
not only will the bathroom sink almost certainly be clean, and probably the mirror and soap dish too, you might’ve swapped in a fresh toothbrush, a new soap, you might’ve unclogged the drain – you will probably also have cleaned or fixed up several things in the near vicinity, or in the path between the sink and where you get the fresh toothbrush, or maybe you did your grocery shopping cuz you were out of soap, or maybe you couldn’t find a clean hand towel and ended up doing laundry.
this is good. you got shit done! it wasn’t necessarily Cleaned The Bathroom in the way nt’s think of it, but screw ‘em. things are better than they were.
plus you worked off enough energy to be able to sleep. which is not small potatoes when living the ADHD life. :D
Don’t let the adorable name fool you—this is some Seriously Good Advice. May be useful for brain fog and depression, too!
Reblogging to save my fellow ADHD peeps from the Sisyphusian curse of cleaning with no focus.
