Thread by @dustychipura

hey #ADHD #NeurodiverseSquad. There's some hot button debates going on about the use of certain terms which already have clinically significant meaning, being used in different and new ways to describe our experiences. I'm going to weigh in. Bear with me.

There are two sides to the debate (well, three if you count people who don't care):

- Side 1: Terms that already have a scientific or clinical meaning shouldn't be co-opted to explain other experiences because it muddies the waters and discredits us vis a vis having our experiences taken seriously by medical professionals who are gonna side-eye us

- Side 2: It's a hecking relief to have a term that explains my experience and saying that I can't use it is invalidating my experience and so what if it's already in use? The English language is ever evolving and nobody owns language

Here's the thing: even the people arguing that certain scientific terms that already have one meaning (OBJECT PERMANENCE) *ALSO* care that there is a term for the frustrating thing we all experience, they just don't want it to be THAT term, and the reasons are valid. Deep breath

Stay with me here...

While it is true that many of us already experience disempowerment at the hands of mental health professionals, if we move so far away from what those professional recognize as real ADHD things...

... and start saying "I have ADHD because I experience a lack of object permanence" & etc, we gonna get a whole lot of eye rolls cuz that is a situation where YOU ACTUALLY DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT BECAUSE THATS NOT WHAT OBJECT PERMANENCE IS (stay with me! I promise!)

and like, yes, fuck the mental health medical professionals because they already suck. But, maybe for *YOU* that is okay, if you are a social-media savvy, self-empowered member of the neurodivergent community. Maybe you don't *need* a diagnosis. Maybe you don't *care*.

BUT YOU DO NOT SPEAK FOR EVERYONE IN THE NEURODIVERGENT COMMUNITY!!! The problem is that many people *ARE* in need of a diagnosis, they are in need of meds, of support, of validation. If we are NOT EXPERTS (which, unless you have a background in mental health, you are not!)

We are doing potential harm and disservice to our community members who may want to take a more mainstream approach to treatment and support by using confusing or incorrect terminology. THIS DOES NOT MEAN THAT WE SHOULDNT HAVE A TERM FOR THE THING, WE SHOULD!

*I* am not an expert. I am a coach and not a trained mental health professional. I am, however, somewhat of an influencer and also as a trained and accredited coach I have an ethical responsibility to be as accurate and up to date with ADHD information as possible

Both as a responsibility to my clients and also as a social reponsibility to not do harm to those who listen to my opinion. If I decide a thing is a thing because I say it is, and I walk around saying 'this is a thing' just because it's an idea that I had, that's about my ego.

I SAID WHAT I SAID. DON'T GET IT TWISTED. THAT IS ABOUT YOUR EGO. IF YOU DON'T HAVE TRAINING IN MENTAL HEALTH, IF YOU HAVEN'T DONE RESEARCH TO VERIFY THAT WHAT YOU ARE CALLING A THING IS A THING, AND YOU ARE LITERALLY JUST MAKING IT UP, BUT YOU ARE MISREPRESENTING IT

LIKE IT'S A THING THAT IS ALREADY ESTABLISHED, AGREED UPON AND VETTED then you are being irresponsible to this community.

Its totally 100% ok to generate new terms to explain experiences that we all have and its super legit that this community is generating new terms in a grassroots way, my issue is with people representing themselves as experts

and saying "did you know there's this ADHD thing..." because a person new to their diagnosis doesn't know you from Adam, or that you have no mental health/research background, & that the thing you are saying is a thing isn't a sort of 'generally recognized and agreed upon thing'

& if you don't care about creating confusion for *THAT* person, & you only care about your own experience, that's not cool.

If you are going to invent a new term to help validate people's experiences, then cool! SAY SO. There are a lot of people out there doing this right

the internet is like broken telephone. This is simultaneously nobody's responsibility and everyone's responsibility. There is a general acknowledgement that we need more terms. There is a debate whether we can 'borrow' terms from the scientific community.

My stance is that for people like myself who legit have people looking up to them for advice and guidance, it is not responsible to use terms wrong and that specificity and transparency is important.

If i'm going to invent a term for something i'm not going to try to pass it off like it's a well-established and widely-recognized thing. I'm going to say, "i'm calling this 'X'" or, "my term for this is 'X'".

If you are a person on the internet, you might not feel you have that responsibility. That is fair. But before you wade into this debate getting mad at people for 'invalidating' you, consider the harm we can do & probably at times accidentally have done, by being irresponsible.

Also if your feelings are hurt or you are feeling rejected by this, I also care about your feelings. Sometimes this stuff is hard. As a community we are growing and changing and these debates are necessary.