If people knew what ADHD actually was, I would disclose it all the time. What's difficult to navigate (esp in professional spaces) is working out what assumptions people already hold about it and will project onto you.
I talk about ADHD at work now, mostly bc a lot of people told me their own suspicions about being neurodivergent after I privately shared with them, and I feel like being visible is a way I can tangible help them. I do well enough at work that there isn't too much risk for me.
But, I'm also always wondering "what does this person think ADHD is, and how do those beliefs shape how they see me?". Do they notice my small mistakes more now? Do they think I'm lying because I'm not stereotypically hyperactive?
Ultimately the reason I DO disclose at work is because I want to challenge people's misconceptions and show them a more varied picture of ADHD than the stereotypes. But it's bizarre knowing how wrong so many people are about it, and what that means for their perceptions of me.
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Being neurodivergent is so bizarre, because you often excel at tasks others find hard, but struggle with what others find easy. People will see you do something complex really well and then assume you can easily handle all the "simpler" tasks- but often those are harder for us!
I'm starting to realise how many assumptions I've internalised about what difficulty different tasks are "supposed" to be. My job has involved more admin than usual recently and I keep beating myself up for struggling with something so "basic".
The thing is, it's not basic for me! It's requiring me to follow lots of really niggly and detail orientated processes and document everything I'm doing in a communicable way...ADHD makes these things really really hard.
It's amazing how much less "social anxiety" I have now that I don't force myself to interact with people I don't get along with. I always thought it was nerves I needed to push through when in reality it's often my intuition saying "you're not enjoying this situation or person".
It's just ridiculous that we are all supposed to be super social with everyone we meet in every circumstance, and if we don't want to do that then there must be something wrong with us, and the burden is on us to fix it.
The amount of social events I would brute-force myself into, and then spend the whole time biting my tongue, being bored, and escaping to the bathroom for breaks is...honestly a bit heartbreaking upon reflection. Worse are the ones that involved people who actually harmed me.
I know this is not something everyone agrees with, but I genuinely sometimes like how much ADHD makes me overthink. It can be debilitating, and I hate that, but I also think the intense self-reflection I fall into supports me to grow and be a better person.
When I'm well supported in meeting my needs (financial, health, emotional), all of the overthinking I do legitimately helps me understand myself better, and reckon with my position in the world and what I should be doing with it.
I'm not saying I always like it- I don't, and the RSD self-critical spiral is horrible. But I also do think I've grown a lots in my adulthood, and that's due to really thinking about who I am, and who I want to be, and learning how to be honest with myself about when I fuck up.
Truly the biggest hypocrisy of white ND twitter is how often we gripe about neurotypicals projecting intentions onto us, when we do the EXACT same thing to POC on here, especially Black women like René.
Our need to prioritize our own perspective and interpretation is getting in the way of POC being able to feel safe and wanted in our community. Black people and other POC on here do not exist to baby us through unlearning white supremacy. We need to do that work ourselves.
And let's be clear, thinking that we, as white people, know the "true" intent of someone's words, believing that we can know if something is really racist or not, projecting aggressiveness onto POC who are sharing their experiences... that IS white supremacy.
One of the best things I've done is allow myself to have deal breakers and ADHD-friendly standards in my friendships. Get angry about lateness? Dislike non-linear conversation? That's fine, but we won't vibe long term so I'm not gonna twist myself up to meet your expectations.
For so long I felt like the "bad" friend. The person who couldn't maintain messaging over distance, who double booked, who eventually let others down. And tbf, I DID let those people down, because I was pretending to be someone who could do friendship their way, when I can't.
We're sent so many negative messages about our ADHD-related traits. I tried to contort myself into someone who I wasn't, because I thought I needed to be that person to have value and friends. But I could never keep it up! Because it wasn't me!!! I always failed eventually.
Nope. Instead, normalize understanding there isn't one true rule for communication and each individual wants different things out of their different relationships at different times.
For real though, "listening" looks different for everyone. I feel listened to when someone asks lots of related questions, and connects my experience to something they've gone through, or a big picture analysis.
When people just nod and say things like "that sounds interesting" with no elaboration, I end up feeling very unheard. I generally change the subject because I don't know how to keep expressing my thoughts when there's not a response to bounce off.