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1:18am July 12, 2014

karalianne:

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Inspired by this post by neurodiversitysci. 

I have wondered this too, and I still don’t know.

I do know that most ADHDers I come across on the internet (and elsewhere) are extremely ableist when it comes to ADHD. They are usually focused on “overcoming” ADHD or “staying positive” and not “letting ADHD hold you back” or some nonsense. There is almost nothing you can read about ADHD that isn’t highly ableist.

I don’t know if this has anything to do with this, but it took me quite a while after I was diagnosed to understand that I was disabled, and it took me an even longer time to stop feeling so much shame about that. Pretty much everything that I had to learn in order to have an anti-ableist analysis of my own life, I learned from people with chronic illnesses, autistic people and Janna.

I mean, I don’t know why. I don’t know if there is a reason. But, yeah. We ADHDers are sadly behind the times with anti-ableism, and, oh my goodness, there’s so much I could write that I wish were already out there to read.

But, you know what? There used to be even more regular, ableist ADHD blogs on tumblr. Are they posting and I’m just not seeing it?

So I know of a bunch of ADHD blogs, but I don’t read any of them regularly anymore. I did always enjoy Douglas Cootey when I was reading blogs a lot. (He’s not on Tumblr, but if you do a search you’ll find him.) Also, Rick Green does blog at TotallyADD.com but his style isn’t for everyone. He’s less ableist than some of the people I’ve come across in the last couple of years, though, and I think that’s because he’s older than most of them and he’s more about finding ways to work with your ADHD and deal with the drawbacks and being realistic than he is about making yourself act like you’re NT or something.

I almost wonder if it has something to do with the sociology of ADD.  I don’t know what, exactly.  But there’s something to… the way people are taught to think about ADD.  And that goes for parents, professionals, and people with ADD.  Where something about it changes the way it would be discussed on blogs and the like.  But I can’t put my finger on it, not least because I’m not a big part of the ADD community.  (I have ADD traits, may have ADD, may be a “cousin”, may just have ADD traits because lots of autistic people do, don’t know.)  I’d probably know more if I was interacting with a larger number of people about ADD on a regular basis.