You have my blessing to punch anyone in the face who tells you A.D.D. is fictional. That's right I am advocating violence to expose ignorance. A stranger gives you permission they cannot give to rage against the machine.
In all seriousness though A.D.D. is misdiagnosed quite often and the definition of what A.D.D. is or isn't has changed drastically in the last 20 years.
Two examples I can give once you? Once upon a time there was A.D.D. and A.D.H.D. this distinction was based on simply whether you were distracted and hyper or distracted but not hyper.
Attention Deficit Disorder if you got distracted easily, couldn't stay focused and your attention span faltered bit you were mostly calm you had A.D.D. if you had all of the above and we're constantly bouncing off the walls you had Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.
Then many years ago they grouped it into 6 different categories based on emotions. You could have A.D.D. and one of these tendencies or 2 or 3 or all 6 of them. Ok so it looks like there are 7 actually. http://www.smartkidswithld.org/g...
There is no one size fits all A.D.D. diagnosis If you have A.D.D. and have a certificate from your psychiatrist proving as much public schools are under a legal obligation to provide you certain assisted learning opportunities. Different kids need different things. Sometimes you are in special classes sometimes you aren't. Sometimes you need extra time to complete tests or finish assignments. Different kids have different difficulties. But this has changed Twice.
First myth only kids have A.D.D. and it can be easily cured by the time you reach adulthood. False. A.D.D. is easier to diagnose in kids than in adults but it never magically goes away over time. You can take medication to manage the symptoms you can develop routines to work around them but if you have it you have it. There is no magical cure for it.
Two things happened that created this myth that A.D.D wasn't real. Parents of kids who didn't have A.D.D. were pissed that kids who did have A.D.D. got preferential treatment in school. Many kids who were misdiagnosed with A.D.D. actually had aspbergers or different forms of autism Another misconception doctors used to think autism and downs were one in the same but they arent.
Those two factors combined to try to reduce the credibility in both the scientific community and schools that A.D.D. was a “real” diagnosis. So suddenly we had to deal with all this B.S. that it wasn't real until proven otherwise but since there are articles from the scientific community 10 years ago about how it might not be as serious as they thought it was someone can pull out that article and spout off some nonsense like “See A.D.D. isn't real cause doctor so and so says so right here!” But as insulting as that was to go through now in the last few years things have gotten much uglier.
Now if you were diagnosed with A.D.D. or Asperbers or O.C.D. or any variety of other behavioral or learning disorders now the scientific community has just up and decided that you are actually autistic. Now why would they do this you ask? A combination of two factors. Additional research and money. Now the scientifically pill they recommended to you if you have OCD can be prescribed to you for A.D.D.! Doesn't it give you a warm fuzzy feeling inside to know you are lining big pharma pockets with even more money as they give even more drugs to you for the wrong illnesses? Did you know that those companies are almost always exempt from responsibility when you suffer terrible effects and they recommend medicine that doesn't work for you? So you can forget accountability. Oh that didn't work? Then try this one! Not that one either? OK try this instead. The more illnesses one pill “treats” the more they get it wrong and the more money they make.
A.D.D. is very real don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Some people can function much better then others with it. But one thing most people who actually have it will say about it almost everything you try to do in life is much harder for you to do than others excluding a handful of things you are passionate about. You have complete disinterest in anything you try to do that you don't have an interest in. For most people there are subjects and topics that interest them more then anything else but they can still maintain focus and accomplish those other things they don't want to do. For people with A.D.D. they have a handful of things they are super passionate about and it is almost impossible for them to do anything they have no interest in without constantly daydreaming or staying on task or finishing it. Not saying it is impossible just saying it's insanely difficult for us to do.
However with that handful of topics you are passionate about you may as well have a superhuman understanding of that subject. A lot of people assume it's always something with writing or creative expression of some kind. But this is false. The only criteria regarding that is being deeply passionately obsessed with one particular subject or category. And this is true with autism as well. Which is why there is pushback in the scientific autism medical community to start calling A.D.D. High functioning autism. It doesn't mean A.D.D. isn't real they are just trying to figure out where it fits in their stupid manual that determines what drugs they can prescribe to what conditions.
Now for me it is entertainment. Writers block is a fictional thing to me. My mind is always buzzing with hundreds of ideas for books, movies,videogames, tv shows and much more. I cannot recall a time in my entire life my mind was “blank” I am constantly obsessed with one of those subjects every waking moment of every day. But even with the things I am passionate about I still can't maintain focus for long. I find tv shows and movies calming they distract me. When I was in school if a teacher said “ok you have a month to write this paper?” One of a few things would happen. I would either completely forget no matter how many times I was reminded or I would wait until the last possible second write it up with no effort and get an A. I would haphazardly type out some random stuff that had popped into my head an hour ago and it would look like a paper I had genuinely took the last month to write.
But any other subject it's like pulling teeth to finish or stay focused on anything. I have failed remedial math 5 times in my life. It isn't just school subjects either. Did I remember to eat today when I was watching tv? Ya I think I did maybe.
As of this writing I have about 30 something projects related to the entertainment industry I have been working on for the last 20 years. Not one of them has seen the light of day.
I genuinely want to finish all of them but I will write 10 pages of one book and a poem for a different book will pop in my head I will write about a character and say no I should make a videogame about that instead. No wait a song. No wait a tv show. No wait a movie. That movie script I was writing about earlier maybe that's actually two different movies. Maybe this stage play works better as a novel. Oh that made me think I should write a book about that. Oh and maybe I should write a movie about books. Hey maybe that movie about the books with the song about that character could actually be actually stand up comedy skit. Should I start a blog? No I should take pictures of the book! No I should take pictures out of the book and put them in the stage play.
That's my brain. Every second of every day. And the reality is most of it is never written down because that requires the concentration and motivation to walk over to the computer and type it or dig through the closet to find a notebook. Assuming I didn't throw about my pens and or pencils for no reason.
Your passion isn't writing that's all there is to it. One luxury we have with A.D.D. is when you find your niche you know it. There is no doubt just information and distraction overload. You will have answers far quicker then most on how to succeed in your field whatever your niche is will be effortless to you. But you may find yourself on an uphill treadmill as you run towards it trying to achieve it. You have to accept that it's real and accept that you will need help from others to accomplish tasks that come very easily and second nature to others. You have to understand that it doesn't make you stupid or slow. Your brain is literally wired differently from the rest. Your brain decided 90% of its resources are for that one topic and that one topic alone. Leaving you seriously deprived in other areas. But again nearly superhuman abilities of understanding when you find your niche. It's true that most go the creative route. But there are plenty of architects and surgeons and scientists with A.D.D. Einstein had it. Many famous authors did. Many artists and painters and musicians and mathematicians and philosophers.
Also school tries to teach everyone the same way but everyone is different. You may learn better with a different way of teaching.
My credibility for all this stuff I have said? I have had A.D.D. and other issues my whole life and have read and researched more about it than most psychiatrists. If I wanted to go in that field I could it doesn't interest me amd as you know from my above essay if you have A.D.D. and pursue a field you have no interest in it isnt going to work. Creating stories does it for me. I just need to finish one of them instead of working on 50 things at once. Write my own story instead of binge watch 5 tv shows.
You will find your niche you will you just have to have confidence in yourself and understand there are resources out there to help you.
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