I see this on Imgur and Bluesky as well. Here’s a great example, and the one that prompted me to finally ask. My daughter has autism and ADHD. She takes speed to slow down. Best friend is ADHD, same deal. But they’re basically “normal” people. I’m truly sorry is this comes off as insensitive.
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It’s normal to be aware of how people perceive us. We are apes. Need I elaborate?
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We ALL mess up more when someone is watching. Forget the word, but it’s a well-known psychological tic.
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Yes, we all conform and hide parts of ourselves in public, doesn’t mean you can’t “be yourself”. Want to see someone who doesn’t mask at all? Trump.
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If you’re not aware of threats, Darwin would like a word. And yes, many things we perceive as threats are dumb monkey perceptions. We’re all silly in this way.
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Uh, I double check my door locks. Not paranoid, but my situation in America makes that a simple, smart move. Some people live around lots of strangers, checking your private space is a normal thing.
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We all hate being stared at. That’s a monkey threat. We evolved that way.
The “suspicious sounds” thing is the only part I’d pick out as a bit strange. But who hasn’t jumped when the ice maker kicks in? I’ve often thought someone crawled in the dog door. (A bear did one time, a hybrid wolf another, so let me slide on that one.)
I can go on /c/autism and pick 100 other memes for examples. Almost every single thing I see there, “Yeah, we all go though that/feel that way/do that thing.” Here’s one:
https://piefed.cdn.blahaj.zone/posts/6k/Lb/6kLbDigyQuftk4k.jpg
Doesn’t everyone do that now and again?! I feel like I’m taking crazy pills.
Serious questions:
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Does lemmy have an above normal number of autistic/ADHD people?
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Is this perception a way for young people to feel special and different?
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Maybe young people don’t realize just how fucking weird growing up is and think they have a problem?
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Do people not realize that even after adulthood, we all have weird foibles?
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Are people so socially isolated that they think their weird thoughts are uncommon?
Just want to start the discussion. Help me understand.
Social media in general attracts autistic people, because it’s much easier to socialize without being judged or excluded.
By definition Autism and ADHD are disabilities that negatively impact your life relative to other people.
It’s important to have a word to label what the issue is in a neutral way, because if you don’t use the word autism, you get called words like “weird,” “creepy,” “stupid,” or the r-word. When none of those things are true. Your brain just doesn’t intuitively understand things the way other peoples’ does.
The ADA defines a person with a disability as a person who has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activity. Socialization is a major life activity. Loneliness is a major cause of depression of death, and not being able to socialize well impacts your ability to maintain employment. When these issues aren’t managed, your ability to function in society is significantly impaired.
To me, this post is no different from saying “You’re not dyslexic, you just needed to try harder in spelling class.” When people have an issue, telling them it doesn’t exist isn’t helpful.
That first sentence tells me SO much. I never once thought of that.
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Without commenting on any specific meme (if for no other reason than that imgur is booked the UK and i can’t see the image) and without meaning to disparage OP in any way, because i believe they are asking an honest question, i think that sometimes it’s a question of framing. I think of it like this:
Say you’ve broken your leg and it’s painful for you to hobble around on crutches. You get to work and find that the lift (elevator for the yanks) is out of order. You work on the 20th floor and have no choice but to take the stairs. You talk about how unpleasant this is going to be for you, and a colleague says “yes, everybody hates taking the stairs”. Maybe they do, but it’s not the same thing.
Which again isn’t to suggest that everybody posting memes about neurodivergence is talking about real traits, just that the idea that “everybody runs out of social battery sometimes and therefore everybody is on the spectrum somewhere” isn’t really accurate. It can be the difference between deciding to skip a party because you’d rather curl up with a book and spending 4 months not exchanging a single word with another human being. Or the difference between having a favourite film which you say you’re “obsessed” with and spending 9 days straight watching it on repeat while only sleeping 4 hours a night because the other 20 are you watching the film.
A decade or two ago people used to say “everybody’s a little bit OCD”. That seems to have fallen out of fashion now. I’m reminded of the meme which goes something like one person saying “I’m a bit OCD, i arrange my books by colour”, and the second person saying “cool. I think that if I don’t flip the light switch 40 times all my family will die”.
It’s normal to pee. It’s not normal to pee 200 times a day.
Apply that to any ADHD symptom and you’ll understand.
Girls used to be 16x less likely than boys to be diagnosed, now only 3x less likely, because traditional ADHD criteria excluded girls and women from their studies. Girls are sociallized differently and thus present different symptoms. Girls are also more heavily penalized for typical ADHD symptoms and are forced to learn to mask better.
A lot of the backlash against women speaking about their ADHD symptoms on social media is due to misogyny and gatekeeping. When women present their experiences, it’s often seen as attention seeking behavior and not treated as an account of how the medical system has once again failed women.
Typically the difference is that people with autism and or ADHD experience things more frequently or more intensely than others.
Yes, all these things are normal for most folks, but how often and the severity of these symptoms are diffrent.
For example, I have ADHD, and one of the symptoms of that is I’m easily distracted. For most people, this would sound fairly normal, but even when its something important, or something I want to do, my brain is moving on to a billion other things all at once rather than focusing on the task at hand. Medication helps immensely with this, but it still happens even on my meds at times. That is not normal.
Also the autism spectrum is a spectrum for a reason. Some people appear to cope better than others and some can’t cope at all. Masking is normal but for someone with autism it can be exhausting because some people with autism never stop masking. They are constantly aware they aren’t “normal” and it stresses them out.
Its hard to understand these kinds of feelings if you’re Neurotypical. Our brains work differently from others, which might sound like “I’m special” but honestly, I’d rather not have ADHD. Shit sucks dude. I fucking hate not being able to do things like a normal person. Its a curse.
People ive met with ADHD or autism, its just nice to be seen and feel like were understood which is why these memes are often posted or are popular with those crowds.
Dude with autism chiming in here. I often compare it to being “born without a user manual”. Ever since I was a kid it was like everyone around me just knew what to do without being told while I had to have even the most basic things explained to me. This is far worse in social situations because sometimes there are feelings on the line and often people just don’t think enough about social cues to properly explain them.
I’m the kind of autistic that can pass as neurotypical with relative ease, but getting there was a real trial and error kind of process and I can’t really say it was great for my mental health. The comment I’m responding to talked about how you never stop masking and how your constantly aware your not normal. That’s what’s fucked me up historically. “You’re not normal so figure out how to at least pretend” was the bat I used to beat myself with and among neurodivergent folks that’s probably depressingly common.
Sometimes when I talk to folks about this they’ll say something along the lines of “well if masking takes so much effort just stop doing it, I don’t mind”. And man do I wish I could sometimes. But when you learn how to do that basically from the start “masking”, or at least some of the tools and behaviors associated with it, become fundamental to how you interact with the world. This isn’t just something we can turn off or on like a lightswitch. This is something that we’re constantly locked into. Sometimes it feels like just existing takes effort. And when that’s your baseline? There’s just not space for a lot else.
Like Bluefruit said, it’s a matter of degrees. You can be neurotypical and feel this way sometimes too. At it’s core, none of these feelings are special or inherently neurodivergent. It’s the degree to which we feel them that’s different. That and frequency. Everyone’s had to preform for a job interview or something. But having to preform constantly, even for loved ones? It can get to be pretty rough.
Please do not call ADHD medication “speed”. It is chemically different from what you would find on the street. (Methylphenadate != Methamphetamine)
Associating doctor-perscribed medication with illegal drugs perpetuates a stigma which creates many problems for people struggling with ADHD.
Adderall is made from amphetamine salts. It literally is a form of speed. Note that the term speed is used to refer to both amphetamine and methamphetamine. You are thinking of ritalin which is indeed different. All of these including methylphenidate are classified/scheduled substances in the US and UK. So very much are illegal if you don’t have a prescription.
Stop spreading misinformation. You can destigmatize ADHD and ADHD medications without spreading falsehoods. Probably destigmatizing amphetamine which isn’t really that dangerous to begin with would help.
Please refrain from mischaracterizing my comment. I clearly state that I am talking about Methylphenadate, as found in Concerta and Ritalin, and highlighting its distinction from the street drug Methamphetamine. There are many different medications that are prescribed to treat ADHD including some that are classically known as antidepressants, anti-anxiety, and antipsychotics.
I did not claim they were not controlled substances, but I insist that any medication prescribed by a doctor should not be referred to by a street shorthand. This increases the likelyhood of abuse and benefits no one.
So you do clearly state that you’re talking about methylphenidate, but also, the way you said ‘please do not call ADHD medication “speed”’ and then elaborated that methylphenidate != methamphetamine sorta implies you think all ADHD medication is methylphenidate.
I do just call Elvanse “amphetamine” when talking to my friends about my meds (Elvanse, so it’s actually lisdexamfetamine). I find that it actually destigmatizes these medications when you can have a laugh about things like saying “oh I’m gonna take my legal amphetamine now”.
I will admit that most of my experience is with methylphenidate because that is what I am prescribed. I am not familiar with amphetamines. The original post did not specify which type of medication it was (they just said “speed”), so I felt it was a generalized term.
You said ADHD medication. Adderall is a popular type of ADHD medication. Doctor approved or not does not change what it physically is, and I know of people with ADHD who refer to it as speed. You are white knighting over something while ignoring both the actual neurodivergent community and the physical reality just so you can feel correct and morally superior. As an actual neurodivergent person I take issue with your attitude and willingness to spread misleading information.
I also know there are people who abuse Adderall either through diversion or by abusing legitimately prescribed medication for their legitimately diagnosed ADHD. On the other side are people who self-medicate with street drugs as that can be easier and cheaper than doing it the societally approved way. Nothing is as simple as you are making out.
Alright now you can fuck all the way off. I’ve been diagnosed and treated for more than half of my life. I’ve dealt with family members, employers, even DOCTORS who dismiss my disability because they see ADHD afflicted people as nothing more than “pill poppers who can’t function without their SPEED”. I’ve had to buy a safe to secure my meds to prevent them from being stolen by my roommate’s guests who think they’re just an easy way to study for their exams. I’ve had to get drug tested by my doctor every 6 months just to continue qualifying for my perscription. So FORGIVE ME for having a PERSONAL ISSUE with how MY MEDICATION IS CHARACTERIZED.
If you have ADHD and can get away with calling your medication “speed” or “meth”, fine. How fortunate for you that your access to your medication is so secure and consistent that you can joke about it.
There are ways to talk about these things without needing to mislead people. Frankly I don’t think that denying that some ADHD medications are indeed amphetamines or even methamphetamine (see desoxyn) is going to help in the long run. If anything lying about it is just going to make people trust you less. I didn’t think anyone was even calling methylphenidate speed anyway.
Oh and for the record I have never had the privilege of being medicated as when I was being diagnosed you couldn’t officially have both Autism and ADHD, and in my case one apparently took priority over the other. So if I want to even explore that I would have to go back to a doctor and be re-evaluated even though it says right on my psych report form when I was 4 suspected ADHD. Go figure.
I don’t care. Just don’t call it speed.
There’s degrees to these things. At a certain point they’re severe enough to be considered a problem beyond just “normal human foibles”. I for instance don’t like being outside at home because the HOA I live in doesn’t allow privacy fences and your neighbors for 8 houses in either direction can see into each others back yards. It stresses me out to the point that I avoid it as much as possible and probably makes everyone else think of me as a weirdo (which also stresses me out). Whether that problem falls under autism or ADHD I’m not qualified to say but it’s not normal behavior.
This. Everyone experiences these feelings at some point, but when they start having an outsized impact on your life, there might be a cause such as Autism/ADHD.
Edit: a very good starter would be https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1AUdaH-EPM
You have a scale of 0 to 100%. Mine is like 200 to 4000%. There is a lot of literature and research on autism. We work differently and the way your post starts made me feel very attacked. And suddenly completely out of energy, although I love informing about it.
I guess that’s because exactly that is our daily struggle. To all the damaging things we experience add on top that we’re accused of faking and also ‘that’s how it’s for everyone’.
If you want to get into it but not start reading books I can recommend the book ‘invisible differences’ very much. There’s a pdf on the internet floating around.
I know you wanted to ask innocently, however keep in mind asking about something and implicating something is not really a thing to people suffering massively exactly for that reason can be very hurtful.
Didn’t you know?
On Lemmy, everyone is a trans-feminine lesbian autist communist.
/joke
But seriously, doctors appointments are scary and time consuming and like half of Lemmy are Americans without healthcare.
On Lemmy, everyone is a trans-feminine lesbian autist communist.
Not everyone yet, but we’re working on it.
Your daughter does not take “speed”. Educate yourself.
These are genetic disorders. Ask yourself, why it might be that you, who gave your daughter large parts of her genetic makeup, perceive her as “normal”.
Everybody pees. If you have to run to the loo every 5 minutes, see a doctor.
If I took her ADHD drugs, I’d be on speed. She takes them, she calms down. Yes, it’s speed, I’ve done loads, all kinds, I get it. Why else you think said drugs are so highly controlled? Shit’s nearly like meth to “normal” people.
Are you telling me to educate myself and implying there’s a genetic component to autism/ADHD? Imma need to see your notes.
So you acknowledge that the medication your daughter takes does something beneficial to her brain that it doesn’t do for “normal” people yet you still question whether there really is anything “not normal” with her?
I don’t understand your second paragraph.
My brother in Christ, you could be a supportive father, and instead you’re posting comments like this. Be better. She’s getting controlled substances from licensed healthcare professionals, there is a reason for that. Fuck off with the speed comments.
Methylphenadate is chemically different from Methamphetamines. They are produced differently. They are processed in different ways by the body. They have different effects on the brain. And most importantly, they are prescribed from a medical professional.
You’re perpetuating an incredibly harmful stigma that directly impacts the lives of those struggling with ADHD, including your loved ones.
I feel like online spaces like lemmy over represent some behaviors.
Agreed. We congregate on platforms like this because we’re too weird for the normies in the real world.
They’re “normal human foibles” because it’s perfectly fucking normal and human to have ASD qualities.
autistic people find talking online better than talking in person, it’s also not very safe to talk about autism IRL where people will judge you, so it’s not talked about as much IRL
Also as a sidenote, ASD has different symptoms for different people. I don’t relate to some of the things personally, but my sister (also with ASD) does.
source:
I felt like this which is initially why I didn’t get tested. Even tho I can see how medication has helped me, I still worry that I’m imaging it.
Are the images AI upscaled or purely AI-generated?
Well, given that the OP found them somewhere, I don’t think he has an exact answer to your question lol
And who TF cares? Just bully op like a normal person, stop letting AI live rent free in your head.
Could be that everyone identifies with the same things that the group you’re referring to experiences. But that group often has it much worse than most people. Or that the vocal minority of that group misrepresents the hole.
What you see as “basically normal” is after they are medicated. Isn’t that the point of the medication? Maybe go look at someone who stops taking it for an experiment.
That first sentence is likely my answer! People are identifying with the memes, therefore they feel they belong to that group when they may truly not. I am not a smart man.
As to medication, LOL. My ADHD best friend and his ADHD wife brought some Ritalin home one afternoon. Very excited, they invited me to join in snorting a line. I was bouncing off the walls like I was on meth. They got calm and were very happy to just sit on the couch and talk.
Another funny one; When we were 17 a salesman in the department store offered us coffee he was selling. Gf: “No, that will put me to sleep.” Say what?! True enough. We met and lived with each other 10-years later, coffee knocked her out cold.
But what really turned my head was seeing my 6-yo daughter on medicine the first time. She never struck me as “abnormal” until I saw her on speed. We watched her literally stop and smell the flowers.
For adhd you will be diagnosed as either hyperactive, primary inattentive, or combined. The primary inattentive I believe is the type most often diagnosed in women if I remember correctly, it is what I was diagnosed with, though I am male. It is less noticeably disruptive to others and less likely to be diagnosed than hyperactive, though it is a spectrum. To that point, I wasn’t diagnosed until I was 35. You may not be bouncing off the walls and seem normal, but your thoughts are bouncing around in your head. It is hard to work if you can’t focus on the task at hand, it is hard to talk to people if you can’t focus on the conversation. Alternatively, that does go great if you hyper focus on the thing you are doing, but that’s the problem with it, you don’t choose to hyperfocus, it happens.
I have found medication exceedingly helpful in managing my symptoms, currently on 60mg of lisdexfetamine(sp?). It’s not perfect, but it is great. I wasn’t sure it was working initially, but after missing several doses close together it was apparent it had been working but became my new normal, because without it I slipped into that overstimulated thought chaos much more easily. Different medications work for different people and not for others. Some swear by some of the non stimulants, but they didn’t work for me, and one gave me mild ED while I was on it
I’m now amused at myself because my first comment was a flippant one liner and now this response is a run on word vomit
