I definitely see the value in looking on the bright side and identifying your strengths so you can achieve a quality of life, that’s important for everyone but especially people with chronic illnesses and disabilities.
But it’s posts like that that make me so uncomfortable around the medical model vs the social model of disability.
Yes, having ADHD causes you to fundamentally think differently and approach things differently. But no, it’s not “just a different way of thinking” or “just a variety of neurotype”, it’s a disability.
Even in a perfect world socially constructed to be perfect for my ADHD, I would still suffer from my symptoms. I’ll still get less than 4 hours of sleep, I’ll still have poor proprioception and trip and sprain all my ankles, I’ll still be predisposed to anxiety because I have internalised hyperactivity.
Sure, I can hyper focus and hunt prey for hours… But I won’t notice that I’m desperate for a piss the entire time, I’ll give myself a UTI and then because the guy with ADHD who was eating all the mouldy food died instead of discovering penicillin, I’ll die from having poor interoception for a full bladder, or dehydration, or hunger.
Living as a caveman won’t suddenly fix my ongoing inability to close a cupboard behind me, and now, there are bears after me because I didn’t remember to tie those delicious berries up in a tree.
Oh definitely, thinking outside the box is how we develop the accommodations we need to thrive.
But the idea that there is the potential for a “cure” or 100% treatment (at this moment in time) if we just shift our perspective is damaging.
It leads to situations where bosses ask why you still need accommodations when you’re on medication, because they wrongly assume the medication cures you fully.
I definitely see the value in looking on the bright side and identifying your strengths so you can achieve a quality of life, that’s important for everyone but especially people with chronic illnesses and disabilities.
But it’s posts like that that make me so uncomfortable around the medical model vs the social model of disability.
Yes, having ADHD causes you to fundamentally think differently and approach things differently. But no, it’s not “just a different way of thinking” or “just a variety of neurotype”, it’s a disability.
Even in a perfect world socially constructed to be perfect for my ADHD, I would still suffer from my symptoms. I’ll still get less than 4 hours of sleep, I’ll still have poor proprioception and trip and sprain all my ankles, I’ll still be predisposed to anxiety because I have internalised hyperactivity.
Sure, I can hyper focus and hunt prey for hours… But I won’t notice that I’m desperate for a piss the entire time, I’ll give myself a UTI and then because the guy with ADHD who was eating all the mouldy food died instead of discovering penicillin, I’ll die from having poor interoception for a full bladder, or dehydration, or hunger.
Living as a caveman won’t suddenly fix my ongoing inability to close a cupboard behind me, and now, there are bears after me because I didn’t remember to tie those delicious berries up in a tree.
I just think it’s interesting. It’s thought processes like this that creates treatments for said disabilities.
Oh definitely, thinking outside the box is how we develop the accommodations we need to thrive.
But the idea that there is the potential for a “cure” or 100% treatment (at this moment in time) if we just shift our perspective is damaging.
It leads to situations where bosses ask why you still need accommodations when you’re on medication, because they wrongly assume the medication cures you fully.