It's Different for Girls with ADHD
theatlanticwire.comAttention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder does not look the same in boys and girls. Women with the disorder tend to be less hyperactive and impulsive, more disorganized, scattered, forgetful, and introverted. The misunderstanding stem from the early studies of the disorder which, a research says, “were based on really hyperactive young white boys.”
“They’ve alternately been anxious or depressed for years,” Littman says. “It’s this sense of not being able to hold everything together.”
Confused and ashamed by their struggles, girls will internalize their inability to meet social expectations.Sari Solden, a therapist and author of Women and Attention Deficit Disorder, says, “For a long time, these girls see their trouble prioritizing, organizing, coordinating, and paying attention as character flaws. No one told them it’s neurobiological.”
Reading this made my heart hurt. I hate that mine isn’t under control yet.
You think ADHD is a scam by the government. You think I’ve been told I’m inferior and I’m just buying back my brain, buying back my skills, buying back whatever the fuck.
No.
The only people who have told me I’m inferior are you, the people who tell me my disability doesn’t exist. The people who tell me the way my head is so fucked up must just be all me. I came up with feeling inferior all on my own, before I knew this was a disability, before I was properly and regularly medicated, because I didn’t understand ADHD.
Don’t try to tell me I don’t need this. Not being able to get out of bed because it just doesn’t seem fucking important, walking into class and finding out I have a major assignment due, trying to read the same page for five hours straight… I can’t live like that. I won’t live like that. And it won’t get me where I want to be in life. It just makes me miserable.
Is part of the problem with ADHD that we’re asked to live in a non-ADHD society? Of course it fucking is. But please don’t try to take my medication away from me because of that. Don’t take away my dreams because your ideals are more important when you don’t have to live with the consequences.
Because your “ideals” are fucking me over.
