Like autistic people get to be autistic. That’s a word, and it has meaning. Someone can be autistic because it’s a type of person (spectrumy type). In my opinion, ADHD sucks as an identifying term. It’s 3 letters, one repeated. It means nothing as it is spelled and can’t be owned as an identity because they’re letters, not a word. “I’m adhudd.” The initials include “disorder” in it. That sucks. Autistic people don’t go around saying, “Hi, I’m austically disordered,” cause that’s not accepting. Is there a term that is smooth and not judgmental for ADHD? Maybe we can take Aspergers since it got dropped, but add the ‘d’ to get “Adspergers”. Nah, that’s stupid af. What about multibrained? I feel multibrained because I act like I’ve got multiple brains running in my head doing their own thing all at the same time, and I bounce around them based on who knows what.

What? Oh, yes…I’ll have the spaghetti bolog-knees. Do you guys have red pepper…crushed red pepper? Yeah, thanks. Cool. I like your name tag. Is that really your name? Samsquatch?..oh! It’s Samuel, but you changed it to Samsquatch! I love Trailer Park Boys. Fuck off, Leahy! Yeah. Sorry. I got excited.

Okay. So…um, is there a descriptive word for ADHD that isn’t ADHD?

  • Majorllama@lemmy.worldEnglish
    6·
    3 days ago

    It’s not exactly what you’re looking for but I have described having ADHD as like having a TO-DO list except any time something new is added to the list you have to roll a dice and decide which thing on the list you’re going to do right now. On the rare occasion nothing else comes up before you finish one task you’ll be golden. But if anything should pop into your mind it throws the entire things back into the random TO-DO list which you will then reroll.

    This is the perfect visual example of what living with ADHD is like: https://youtu.be/AbSehcT19u0?si=EwsCg-xZVZOpbbLN

      • w3dd1e@lemm.eeEnglish
        7·
        3 days ago

        Spaz is short for spastic. There are a variety of disabilities that have spastic symptoms, such as Spastic Diplegia, a form of Cerebral Palsy.

        It gained popularity as an insult in the 60s.

    • JigglySackles@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      3 days ago

      I always used to describe myslef as a bit spastic. Wasn’t until maybe the mid 2010s I found out people used it as an insult. I think that’s retarded so I still call myself that.

      Edit:for the autistic and easily offended, this was a joke. In poor taste maybe, but a joke. And I’m still a spastic nerfbag.

    • theneverfox@pawb.socialEnglish
      7·
      2 days ago

      Agreed. It’s like they start looking for confirmation, so they start expecting and noticing every little mistake. Or they don’t see it, and give you unsolicited speeches about how they struggle to focus to and you just need discipline… In fact, you should stop taking your meds

      I just tell people without telling people. “I can’t sit still for too long, I have to walk”, “the music/videos and stim toys help me focus”, “my thought process is weird, I know that sounds unrelated but it makes sense to me”, “I know you’re writing up a list, I need to take notes to process what you’re saying and if I don’t doodle I can’t pay attention to this boring ass meeting”

      If you take on the label, they don’t see you as managing your symptoms, they look for the cracks. If you explain your compensation strategies and areas of difficulty, they usually are pretty supportive and will even respect the level of thought you put into it

      • recklessengagement@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        1 day ago

        “They look for the cracks” is an excellent way to put it.

        I don’t even tell friends, except those who are very close. Too often, it changes the way people treat me.

      • C A B B A G E@feddit.ukEnglish
        2·
        2 days ago

        Conversely I’ve met people who were diagnosed as adults and who then blame everything they do on their ADHD - “you know, now everything makes sense about me!”.

        Ditto with Autism, to be fair - you don’t get to excuse being an arsehole just because you’re not neurotypical, Dave.

    • DankOfAmerica@reddthat.comOPEnglish
      2·
      3 days ago

      I’m like 95-100% filtered at first to avoid upsetting anyone. Very rarely, I’ll make it to 0% unfiltered with only the most accepting and trustworthy people.

  • ALQ@lemmy.worldEnglish
    28·
    3 days ago

    I like to call it the “ta da!” because the Spanish acronym is TDAH. Who doesn’t like being able to say “ta da!”?

    • adarza@lemmy.caEnglish
      14·
      3 days ago

      remember back in the early days of windows… like 3.1 era… when windows started, it did that. like “see? i actually booted up!! TA-DA!!”

      • cynar@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        3 days ago

        There is the term neurodiverse, which is an easy catch all for neurologically abnormal, but not broken.

        Neurospicy is a play on this, spicy vs bland. People have strong opinions on spicy, very few have strong opinions on bland food.

  • Rajtinka@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    2 days ago

    I generally refer to myself as ASD (also has disorder in it) to describe my autistic traits and ADD for my ADHD. Sometimes I use Neuro divergent or ND if I’m feeling lazy.