Thread by @ADDeeCee, The thing about #ADHD is that it’s been researched soooo much and [...]

The thing about #ADHD is that it’s been researched soooo much and there are very significant impairments that would definitively be seen as a disability. It also is very effectively treatable by medication, statistically. If you can pop a pill and be kinda ‘normal’ 1/ https://twitter.com/barisanhantu/status/1304949751138275328

https://twitter.com/barisanhantu/status/1304949751138275328

then it’s hard for people to see that as a disability, including #ADHDers themselves. But if you look at the serious risk factors associated with ADHD, it’s clearly an impairing disability. Accessibility to meds and support are wildly variable, creating tragic vulnerabilities 2/

Dr Russel Barkley, a top ADHD specialist, had a brother with pretty serious ADHD who basically died young because of it. Which brings up another aspect of ADHD I don’t see talked about as much: levels of severity or impairment. I personally believe I’m not 3/

as severely impaired by some aspects of ADHD as others clearly are. I do think there are people who have more “severe” ADHD who then suffer more because of “only” having ADHD, which isn’t clearly seen as a disability. So I think, as a group, we have to do something we don’t 4/

tend to like: take it seriously. We have to accept it as a disability and stand together to ensure we are all seen and supported. More, with our various skills and abilities, we should align ourselves more fully with the broader disability community so we can “see” 5/

ourselves better (knowing self-awareness isn’t our strength, statistically speaking) in that context, while also seeing how we can work together to lift us all. I find myself unable to fully explain my thoughts on this, but it’s somehow like superheroes with all different 6/

strengths *and* weaknesses forming a much stronger group together. We can only do that by seeing ourselves as part of this group to begin with maybe?

Also, I highly do NOT recommend learning the hard way (do #ADHDers learn any other way??

) just how disabling ADHD 7/

can be. If you accept you are disabled before you crash and burn, you’ll be better off than if you reject the idea of your own disability and get yourself too far up the proverbial shit creek.

NB: This is all just my off the cuff thoughts during #insomnihours... 8/EoT

I’m going to link to this