newsflash: having a short attention span does not mean you “have ADD.”
eateroftrees:
isabelthespy:
jewelweed:
- things that are very fast-paced are not “ADD”
- movies/songs/situations with disjointed themes are not “totally ADD”
- being forgetful does not mean you’re so “ADD”
- feel free to add more
appropriating experience of mental illness into an adjective is dismissive and mean. stop it.
is ADD considered a mental illness? I have no problem considering myself mentally ill (which I do/have) but for some reason I was under the impression ADD (which I have, to clarify for those of you who are new) was classified differently? not that it really matters i guess?
I’d file it under “developmental disability”—it’s closer to things like autism then like, depression—but I think mental illness is also a common classification.
I actually tend to describe myself as AD(H)D all the time, because uh, I like using it as an adjective, and generally get cross at the person-first-language-only ideas embodied in “NEVER USE THIS AS AN ADJECTIVE”
Obviously you should not do that if you aren’t ADHD, and probably shouldn’t describe things that aren’t people that way.
I’m also uncomfortable with saying “Being forgetful is not ADD” because erm, it definitely can be, depending on the degree to which it’s done and whether other symptoms are there.
AFAIK, these days AD/HD is still categorized as a learning disorder, but it falls under the general umbrella of “neurodivergence”. I’d hesitate to call it a mental illness, personally, if only because it’s such a major part of my makeup. It’s not something I need to fix. It’s something I have to learn how to work with, because it’s just how my brain functions.
Forgetfulness is a huge part of my AD/HD. My mind doesn’t like dwelling on things long enough to make them into memories, especially in the middle of a bad brain day. So someone will tell me to do something, I’ll say “Okay” and run off…and then come back a minute later going “uh sorry, what did you tell me again?”
Yeah, if you don’t have AD/HD, then uh, don’t do this, but I think it falls under accuracy when it comes to me/other neurodivergent people. But I’d only use it to describe myself or my own actions.
If OP does not have AD/HD, however, OP needs to take a step back and let us speak for ourselves, thanks a whole bunch.
