Tumblr is stupid sometimes.
There's lots of funny stuff on there and that's what I love. But I go into the ADHD tag and I see a lot of stupid crap. I can't just stop looking, because that's where I get the posts I reblog on the Actually ADHD side blog I started.
But seriously, most recent asshattery was this gem:
The word “SUFFER.”
glowyourownway:
So I was perusing through Tumblr, as I do normally, and then I decided to search for something that I have always had a weird view on. ADHD, or Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder. Kids are diagnosed as early as the age of five with this so called disorder, and most of them are just regular kids! Kids don’t pay attention, kids get crazy, it’s what they do, it’s how it is… But as an opportunity to pedal drugs and make money, the drug companies and pharmacies are diagnosing kids more frequently every year. 600,000 children were diagnosed with ADHD/ADD in 1997, and nearly 2 million were diagnosed this year. But the part I REALLY don’t get is that physicians are prescribing these drugs that are Amphetamines, so they work much like “speed.” And so they are expecting this to help these already high functioning kids. So yeah, let’s pedal out speed to kids and then act surprised whenever they become fucked up.
So of course I reblogged with commentary. I'm kind of proud of this one.
This view is not original. It is not weird. You are not special for thinking that people who have ADHD shouldn’t take “speed.”
Allow me to educate you for a moment. (And I am making this extremely simple, because I don’t know that I’m capable of getting really in-depth at the moment.)
The reason stimulant medication works is that it affects how the brain uses dopamine. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter. It’s very important for things like executive functioning, which is all in the frontal lobes and covers everything from controlling one’s behaviours to controlling focus/attention to making plans to breaking large jobs down into smaller steps (and more, but we’ll stop there for now).
People who have ADHD have underactive frontal lobes. Our brains don’t use dopamine very efficiently. Taking stimulants makes that work better for us.
There are studies that show that treating ADHD with medication during childhood results in less drug abuse, not more.
You know what DOES fuck up people who have ADHD?
Ignorant asses who don’t know what they’re talking about, telling us we shouldn’t take our meds, telling us our disorder doesn’t actually exist, telling us we just need to try harder and we’re just lazy, and all kinds of other BULLSHIT we put up with every single fucking day from non-ADHDers (and even from other ADHDers).
In case you weren’t aware, THIS IS ABLEIST CRAP AND A FORM OF BULLYING.
STOP IT.
Oh, and my tags included "get out of the ADHD tag."
(Seriously. What is up with people thinking they're special for BEING ABLEIST? WTF?)
But seriously, most recent asshattery was this gem:
The word “SUFFER.”
glowyourownway:
So I was perusing through Tumblr, as I do normally, and then I decided to search for something that I have always had a weird view on. ADHD, or Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder. Kids are diagnosed as early as the age of five with this so called disorder, and most of them are just regular kids! Kids don’t pay attention, kids get crazy, it’s what they do, it’s how it is… But as an opportunity to pedal drugs and make money, the drug companies and pharmacies are diagnosing kids more frequently every year. 600,000 children were diagnosed with ADHD/ADD in 1997, and nearly 2 million were diagnosed this year. But the part I REALLY don’t get is that physicians are prescribing these drugs that are Amphetamines, so they work much like “speed.” And so they are expecting this to help these already high functioning kids. So yeah, let’s pedal out speed to kids and then act surprised whenever they become fucked up.
So of course I reblogged with commentary. I'm kind of proud of this one.
This view is not original. It is not weird. You are not special for thinking that people who have ADHD shouldn’t take “speed.”
Allow me to educate you for a moment. (And I am making this extremely simple, because I don’t know that I’m capable of getting really in-depth at the moment.)
The reason stimulant medication works is that it affects how the brain uses dopamine. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter. It’s very important for things like executive functioning, which is all in the frontal lobes and covers everything from controlling one’s behaviours to controlling focus/attention to making plans to breaking large jobs down into smaller steps (and more, but we’ll stop there for now).
People who have ADHD have underactive frontal lobes. Our brains don’t use dopamine very efficiently. Taking stimulants makes that work better for us.
There are studies that show that treating ADHD with medication during childhood results in less drug abuse, not more.
You know what DOES fuck up people who have ADHD?
Ignorant asses who don’t know what they’re talking about, telling us we shouldn’t take our meds, telling us our disorder doesn’t actually exist, telling us we just need to try harder and we’re just lazy, and all kinds of other BULLSHIT we put up with every single fucking day from non-ADHDers (and even from other ADHDers).
In case you weren’t aware, THIS IS ABLEIST CRAP AND A FORM OF BULLYING.
STOP IT.
Oh, and my tags included "get out of the ADHD tag."
(Seriously. What is up with people thinking they're special for BEING ABLEIST? WTF?)