Amateur writer here so cut me sum slack pls

N/A: Not the most eloquently written rant, but I posted this on Reddit and felt like I should repost it on Tumblr too. I know this is technically an account dedicated to Shikamaru, but fuck it.

Naruto is painfully relatable to me as a character, and I happen to have ADHD. I felt this way long before I got diagnosed, which was at 16. I believe I was around 11-12 when I got into the show, and his personality felt so much like mine.

So much of his dialogue with other people is them putting him down constantly for his intelligence specifically, and it’s played off as a joke. The isolation he deals with for being the demon fox host is usually the only mistreatment of him that gets taken seriously, but in my opinion, him being the butt of everyone’s jokes even when he’s “accepted” feels so much sadder because it kind of shows that the people around him STILL don’t truly understand him, other than maybe Shikamaru.

Naruto is a hyperactive person who has a harder time not only learning new information, but also learning social cues—we see him say a lot of stupid things that are obviously inappropriate to say, but things he doesn’t understand due to his lack of a proper childhood. Even when he’s “accepted”, he is constantly diminished as a joke, and sometimes still overlooked despite how desperately he wants love and acceptance. His intentions towards others feels very pure, and it’s often taken for granted.

I saw so much of myself growing up in Naruto, only to later find out those exact traits are symptoms of ADHD (which is why I personally head-cannon him as neurodivergent at the very least, if not specifically ADHD).

His BIGGEST goal in life, becoming Hokage, is purely because he desperately craves to be seen as a person worthy of basic human respect (which is so alarming by the way?? How did the adults not see anything wrong with this?? Wdym your biggest goal in life is to become a powerful world leader just so your home town finally accepts you? 🥹). It’s To the point where he calls himself an idiot and simply accepts the label.

No one ever apologizes for underestimating and ridiculing him. No one. And that’s one of the most depressing things I experienced after getting diagnosed. Years of mistreatment by my family and friends for an undiagnosed condition that left me burnt out and hating myself, and everyone brushed it off. Much like Naruto, I had a hard time “fitting in” because I’m just not equipped with the social skills everyone else is.

What is so genuinely insane to me is that literal adults looked at this child full of dreams and said, “you’re so stupid, I don’t think you’re at all capable of achieving anything close to your dreams”. I grew up with a mom who would constantly antagonize me by calling me stupid even when I got angry and told her to stop calling me that word, the same way Naruto did to those around him. He literally had to yell at full grown adults just to stand up for himself.

Just like Naruto, it felt easier to “own” the label of being dumb and turn it into a point of entertainment (being a class clown).

Even the way Naruto chases after Sasuke, who CONSTANTLY pushes him away, feels so relatable. I would CONSTANTLY try to get people who so obviously don’t want anything to do with me to like me, because my validation came from how others felt about me, so I desperately wanted everyone to like me.

Even by the end of the series, it feels like Naruto embraced a village that never embraced his unique mind unless it benefited them and their agendas. And that’s just fucking sad.

I know I’m probably reading too deep into this, but the fact that the series ended with his intelligence cemented as a joke amongst his loved ones feels so much like how I was gaslit into just laughing along with my friends whenever they’d make fun of me.

Israel has not stopped or slowed its attack on Gaza. Just 2 days ago, Israel has killed at least 36 people during an airstrike on Nuseirat Refugee camp. The building targeted is a residential block housing children, families and displaced people.

My friend Mahmoud (@mahmoudfamily7) has 17 family members in Nuseirat right now, including 10 children. In addition to all the attacks, they cannot buy basic necessities as items have risen to 8000% more expensive than usual, or even more! They have 3 infants with them, including a baby born only a few months ago. Mahmoud's sister is also still healing from the infects she got from giving birth in a polluted environment with no medical resources!

Vetted! Mahmoud's campaign is #3 on @/gaza-evacuation-funds vetted list here, #117 on @/gazavetters vetted list, vetted by bilal-salah0, and vetted by association!

Mahmoud has been fundraising since May, that's more than half a year now but his campaign is still stuck at 7%! They have received only 1 donation in the past 3 days! Right now they have only raised $5,285 CAD raised of $80K goal (equivalent to $3712 USD!), and that's after 7 months of fundraising! Please give them more support!

The Hyperactivity in Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is NOT about being physically hyperactive, it's about having a "hyperactive central nervous system" because it's a form of inheritable dysautonomia. The problem with disautonomia, especially the ADHD kind, is that it makes boredom flag to your nervous system as a THREAT, triggering hyperactive and maladaptive central nervous system processes like fight or flight.

But dysautonomia kills you that way. Literally, part of the reason our average life spand increase on stimulents is that it helps manage risk-taking impulsivity that can get us killed by accident, but the other part is that stimulents can regulate a hyperactive CNS such that it is functionally (while impacted by the stimulent) NOT dysregulated anymore. And PHYSIOLOGICALLY that is essential because the physical outcomes of dysautonomia can reduce your life span by YEARS if not decades through self-perpetuating hypervigelence, endocrine disruption, and adrenal fatigue.

So when the ADHD brain goes stimulation-seeking and a doctor tells you to practice mindfulness, it feels like being told "hey go stand in a functioning boiler until you can stop thinking" rather than WHAT IT IS which is the process of re-teaching your body what is and isn't safe.

Standing outside making mindful, non-interpretive/moralized observation of the world helps your brain and body re-acclimate to the idea that absence of that frantic "busy" feeling isn't a threat or a risk to your safety, and gradually reduces the level of distress that just hanging out somewhere triggers for you.

Learning WHY this stuff was being suggested and understanding what it was actually supposed to do went a long way towards changing my relationship with my ADHD. I am FAR more functional now, far less prone to shame spirals and rejection sensitivity, hell, I can **sit physically still for near on an hour at a time** now without feeling like I'm going to crawl out of my skin.

So yeah. Go outside. Let the world narrow around you and take deep breaths until it stops feeling claustrophobic or like you need to climb walls. Learn how to let little sensations become big ones like the way the heat of the sun on your skin starts as a gentle warming and be omes a unique collection of sensory moments depending on how it lands on you. Listen for sounds under sounds and let them fade in and out as you move your focus from one sound to the next. Enjoy. Move on. Rinse and repeat.

YIN and YANG, SUN and MOON… Sasuke and Naruto 💕

RAVEN AND APPLE !

Lyrics by Fiona apple song Relay