Okay so this form of ableism reallyyyy gets my goat. People with ADHD get this treatment a lot. It really unsettles me how often as well. Like, why do people so often expect someone with a mental health disorder which specifically surrounds focus irregularities, to focus at the exact same level as someone who’s not got ADHD?
Getting angry at people with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder for not being able to write/read giant blocks of text on demand is ableism.
We can do it when we can do it, forcing us is much more much distressing than a neurotypical person/someone who doesn’t have focus irregularity would feel, and even those people get distressed at having to do things like this.
I don’t care if you’re annoyed, I really don’t, and even less if you begin ambushing and bxtching about it, then guilt tripping or indirect posting acting like it’s being done to you because “this horrible person doesn’t care”. This is abuse and emotional manipulation to mentally disabled people.
There’s a big reason why many of us suffer in education and that’s because of teachers not being trained to accommodate our needs.
I know you’re not a teacher, and it is not your responsibility to “teach” us anything, but it is your responsibility to not lash out and punish us if we can’t give you big blocks of text, writing, chapters fast enough, big reviews, essays, and completed books/creations on demand. It is also useful if you accommodate us as well, and promotes mental health awareness and accessibility.
Our symptoms literally include the inability to control our focus, meaning it can express by the inability to focus and get distracted (especially under pressure, even with things we really want to do) with big and small tasks which need focus. Unfortunately you’ll have to make peace with the fact it may never happen, or don’t ask someone with this mental health disorder to do this stuff and preform ableist exclusion since you despise our symptoms so irately.
It’s either this, we will hyperfocus and overwork ourselves, completing tasks in an hour or at the very last minute, or doing hundreds of hours of things in massive blocks but still out of our control when this happens. Not to mention adding perhaps excessive information that may not be necessary and be occasionally hard to follow.
Many times we cannot stick with one project, and not one topic for a very long time.
If you have a massive problem with that, and begin to ostracise people for doing this as well, it’s ableism.
Stop targeting people with ADHD with your stigmatic opinions, and stop asking us to do things knowing we have it if you expect guaranteed results.
It’s okay to be privately frustrated, or a little upset it didn’t get done, but you can’t do much about that except learn, educate yourself, and attempt to understand and be compassionate afterwards and take time to realise it’s often not done to spite you or because we hate you. Not forceful and not punishing.
A person with a broken leg isn’t turning down going jogging with you “just to spite you”, or “because they hate jogging/hate how you jog”. It’s because they cannot even walk, obviously involuntarily and they’re not “choosing to not walk” or “just being lazy”. Don’t apply the same theories to people with mental health disorders.
This also stands with anybody, even for people that are neurotypical. If this person does not work for you and isn’t being paid to bring work to your table or finished projects, essays, writings, and more, then you have no right to become vicious/critical when they can’t or don’t want to commit 100% to the request they are asked to do/offer to do for free, or can’t finish it for whatever reason they communicate.
Also this applies between people with ADHD doing it to each other. You can be ableist/have internalised ableism if you’re disabled/have a mental health disorder as well. If anything though, if you do have ADHD, it’s a little questionable if you don’t consider any of this. Though no two persons experience is necessarily the same plus you may have a different type of ADHD/not have combined ADHD, plus, many people are misdiagnosed which would also be another reason you might not get these things.
ADHD is a kettle of fish which is both amazing and difficult to live with, in a world that rarely accommodates us, or especially won’t for free like neurotypical people would receive.
Making it harder and refusing to accommodate us isn’t okay, and condemning us for not being on par with your demands which are often unrealistic, isn’t acceptable. Don’t be surprised if we start to avoid you after this behaviour. It’s offensive and tiring to receive.
We probably have 70 other things we are trying to be doing rn, not to mention juggling a hectic life full of responsibilities whilst trying to commit to fun things, or over committing to too much at once.
It isn’t usually because we don’t want to either, this inability to do things on demand so easily is applicable to things we really want to do as well. Hell, if I can’t open and play a game I’m in love with, idk what to say! But it certainly isn’t on purpose haha.
