The Forums › Forums › Emotional Journey › Stuck in Regret/Anger › Confused… › Re: Confused…
I don’t like Dr. Oz. There have been 2 specific instances, involving magic weight loss things, where he has used non-science to unwittingly sell this snake oil crap. So really, I gotta say, not the best source for actual scientific research on anything.
The term “healthy” would imply that there is some sort of cure for ADHD. While there are tools, and medications that can help (not everyone, not always), there is no cure. Your brain is healthy, it is just not what is considered “normal.” Most of the human population does not have this condition, so statistically, we have abnormal brains. Frankly, I like feeling abby-normal, rather than being told I’m unhealthy. I can be healthy for me, which may not be normal, so unhealthy is silly.
Yes, it is considered a mental illness. Mostly because, in my humble opinion, the psychiatric community has yet to come up with a better term. Different condition, abnormal, not right in the head, maybe. LOL! Still, the implication is that we can be “healed” of our ADHD, when the term “illness” is used. However, that’s what the powers that be call it, so to get proper treatment, we gotta roll with it for now, I guess.
Still, we aren’t normal functioning people. We are different. We have problems with our ADHD. We thrive in spite of it, because we learn to use our ADHD brains to their best ability, sometimes using the ADHD itself, in order to survive. We are more “outside the box” and “hilarious” and such. Still, we ain’t normal, and we struggle.
I often think of a Dr. Barkley (that’s the guy’s name, I think) video. He gets upset because people say they are successful because of their ADHD, and says they are successful despite, not because of their ADHD. He says that if your child starts exhibiting these symptoms, you should seek help for a possible frontal lobe injury.
In a way, he’s right, but he’s missing a few things. People say they are successful because of their ADHD, because they’ve had to learn to live with it. They have to learn to work with it. When they can find something about it that is useful, like say, Rick Green’s humor (I finally saw the fist episode of the Red Green show. Boat scene was hilarious), they can exploit it and they become successful because of it, well, that isn’t untrue, now is it? They do become successful because of their ADHD.
When someone has struggled with their ADHD for so long, that they develop some sort of strength that gets them through all sorts of trials, well, then yes, they are successful because of their ADHD.
When I choose to find something great about myself, specifically the ADHD parts, I’m choosing not to let ADHD defeat me. While I respect Dr. Barkley (again, name) much more than Dr. Oz, I can’t respect his opinion here. Even if we say we are successful only to keep ourselves from being defeated by the fact that we have an incurable condition that causes us grief and pain, all our lives, it’s fine. Should we put ourselves in a corner, and rock back and forth for the rest of our lives, because we know it’s with us forever? No, who would ask such a thing??? Should we be considered invalids, or wastes of human beings? What would make him happy, here? If he is just trying to get people to take it seriously, he needs to try a different approach. Stigmatizing us as horribly broken isn’t a great one.
So yes, you got it. You’ve more than likely always had it, and yes, it’s very alright, and highly encouraged that you learn to embrace it and find any advantage with it that you can. You are still a complete human being, and don’t let anyone, especially a heart surgeon on TV (dude’s not a brain surgeon, even in the non-literal sense- nor a rocket scientist), or a well meaning guy who generally knows what he’s talking about, make you feel less than for who you can’t help but being. Get the help you need, but don’t become your ADHD label, especially as defined by someone else.
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