A Small Rant on the Frequent Use of ADHD in the Comments Sections of Everything · 1:22am Mar 13th, 2014
Just a small something I felt I needed to get off my chest.
Just so a lot of you know, I spend a lot of time in the internet each day reading the news. I tend to stay away from entertainment news, unless it relates to video games, one of my passions. I read about new technology, advances in science, anything I can find on Neil deGrasse Tyson, world news, things like that. Unfortunately I also find myself more often than not wandering down to the comments.
I do it because I rarely outright disagree with a topic that I read, and I want to know other peoples' views on the topic as well. Usually I'm disappointed to find that people will devolve into adamant disagreements in a most uncivilized way. It's a bit disheartening to see it, but I've become a bit jaded to it. What always gets my goat, though is when people mention Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
Now, just to be sure you understand where I'm coming from, if I were reading an article on an advance in the study of ADHD, then I would expect it. However, that's rarely the case. Often I find people using the term in an off-handed derision of other people. This often comes up in walls of text with a TL;DR section at the bottom: [TL;DR or for those with ADHD], or when someone is complaining about the simplification of a game they like: [this is stupid, they're making this game a total faceroll for little kids or idiots with ADHD].
Why does this bother me so much? Well, aside from the fact that it displays a willful ignorance on the poster's behalf, I happen to have ADHD. I'm not saying that I am a bit hyperactive, or that I get easily distracted. What I am saying is that I have medically diagnosed ADHD. My twin brother also has it. We both understand some of the root causes of the symptoms, and that understanding allows us to cope with, nay thrive with the disorder. I know exactly what I need to do to focus on something. I can handle complex tasks and problem solving as well as most people.
I say this in the hopes that at least a few people will read this, and the next time they go to write a comment somewhere out there in the vast internet, they will know better. Because you're all better than that.
I honestly haven't seen this happen with ADHD or ADD for that matter, but I have seen it with other conditions including Dyslexia. Now that I take personally since I am dyslexic. Yeah I agree that it has gone too far and just because you have this problem (and most likely they don't) doesn't give you an excuse to be an ass.