Posted March 2, 2020 at 12:00 am

- Ashley and labels

I've essentially gotten words defined by variations of themselves before while looking things up. I'm struggling to think of an example at the moment that actually gets such an annoying result, but an example would be looking up nerdy and getting "has the qualities of being a nerd".

Granted, all one would have to do is look up "nerd" after seeing that, but it still seems like "yes, thank you, I'd sorted out that much already". To be fair, however, as I am struggling to get such an annoying result now, maybe these things have gotten smarter about it.

Clarification!

After the last page and varied feedback, I feel I should clarify a few things.

Diane was not defining ADHD. She was only addressing the matter of hyperfocus, and misconceptions about people with ADHD not being able to focus at all. That's just the tip of a very big iceberg.



When I initially tweeted that the "H" didn't apply to me, it was in response to skimming guidelines about identifying ADHD. The most common guidelines are written to assist parents and educators, and are intended to identify telling behaviors in children. There's a reason the examples didn't seem to apply to me, a person in their thirties.



I did not simply hear about hyperfocus and assume "that's me!" What really got me looking into ADHD was when people talked about difficulty in manually shifting focus, and in choosing what to focus on. It was at that point that I did a lot of additional research and reading about the experiences of other adults.



The difficulty manually shifting focus thing was a big deal for me because I didn't realize it was supposed to be easier. It hadn't occurred to me that I was atypical in that regard, but once I examined that further, it explained a LOT. It was very much like Tedd realizing not everyone could see magic.







Again, not the end all, be all of ADHD, but it's what got me looking into it further.

Speaking of hearing about other people's experiences, I've made a relevant Twitter List. I figured that the best approach because I can add to it later and such.

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- EGSNP