I have some Misconception Questions about ADHD

[Codebox42]

So I have heard so many misinformation about ADHD, that is people saying you are less intelligent on average or can't function normally like most people or being labeled as your disability? Have you heard these and if so could you give thoughts or name other misconceptions?

[STEM_Dad]

There are many misconceptions about ADHD, and there have been for decades. The condition was once known as "brain-injured", as "clumsy child syndrome", and as "minimal brain dysfunction". (verywellmind.com/adhd-histo...

When looked at by neurotypical people (people who don't have ADHD or any other form of neurodiversity, such as OCD, autism spectrum disorder, etc), ADHD often appears as only behavioral issues. The behavior being witnessed is the external evidence of ADHD, and to someone who doesn't have ADHD, it's hard to understand why someone would behave such except intentionally.

What do people do when they don't understand something? They try to rationalize it to themselves based on their best understanding, creating their own explanation or adopting one that they hear from other people.

When it comes to intelligence in people with ADHD, I have to say this... The first people that I met who I knew for certain had ADHD also each had some form of learning disabilities, but then again, I was working in a special education department at a high school.

Years later, I met several more people who told me that that have ADHD, and they all seemed to be highly intelligent, but I met them while working at a university.

If I only had my own observation to base an opinion on, I'd be forced to say that nearly half of people with ADHD have lower intelligence than average, and nearly half have higher intelligence than average. But I'd be making a misconception based on limited data.

I don't really believe that to be the case, but I'm trying to make a point.

Everybody forms their own opinions, based on whatever they observe and whatever data they accept. I was wrong about myself for thirty years, believing that I was neurotypical, but after all my attempts to overcome my deficits didn't pay off, I went to a professional, got my deficits assessed, and accepted the diagnosis. I have ADHD, Predominantly Inattentive presentation. Looking back on my behaviors and struggles in life through that lens, it all makes sense now. I tell people this, and most of them accept it openly. Some even tell me openly that they have ADHD, too.

How to confront misconceptions is with truth. But you can't make anyone but yourself change. You just have to accept the fact that some people will hold onto their misconceptions, because they came to believe them on their own.

[Hidden in reply to STEM_Dad]

Awesome reply! I like Very Well Mind too! You really expressed things so well. Thanks.

[STEM_Dad in reply to Hidden]

Thank you. 🙂 I appreciate the feedback.

Something that I've known most of my life, but only recently formed into words is:

I can only control my own words and my own actions.

(I'll start a longer post about this.)

[Hidden in reply to STEM_Dad]

It’s beneficial to others when we can share what we have experienced, and what might work to help someone else.

[Gettingittogether]

I don't know if I consider it a disability in the legal sense, but in the practical real-world sense, I definitely find ADHD to be a disability. People with ADHD live significantly shorter lives than people without. We have higher levels of addictions of all kinds, higher levels of depression and anxiety, job struggles, relationship struggles, parenting struggles, car accidents and on and on. None of these problems leads me to think of people with ADHD as having less worth. We are as worthy as anyone else. But it does mean we have a lot of challenges.

About intelligence, nope, hadn't heard that people think ADHD people are less intelligent. But I don't doubt that that perception and stereotype is out there. Just recently I was reading Dr. Thomas Brown, one of the top ADHD specialists, who wrote that in fact people with ADHD generally are more intelligent than other people. Which causes its own problems because bosses and other people wonder why we're struggling when we clearly have good smarts.

[Hidden in reply to Gettingittogether]

Thank you for sharing.

[writer35]

I embrace the language of disability. About a quarter of the US population is disabled (and if this forum is any indication, that percentage is even higher due to missed diagnoses) which doesn't mean that we are defective or less-than. It means that systems and structures were designed for the other 75% of people and the rest of us have to continuously point out those gaps in order to have our rights honored and needs met. Many people (neurotypicals and neurodivergent folks too) haven't updated their mental models from the deficit medical model "something is wrong with you as an individual" to the social model, "impacts daily life activities." Even then, the framing is still assuming that the disabled person is defective.

My personal reframe is "the ways my mind and body operate don't match a lot of societal norms and expectations and the structures built upon those assumptions." In that sense, it's a disability. And I'm also advantaged by my creativity and ability to make meanings and patterns with this brain that a neurotypical might not.

Naming this really helps me stay in my power and ask others directly for what I need. I said to my team the other day that if I'm facilitating a live zoom, my focus has to be on the verbal discussion and nonverbal body language on the cameras - if I start looking at the chat, my brain (which processes written words MUCH faster than spoken words, is that a thing for y'all?) will not only get sidetracked but sometimes it like, grinds to a halt and I lose track of literally everything. So the norms of giving participants leave to toggle cameras off and on and use chat simultaneously are awesome! Many learning styles and preferences accomodated. AND I can't be the one to monitor both so can someone help me out?

[STEM_Dad in reply to writer35]

Regarding this statement you made: "... if I start looking at the chat, my brain (which processes written words MUCH faster than spoken words, is that a thing for y'all?) will not only get sidetracked but sometimes it like, grinds to a halt and I lose track of literally everything."

_____________

I took a college class named "Engineering Psychology" a few years ago. In that class, I learned that the verbal processing part of the brain is involved with spoken and written language. Most people cannot maintain attention in one channel while switching to the other.

If I'm listening to a person talk, but have to check a written message, then while I'm reading, my ears hear that the person is talking, but my brain is not catching the meaning of what that are saying.

Some people are especially talented with this, but they are few. (I happen to be related to a couple of those special few.)

It's similar for visual-spatial tasks. The average person can track a few things. Some can track many. But when you have to focus your attention on a visual-spatial task (for instance, arranging the furniture in a room), it's much harder to be aware of all the other things around us. - A great example is a now-famous study. Participants were told to watch basketball players bounce the ball, and to count the bounces. Very few of them noticed a person in a gorilla costume walk across the court. That was not an ADHD study, most of those participants were probably neurotypical.

[writer35 in reply to STEM_Dad]

Thanks for this comment! That makes a lot of sense, and I have noticed that I’ve been holding myself to perform as well as some very gifted facilitators in my group that I’m now thinking must be in the same few who are very good at both - or at least they present with confidence about it and the charisma seems to work well. 🤷🏻‍♀️ And yes! I’ve seen the gorilla video - it feels like a magic trick.