#adhd and autism are not destigmatized

[magnetothemagnificent]

Non-ADHD and non-autistic disabled people whose only idea of ADHD and autistic people is shaped by media depictions of a nerdy white boy or a quirky goth girl with low support needs: "Yeah ADHD and autism are destigmatized and we should ignore people with ADHD and autism in favor of real disabilities. I am very smart and progressive."

Lateral prejudice towards other disabled people will get us nowhere.

[sappy-sabbath]

as a society can we stop making mental illness/neurodivergency trendy and romanticized. i know more mf who faked claim than ppl who actually had the condition. at the end it just makes the people who are diagnosed with the condition the butt of the joke or look disingenuous.

ALSO IF I MAY be real for a sec!!! it’s because of the “destigmatizing XYZ 🥺” tiktoks and self diagnosing that make this happen, i know they are good intent and not all people have resources but its one thing to be concerned about your mental health and another to claim to have a disorder that you haven’t been diagnosed with!

autism, ADHD, schizophrenia, BPD, bipolar disorder, psychosis, OCD have all became quirks than serious debilitating condition and as someone with ADHD and psychotic depression IM SICK OF ITTTT, it’s different with things like depression and anxiety bc you experience that at least once in your life but it’s getting out of hand

[majormeilani]

i think people should stop claiming that any mental illness or disorder is destigmatized when literally none of them are outside of spaces built to support them because in the grand scheme of the rest of the world not a single one is destigmatized lol.

[anurarana]

Sorry sorry I was just reading a reply of a post where someone was like the difference between a mental illness and a mental disorder is that one implies a strive to find a cure and I'm just like... babe what world do you live in where people don't want to "fix" you

[cathedralendings]

Hey to all people out there with aspd, you are not a monster and you’re not a bad person and I promise there is someone who loves you. I know you get vilified a lot and I really wish I could do something to make it better. But since I can’t just press a button and make it go away I hope this post will make you feel a little bit better. <3

[quitblamingnarcissism]

"We need to end the stigma about autism and ADHD."

"We need to end the stigma about drug addiction."

"Fuck narcissists. They're pure evil. They destroy everyone around them."

If you're like this, you're a traitor. You don't get to pick and choose which neurodivergences to destigmatize and which to continue demonizing. There's a lot of overlap between how narcissists are treated and how other neurodivergent people are treated. Ableists hate all neurodivergent people. If you're neurodivergent and you try to gain support by demonizing narcissists, that support won't last. When it comes time to receive genuine support, that support won't exist.

[astraltrickster]

I want to introduce a disability concept that I've been calling paradoxical stigma.

What is paradoxical stigma? It's the stigma against:

1) The actually disabling traits of a disability that's in the spotlight for the parts of it that are convenient to accommodate, and/or

2) The diagnosis of such a disability itself,

Due to the assumption that the spotlight renders it "destigmatized" and no longer in need of support.

As of right now, at least around this corner of the internet, the most obvious examples of this are autism and ADHD. It's become disturbingly common for people to treat those like Diet Disabilities That Don't Actually Count. It's been really interesting to watch the popular attitude about these disorders shift from "autism is either a tragedy or an excuse depending on 'severity', and ADHD is just a myth used to drug kids into complicity instead of teaching them actual skills", to "actually these are real disorders that affect people in all aspects of their lives", to "I GUESS they're real disorders but honestly EVERYONE has them can't we worry about more SERIOUS ones?" and...not in a good way.

It comes up...partially as a legitimate backlash to people with these disorders who think that invisible disability and/or neurodivergence begins and ends at their experience, and...yeah, that's a problem all right, in fact if I had a dollar for every asshole who looked at my struggles with things like keeping my space clean or not fucking up my medication doses DUE TO ADHD and went "well I have the same diagnosis and I don't have THAT problem to THAT extent, obviously you're just lazy and careless", or saw me having an AUTISTIC meltdown and called it "bullying" or worse because I get loud and insisted that I NEED to CONTROL that CHOSEN BEHAVIOR if I want to not be a Bad Person, or heard about how AUTISTIC overstimulation defense measures play into my trouble with cleaning and insisted that well THEY'RE autistic too and don't have that specific problem so this is clearly weaponized helplessness because I just don't WANT to learn to do better, I'd...probably have a lot more assistive tech. I also get really, really frustrated and upset when people use RSD to mean "if you ever criticize me that's the height of ableism, no matter how much I'm actually fucking up and hurting you" - especially since it's so often invoked as a defense against being lightly criticized for ACTUALLY harmful behavior and as much as it sucks there IS no substitute to make that more emotional-dysregulation-friendly beyond basic kindness in criticism. That attitude exists. It's bad.

And yet, theoretically, I think we could all agree that the response to that should NEVER be to reinvent the old "ugh, those aren't REAL disabilities, those are just EXCUSES that LAZY PARENTS make for kids being kids, what they need is DISCIPLINE" stereotype of the 90s-2000s, just now aimed at those same kids as adults, in ostensibly supportive spaces - or arguably worse, to revert all our understanding of support needs to the externally judged high-functioning/low-functioning dichotomy.

What really sets this apart as paradoxical stigma, rather than just garden-variety lateral ableism, is that 1) we CAN theoretically all agree that reinventing those stereotypes is a terrible response, yet many people do it anyway, and 2) these stereotypes are invoked not only because of that intracommunity misbehavior, but both within and outside of disabled spaces, because of the illusion that you can bring up those disorders and have them taken seriously because fidget toys and stim videos and weighted blankets are popular now. An event having quiet rooms, or backlash to Autism Speaks being visible outside of autistic spaces, will be taken as "proof" that autism stigma is over forever and anyone who complains about it is just a whiner who doesn't know how good they have it...even when what they're complaining about is, say, being barred from migration. Paradoxical stigma is enacted by people who think that they, alone, are standing up against someone who's throwing others under the bus to continue to progress their own limited agenda...when in fact they're speaking a very popular shitty opinion, that MANY of the people making that claim would disagree with HEAVILY once separated from the "crab bucket reflex".

As a personal example, the result is that when I'm looking for assistance, I'm...hesitant to bring up those diagnoses, because I know I'm going to be written off as "obviously a high-functioning low-support needs scammer who just doesn't WANT to CONTRIBUTE TO SOCIETY and EARN things" - even by people who otherwise agree that people should be allowed to survive even if they truly are the living strawman lazy bum who has nothing wrong with them but just WANTS to lay around eating junk food and doing drugs all day, AND that disability deserves to be respected, isn't black-and-white, and affects everyone differently; somehow when these combine in the context of my diagnoses that have had a very sanitized version of themselves "destigmatized" on TikTok, they cancel out into blatant reactionary sentiment indistinguishable from what I'd hear from my shitty token Republican uncle.

So, that's paradoxical stigma. Feel free to use the term if you find it useful.

[compassionatereminders]

Also I'm sorry but we also gotta be careful not to destigmatize and romanticize certain diagnoses to the point of not taking them seriously. Let's please never forget that autism and ADHD can be severe disabilities and that depression frequently kills people

[chubbychiquita]

u know, this might be tmi but i feel like destigmatizing stuff like this within the fat kink community is important and could potentially help some of my followers feel a little better about themselves? i recently got a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder along w adhd, and funnily enough, it was some long now removed response on my bbwchan thread suggesting i might be autistic, based on my kink and sense of "reddit humor", among other things, that spurred me into getting a professional diagnosis.

ive spoken to a lot of other content creators and gals in this community who actually have a fat/feedist kink and it seems like a majority of them have a diagnosis of one or both as well, which is crazy interesting? and often we aren't interested in vanilla sexuality at all? i wonder what the deal is?? do any smart ppl have any insight into the correlation between neurodivergence and kink? is this also a trend among amab people? yall wanna start a cute lil audhd group??

[mrpsychokiller]

it is absolutely 100% fully correct to point out that a lot of people who call themselves supporters of neurodivergent people only really have (low support) autism and adhd in mind and are massively bigoted against anyone with more difficult or stigmatized disorders like ocd, psychosis, BPD etc. but i do also feel like pointing out they dont give a shit about the autism and adhd people either. autism and adhd feel "widely accepted" nowadays but its really only as far as youre cute and funny and have hyperfixations in fandom and forget things sometimes #relatable. i would not trust a single one of these people to still be supportive of me once i have a meltdown in public. i dont think any mental illness or neurodivergency is really destigmatized, its only fine as long as its not an incovenience to other people.

[dykeseesgod]

actually no im making those tags into its own separate post. this honestly applied more on tiktok where people were straight up making posts bashing on how annoying people with adhd apparently are, but there is a serious problem with how people talk about adhd compared to other disorders. the problem probably stems from the fact that its viewed as ‘more common’ (its not, its just really really often misdiagnosed) and thus people see it as less of a problem than say, autism, because well, everyone has it :)! i saw a post going around that was like ‘if you think autism is destigmatized youre wrong!’ and i agree! buuut that post also brought up that apparently anxiety and depression are destigmatized. theyre not. they got the ocd treatment of hoards of nuerotypicals constantly talking about how mental heath matters and how everyone feels depressed or anxious, and youre not alone, but the second they actually see someone who has severe chronic depression or someone experiencing a panic attack, all the ‘mental health matters’ bullshit washes away. i think adhd fits into this also, but the difference is that this has had damaging effects on how other nuerodivergent people view people with adhd. its viewed as more normal and more accepted and easier to mask, and that becomes a slippery sloap into talking about people with adhd as if they have no disorder at all.

[beevean]

I saw the post about Shadow having NPD and your comment on it, and I gotta say, it does somewhat bother me how fans will shove multiple neurodivergencies, personality disorders, mental disorders, etc on characters as if those are just funny quirks and not highly serious afflictions that influence entirely how you can live life and how others treat you. Autism and ADHD are the ones I see most commonly used, but there's certainly more. And it's treated as just a goofy little personality trait, thrown onto characters in the way that you would say they don't like raisins in their apple pie or are fond of the colour red because they wear red clothing at times. It truly feels as if there is zero regard for how such a divergency would actually influence character behaviour, nor how it fits in canon, and any "proof" often is cherrypicked or plain incorrect (e.g. "Sonic can never sit still, ADHD icon!!!" What, Sonic who likes taking naps and reading books in the games, and Sonic X as well? Even in Boom he lazed around endlessly!). I'm all for letting people write ND characters, but it does get irking to see every single character be characterised with Fun Buzzwords™️ like that, no matter how unfitting or stereotyping.

To be fair, NPD is not one of those "silly disorders" like autism/ADHD (they aren't silly either but I hope you know what I mean), which yes are assigned like candy to characters who dare to be quirky or a little naive. I do understand why people with it would want to destigmatize it.

It's the concept of "I am/have X so my fave is just like me fr fr" that makes me raise my eyebrow.

Do you really believe Shadow is a narcissist? Where? What symptoms does he display? Saying stuff like "I am the Ultimate Life Form" is not synonymous with having such an unstable ego that you crave praise like air.

But if your reasoning is not based on canon interpretations at all, but it's just projecting... that's not a headcanon to me. That's just you inserting yourself in the character you like. And, to be very blunt, I am not interested in this game, because I don't know you, and you haven't given me any reason to even consider your proposal seriously.

Saying "Shadow has low empathy but a solid moral code" is very different already. I can compare your statement with canon and agree. I don't know if this means he has a disorder, and I wouldn't assign one to him (I mean, my man is already Traumatized and recovering, I think it's enough), but at least you are making something that resembles an argument and invites engagement.

I'd even take absurd statements like "Sonic has low empathy", something I read once. At least it comes from an interpretation of canon, one I heavily disagree with, but it still has more thought put into it than "he's just like me fr fr"

I probably sound like a bitch, I'm aware. I'm not preventing anyone from doing what they want (although please put more thought into assigning autism to characters because enough of you seem to think that any kind of personality means autism and ND people are just empty shells of assholishness). I just personally am very, very bored of this approach to canon that can be boiled down to "I want my faves to be like me", when for me the fun is reading canon and extrapolating from it.

[mordcore]

i have to say the way that disability discourse happens on here reminds me of acecourse.

"people who are asexual or aromantic with adhd and low support needs autism/anxiety and depression are big meanies their identities disorders are not oppressed already destigmatized and they're invading the spaces for the lgbtpn real/physically/visibly disabled people"

none of that is true. oh and also as an aromantic trans person with adhd etc And a physical disability it makes me not wanna be here anymore. you claim to protect people like me but you're just spreading hate and picking out the bad apples to blame their entire diagnosis, er, community for bad behavior. did you know that both adhd and autism can lead to difficulty understanding other people or following social norms? don't let people be mean to you of course but show some grace for honest mistakes and stop defining groups by their worst members.

[griancraft]

I think part of the reason the term neurospicy makes me feel so viscerally uncomfortable is that it speaks to the infantilization of people with adhd and autism and also shows that the creator views adhd and autism as the only neurodivergencies. You are not going to call my BPD or DID neurospicy. Cause you can’t. Part of why autism and adhd are so normalized is because they can sell products. They can capitalize off of how the internet treats the disorders. You can’t make a lot of these debilitating symptoms from other neurodivergent disorders into a trend and downplay them. This treatment absolutely effects both sides of this. It’s not an issue of one group having it worse or better. We need to combat this and work together to destigmatize mental disorders.

[kipandkandicore]

what would partial demedicalization of plurality look like?

right now, multiplicity in society is heavily medicalized, with did (and perhaps osdd) being the only forms of plurality widely discussed and sensationalized in media. we have yet to see a single piece of media that portrays plurality without did (unless you count stories of supernatural possession). as a pro endo system, we advocate for the partial, not full, demedicalization of plurality. not all systems will require medical care in order to take care of themselves, and demedicalization will allow for these people to live their authentic lives without feeling pressured to pursue medical treatment or diagnoses they don’t need.

so what would it look like if plurality was partially demedicalized?

for starters, those with dissociative disorders or systems who struggle with daily life would still be able to access the medical care and attention they need. we’d like to point out that it is already quite challenging for disordered systems to get access to the care they need. in fact, partial demedicalization may make it easier for disordered systems to access the care they need, as multiplicity becomes less stigmatized in the societal lens.

this brings us to our next point - destigmatization. as plurality becomes more widely understood as something regular people can experience, as something that can happen without trauma or a dissociative disorder as a prerequisite, it is possible that negative social stigma surrounding multiplicity may lessen as a result. of course, a huge part of destigmatization is education - there needs to be more awareness of plurality outside did and the medical field.

we firmly believe that spectrum language will be the best way to refer to multiplicity in the future. like autism, adhd, and other neurodivergencies, plurality is a spectrum, and systems may exist anywhere on it (with singlets on one side and infinite/polyfragmented systems on the other). a partial demedicalization of plurality will allow nondisordered systems to speak up about their experiences, while allowing them to seek out support.

what would support for nondisordered plurals look like?

it could take lots of forms, many of which would be beneficial to disordered systems as well! here are a few examples:

groups or meetups for systems both in real life and online through sites like zoom and skype

information sessions and events that aim to educate/spread awareness about the plural spectrum

mentorship or peer support programs that are designed by plurals for plurals

more grants/funding allocated for plural research (with a focus on the wide scope of multiplicity rather than DID specifically)

representation for plurals of all sorts in media, be it books, movies, TV shows, video games, or anything else!

and so much more! systems can get creative when figuring out what kinds of support they need, as long as they are vocal in their attempts to advocate for themselves and systems like them.

as we’ve said before on this blog (and likely will say again), most pro endos do not believe in the complete demedicalization of plurality. if we strive towards a common goal of destigmatization and support for all systems, we can maybe reach a place where all systems feel like they are able to receive the support and care they need, while feeling safe and comfortable enough to live their lives genuinely and authentically!

anyway that’s all we want to say here - sorry if this was a bit long winded! we’d love to hear other people’s thoughts on the demedicalization of plurality and how we can strive for destigmatization while increasing access to support for both disordered and nondisordered systems! thanks for reading :)

[twinkrundgren]

the idea of autism/adhd as some destigmatized thing or something very mild (even in my case of being able to mask well) i was sent to special ed because the normal teachers refused to treat me like a person. guess what. the special ed teachers refused to treat any of us like people. i have so much trauma baked into my head from the way they abused us, all of us, for all our mental illnesses as children, and i cannot comprehend the so called autists on here who never were subjected to such abuse acting like autism is practically normalized.

we were abused. *i* was abused. i was shoved into walls by grown adults and dragged across schools by my arm when i was barely 7 for things i didnt understand. i was made to apolgoize and self flagellate infront of my peers for things i didn't get. i was abused. and i'm "lucky", because i was diagnosed with aspergers. bullshit. we were abused. every mentally disabled kid i knew was abused by the system. i can't begin to fathom the people here who act like being autistic is just a quirky thing they deal with and not a real oppressive dynamic.