#if i was feeling like an activist this would be a sweet gentle handholding post.

[crimeronan]

listen this isn't a productive sentiment and there's a less condescending way to phrase this but as i'm in pain and irritated:

unfortunately for people with ADHD who are obsessed with being oppressed and having a terrible life, some physical illnesses are actually worse than ADHD. some physical illnesses do worse things to your life. and are more disabling.

some physical illnesses just fucking are objectively worse.

like i'm sorry i know it's hard to hear because you hear "some things are worse than ADHD" and interpret it as "ADHD is a fake nonexistent condition for lazy faker babies with no impact on quality of life," and i truly don't know how i can hold your hand about that. like i shouldn't have to stand up with a megaphone screaming n crying to get you to understand that ADHD is absolutely fucking NOT the worst thing that can happen to your brain or body.

and some physical illnesses will get you TREATED worse than people with ADHD are. by the public and your family and doctors alike. particularly if you're fat or a person of color or elderly or, god forbid, several of these things.

and being visibly physically disabled is not a privilege. because people will Still ascribe it to a moral failing or to faking or to being annoying, exactly like they ascribe your ADHD to being a lazy annoying faker. and you cannot turn it off. you are at the mercy of everybody around you. every day you simply need to pray that others are kind, because you are helpless in how you are perceived.

and of course invisible physical disabilities are subject to the same cruel assumptions that people make about ADHD as well (lazy, faker, attention whore, pathetic).

the difference between certain physically disabled people's experiences and the ADHD experience is that the physical disability is worse.

granted, not every physical disability is worse! physical disability and its impact on quality of life is a Vast Spectrum.

but some are worse.

like. they just are. They Just Are.

it is not oppression olympics to say this. it is just a fucking fact.

there can be no solidarity between ADHD people and people with physical disabilities (or other disabilities that make life Much Fucking Harder than ADHD), until people with ADHD stop fucking assuming that ADHD is the worst thing that can happen to a person.

like. i HAVE cripplingly hyperactive ADHD. but i am fucking TIRED of ADHD bloggers n influencers writing thinkpiece essays like "uwu, guys, maybe we should actually be Nice to physically disabled people!! and stop using them as gotchas in our arguments!! i just learned their lives are hard too!! sometimes doctors even belittle and torture them for funsies!! just like us!!"

like.

......YOU ARE THE DOMINANT ONLINE VOICE ON DISABILITY RIGHT NOW. EVERY VISIBLE NEURODIVERSITY ACTIVIST HAS ADHD. THAT IS WHAT NEURODIVERSITY IS IN THE EYES OF THE VERY ONLINE PUBLIC.

YOU JUST FUCKING LEARNED THIS????