Martin Whitely

The amount of mocking of ADHD is absolutely insane! A diagnosis doesn’t necessarily mean meds, so pushing the big pharma narrative isn’t it! One thing I can guarantee is that a significant number of undiagnosed people are taking medications for anxiety, depression, panic etc. In essence this could be a sticking plaster and people are afraid to stop - why? Because the undiagnosed ADHD and the challenges that come with it, can create the anxiety, depression, panic, binge eating disorders … For those of you shaming with your posts, I ask you, how are making better accommodations for neurodevelopmental differences? What have you initiated at work or in your personal life? Are you supporting and suggesting accommodations for sensory overload load in the work place, learning about co regulation with a child, helping an overwhelmed Mum in the supermarket with a child clearly distressed and not managing, not judging someone for being forgetful, making sure the office doesn’t have too many distractions, advocating for more class room movement and improved creative approaches, not staring at the child bouncing off the walls in a cafe, not judging the child who can’t stop fidgeting on the bus, reminding a colleague to take a break, allow adults or kids to doodle or use a fidget toy to help them concentrate, without commenting on it …. Small things can make a difference, stop judging and start making suggestions. Atypical brains struggle to navigate the experiences you deem as normal and then mock. Hold a mirror up and ask yourself, what am I trying to achieve and am I being proactive and thoughtful in this conversation? Bring something to the conversation, not just pointy fingers.

I am incredibly tired of ‘neurodivergent’ ‘ADHDers’ assuming their pseudo personalities represent genuinely disabled people. How do these ‘sickfluencers’ prove their ‘genuine’ disability? With their symptoms? There is something very different about being ‘genuinely’ medically ill to shouting your mouth off daily about your aches, pains and constructed ‘I am it’, ‘I can’t cope’, ‘you need to listen to me and my disgusting language’. Genuinely disabled people do not want sympathy they want to be like everyone else. Genuinely disabled people are respectful and often amazingly resilient. The ‘sickfluencers’ narrative does not represent ‘genuinely’ disabled people. Collective illusions arise when individuals conform to a group's false beliefs, often out of social pressure and it is time to stop this dangerous tribal behavior.

So-called suicide experts are usually just the opposite and recommend antidepressants which double suicides, both in children and adults. “State of the Art” articles about suicide prevention in major medical journals are also highly misleading. bit.ly/4fghrGH