The other day I saw an article in a mainstream newspaper that was titled ‘Here’s Five Things that may mean you have ADHD. I clicked and started reading with Interest. Now can you guess what these things were? Well one of them was bumping into things and another was forgetting things. I face palmed myself when I’d finished reading it, not because it was totally inaccurate. I mean we all know that bad memory and finding random bruises on us, from bumping into things, do go hand in hand with ADHD but it doesn’t exactly paint a full well well-rounded picture does it?
The problem I have with articles like these, and indeed the problem that all of us with ADHD should be weary of is this; they minimize what ADHD is and how it affects our daily lives. Are they better than some mainstream media articles I’ve seen that say ADHD doesn’t exist? Of course but they still don’t do enough to raise awareness of what ADHD is and they make it sound far too simple.
“What we have to go through is real and difficult, and it annoys me when the mainstream media turn it into something so trivial.”
ADHD gIRL
The bottom line is that ADHD is a neurological condition that has a massive impact on executive functioning, that’s the part of the brain that helps you complete and survive simple everyday tasks and experiences. If people think it’s just about a few simple and mundane characteristics that the majority of people have from time to time anyway, it fits into the overall native of ADHD isn’t really that bad even if it does exist.
We still have a long way to go to get proper representation and information via the mainstream media but that’s why we must keep doing everything we can to raise awareness!
Till next time ADHDers!
PS. I’ve got some great content for the forthcoming podcast but in true ADHD fashion I hate cutting stuff down to fit in with the allocated time slot :-s
