#full disclosure I do not have ADHD OR RSD

[lonely-business]

I believe that we have all come to the consensus that Ed has ADHD, right? It fits his mannerisms and moods perfectly. He’s always fidgeting with something, moving quickly from one thing to the next, he openly says that he doesn’t fear anything and many ADHD peeps have a scaled down sense of danger. An aspect of his ADHD that I haven’t seen explored is the possibility of him having Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria (RSD). RSD is when the mind interprets rejection or criticism from a respected outside source or when the person with ADHD fails to reach their own, or other’s, high standards as severe mental and/or emotional pain. And BOY HOWDY do we see Ed react in RSD fashion throughout the show.

When Ed and his crew first get on the Revenge and Ed is looking through all of Stede’s things thinking, “LOOK AT THIS TINY BOAT OF THIS BOAT WERE ON. RAD.” Izzy is trying to get Ed to think of plan so they don’t die. Ed yells back that he’s bored out of his skull, is this all there is? (Boredom can be physically/mentally painful for individuals with ADHD). But Ed has a light bulb moment. Death! That’s new. Haven’t tried that yet. It has been reported that people with RSD have higher rates of suicidal ideation than individuals without RSD.

The scene where Ed got the date wrong and it wasn’t the full moon, he immediately gives up and grabs a bottle of booze. This is also very typical of RSD. He failed to meet his own (exceedingly high) standards in front of everyone. This would be the emotional equivalent of standing on a cliff to being dashed upon the rocks below in seconds.

Some people with RSD try to become people pleasers, the more you do for someone the less likely they are to leave, right? I think when Ed was rising up the ranks, pirate wise, he would do whatever he could to avoid criticism from the higher ranking crew members. He doesn’t kill, but he loves a good maim. Tactically minded. Able to do dangerous stunts with little regard for his life, so the other lads in the crew could have a laugh and he would fit in.

Eventually, he started making a name for himself. Dangerous, fierce, eyes that glow red and a head made of smoke. He has his own crew, his own boat, and a new name, Blackbeard. Izzy is there the whole time and Ed has an emotional connection to him. You can see how Izzy is Ed’s confidant, his first mate. Izzy’s words mean something to Ed. But Izzy always criticizes Ed, “I work for Blackbeard. Blackbeard needs to make Bonnet go to doggy heaven. Blackbeard Blackbeard Blackbeard.” Ed with RSD would want the negative feelings that Izzy keeps bringing up to stop. So, he does actually try to kill Stede to make Izzy (and Ivan and fang) happy.

 Izzy is very emotionally manipulative of Ed. He talks down to him, makes it seem like Izzy does all the work and that Ed contributes nothing, speaks to him in ways to deliberately rile him up. Izzy is intentionally using Ed’s RSD against him.

[brydeswhale]

Oh, Stiles DEFINITELY has ADHD. He displays a lot of the symptoms, it often comes co-morbid with anxiety, which he’s also shown to have, etc, etc.

(Full disclosure, I have ADHD. Pretty severely, according to my doctor. Not only have I KNOWN many Stiles’, I’ve been one, to my regret, except I also was able to eventually become someone who could think about other people and also apologize when I’ve been wrong. That’s mostly because poor white neurodivergent girls whose parent works for a damn living don’t get the same coddling that middle class white boys with corrupt cops for a parent get.)

Actually, to be “fair” to Stiles(as opposed to being indulgent, like anon would want me to be), a lot of his behaviour is probably affected by his ADHD.

For example, his “clever quips”(AKA, cruel insults) are probably at least in part bc he’s impulsively trying to be funny without considering how his insults and cruelty will affect the people around him.

His hyper focus on werewolves(and the history of male circumcision) is another sign of ADHD, and it probably played a part in his weird stalking of Lydia.

His anxiety, which, as I said, is often co-morbid with ADHD.

His fear of rejection by friends and family, especially personified after his involvement in murdering Donovan. RSD is a bitch and a half.

And there are canon references to his having ADHD. The first one being the “have you overdosed on your adderall again” which I initially took as him using it recreationally, but then they did the “history of circumcision paper joke, so yeah.

Having said all this, the idea that it’s somehow ablist to point out Stiles’ toxic behaviour, or call him on it, has popped up over and over again. Stiles fans seem to always want to over use new words they learn.

Now, there are legitimate reasons to consider Stiles’ behaviour in the context of his ADHD. First off, people with ADHD do tend to emotionally mature more slowly than other people. I always test out about ten years behind my peers, for example. And we do often experience a reduced capacity to regulate our emotions. So I can see and sympathize with Stiles to a certain extent.

I can also see that his dad hasn’t really done much to help Stiles with this stuff. While Stiles apparently takes medication, he doesn’t seem to have a therapist or life coach. His father doesn’t generally lay out boundaries, or natural consequences for his behaviour(see, multiple traffic violations that seem to disappear), and he sure as hell doesn’t seem to have realized that if you want a nice, polite kid who considers other people’s feelings, you have to raise one. He seems to have decided that throwing pills at the problem has made it disappear.

He never did seem that bright to me.

But for all that, Stiles is STILL responsible for his own behaviour.

You can’t go around saying mean things just because you want to seem clever. That’s bullying.

You can’t hide things from friends and family and make it like them confronting you on your behaviour is uncalled for, and you sure as HELL can’t physically assault a friend because you’re having a bad day. Those are all abusive behaviours.

(Some people would say that this doesn’t mean I think stiles is abusive. I absolutely think he’s abusive and has been since episode one.)

Stiles isn’t unpopular at school because everyone at school thinks he’s a geek for no reason, or because he hangs out with Scott(who I am sure would have more friends if it weren’t for Stiles), he’s unpopular because he fails to regulate his behaviour, says and does inappropriate things, and treats others badly.

People in fandom who dislike Stiles don’t dislike him bc he’s got ADHD, we dislike him because he’s a jerk who doesn’t treat people well, almost never takes responsibility for his shitty behaviour, and has a fan base made up of unpleasant ppl who will do anything, learn any new word, so they can use it to harass and abuse anyone who doesn’t worship their great white hope. And they often have a habit of WEAPONIZING these words to either defend themselves from the consequences of their actions, or to attack other people. Gross.

And as far as Scott not being neurodivergent, that’s laughable. It might not be stated in canon, or used gratuitously to milk sympathy like Stiles ADHD is, but it’s very much there. He has obvious PTSD, implicit autism, and it’s likely he has some form of ADHD. He’s also a werewolf, which I would argue causes changes to the brain which, if real, would fall under the ND umbrella.

Stiles Stilinski's ADHD and him taking & being prescribed Adderall to treat it very much canon, unlike Scott McCall's canonically nonexistent neurodivergence and Mexican heritage. Again: stop trying to strip a canonical neuroatypical character of his ADHD just because you want to avoid being called out on your ableism and because you want to transplant Stiles' ADHD onto ur bland neurotypical fav Scott. Just admit you hate Stiles and Derek because they eclipsed Scott without even trying and go 🙄

Me several posts ago: "Derek is one of my favorite characters!"

You now: "You hate Derek!"

??? Do you think I regularly lie about which characters I like? You must be new here. I assure you, I'm quite outspoken. If I hated Derek, I would simply say so. RIP to the imagined version of me you've conjured up in your head but I'm different!

Also: where I am supposed to go, exactly? You're the one in MY inbox. I'm just vibing!

Also, I never said Scott had ADHD. ADHD is not actually the only neurodivergence in existence. Nor did I say that Stiles was LESS neurodivergent than Scott. I said that their neurodivergence had the same canonicity, namely, that both were HEADCANONS. Now, if I'm wrong, and Stiles was actually diagnosed with ADHD and prescribed Adderall in-show, I'll own up to my mistake and apologize. So, episode number and timestamp please! Or, you know what, even just the episode title, I'll look up the transcript myself.

As for Scott's Mexican heritage, Tyler Posey is Mexican, he and Jeff Davis have both stated that Scott is Mexican, and Melissa's maiden name is canonically "Delgado", a surname which is most commonly used in Mexico. I'm gonna be real with you, I'm not interested in entertaining arguments that he's not Mexican, so if you are super invested in him not being Mexican for SOME reason, feel free to keep it to yourself, because I don't care.