#it just wasn't the ADHD

[greentrickster]

Honestly, one of the things that I’m starting to think is the strangest things I do as a neurodivergent is that I generally headcanon characters in media as neurotypical. I just do. I learned I have ADHD in sixth grade, but it was never, ever something that anyone made me feel less about or mocked me for, I just got put on some medication that legitimately helped me and it was basically all good. (And, when I was in my twenties and ready, I eventually got off that medication, and everything I learned while on it means I cope just fine without now.)

This was at the tail-end of the 90s, so I and those around me had no reason to think that some of my social struggles were due to me being neurodivergent, we just didn’t know as much about it back then. And we had moved several times during my childhood to very different places, so I always put my struggles down to that. And I never read the ‘hyperactive weirdo’ characters in kids’ cartoons as being supposed to have ADHD, because that wasn’t me and nobody told me it was supposed to be, so why would I think it was?

The weirdest thing that ever happened to me as a result of it was getting to university and being told, “Oh yeah, since you have ADHD, you can have time and a half to take midterms and finals in a private room if you want.” To which I was like “...bro, why? It’s just ADHD, it’s not that big a deal, no need for special treatment.” (Though yes, I did give it a try. Once. 1/10, terrible, harder to focus there than with everyone else, never did it again.)

For me, for the first twenty-seven years or so of my life, the perceived ‘difference’ between myself and people without ADHD was honestly very thin. Yes, it makes more sense and is a relief to have learned that some of the things I thought were just me being socially incompetent are actually just a result of my brain being wired very differently,  but again, I tend to view it more along the lines of a language barrier than anything else. And people overcome those all the time, it’s just a matter of learning. The difference between myself and neurotypicals can feel wider at times these days, but it’s still not something that ever feels truly insurmountable to me.

So no, I don’t tend to headcanon characters as neurodivergent, even though I am. Because no one ever made me feel that I wasn’t normal or like I was incompetent/less because of my neurodivergence. About other things, yes. But never about that. So it’s just not something I look for or think about when I’m searching for representation.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Bros before Ho(oh my god is that Hanguang-Jun?)

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[deoidesign]

Happy pride from Adam and Steve, my t4t gay vampire and werewolf!!!

They're from my webcomic. It's good. I'm not biased. It's funny and gentle and they time travel to a new location every full moon, where there's a new little mystery to solve!

[waifujuju]

Cloud Strife stimming hours

[uncanny-tranny]

I jokingly thought before that reading Junie B. Jones as a kid turned me into a feminist, but unironically, it kind of did.

I honestly think it comes down to the fact that Junie B. was not only allowed to be "weird," but her character arc never concluded like other girl characters would. In other media featuring "weird girls," the girl always ended her arc tamed - by force or convince, she would be prettied up, she would smile and be polite, and she would never speak out of turn. She would be perfect then, and would shed her veneer of individuality with the freedom that is conformity. As a kid, I noticed that girls weren't permitted to be "weird" like boys were. So when I read Junie B. Jones, I loved that she was frankly just fucking weird. She said things out of turn, she was rambunctious and imaginative and she was a realistic portrayal of a little girl. I loved reading those books because the narrative taught her lessons without punishing her for being weird, if that makes sense. So often, narratives punished weird girls for the crime of being a socially unacceptable girl, not for any true wrongdoing like lying.

Anyway, I just think it's interesting, because I watched and read a ton of books and shows and movies featuring girls and women, but none of them truly empathized with (or even tried to empathize with) weird girls on their own merits and capabilities and terms, or embraced the idea of a "socially inept/unacceptable" girl without punishing her in some way for her supposed ineptitude.

[dragonflavoredcake]

Having ADHD and autism at the same time means that everything has a place where it must go because if it goes anywhere else it might as well be lost to the abyss

[yardsards]

the true lumity dynamic is just

(luz is the btw and amity is the tbh)

[elviraaxen]

I'm probably not the first to admit this but goddamn was I a narcissistic prick when I wasn't on stimulants

[iwanttobepersephone]

So, my mom was telling me how much free time I have, and I was like, "I have no freetime wth do you mean?????" And I just wanna see if this is like. A normal way to think of things?

Things I need to do:

Finish reading icebound land

Make a whole lotta art that I promised people

Research study abroad programs

At least one Dutch lesson a day

Keep my room clean

Talk to my friends so they know I love them (and so I don't go insane)

My math homework

Keep myself clean (showers, finally brushing my teeth after months, etc etc) so I don't go insane

Eat at 7pm

Various things I enjoy as to not go insane

All from 6pm to 9 pm, every day, after being at school from 8 am to 3:30 pm and then The Public (teen center) from 3:30 to 5:30, and I need to be in bed by 9:30 and asleep by 10:00

So, basically, I'm "on the clock" from 7 am (When I start getting ready for school) until 9 pm, with no breaks

But yeah no I totally have free time. Yeaup

[ames-draws]

I just need to tell y'all that I just finished - as in, got paid and delivered final files finished - the BIGGEST art commission I have ever SUCCESSFULLY completed!!!!

[lightningidle]

Fig's line "I don't think I'm an artist, I think I'm just a good friend" has not left my head at all. Just...

You're Fig Faeth and your horns came in over the summer and you pick up the bard class as a form of adolescent rock 'n' roll rebellion, and it works! It's exactly the outlet you need! You give a guy you just met drumsticks and you start a band and it's good enough that within a year and a half you're touring. You are, in every sense, good at being a bard.

And then, finally, your junior year, you start to take it seriously. Your art goes from an outlet and a form of rebellion to a practice. A discipline. (Can rebellion exist within a discipline?) Your classmates know what they want to do with their work. They all have a thesis statement. And yeah, there's cohesion in the music you make, but you've never had to think about why you make it. You've never sat down and dissected what it is about bass that speaks to you. You've never poured over your lyrics to pick at any deeper meaning. Why should you? You don't play music for a grand design, you do it to... huh, why do you do it?

(Your art is the one form of self-expression that feels as safe as Disguise Self does, because even if you're pouring your heart onto the page and then screaming it in front of thousands of people, it's not like you're really making yourself known. You can sing I'm lonely, I'm scared, I'm furious, and your fans will sing it right back, and there will still be the distance between performer and audience to keep your heart safe.)

Now you're being asked to look inward to explain the artistic choices you're making, and you can't help but recoil at that, because you'd rather do anything than look inward. Meanwhile, your classmates have no problem with it, so you start to wonder if you're a real artist at all. Can your art be authentic if it only exists to bolster a thesis statement? Has your art been unauthentic this whole time because you've never really thought about a thesis statement before? Is that what makes it art, and not just the next track on somebody's teen angst playlist?

You can't think about yourself— acknowledging your own existence makes you want to puke. So if your music is an extension of yourself, (and it is, even if it's just because the spotlight reveals only what you want it to,) you can't think about your music. You can't. You have to. Your grade depends on it.

You're Fig Faeth, and you keep multiclassing because you'd rather be a good friend than a great artist. If introspection is what great art demands, then fuck it. You must not be a bard at all.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

obviously hanguang-jun would wear sports bras…. right?

Wei Wuxian failed his perception and insight check rolls.

[hellyeahsickaf]

Having grown up with pretty severe undiagnosed ADHD one of my core memories will always be the teacher in 6th grade that would go out of his way to humiliate students that weren't reading enough. Idk how common this was but we had AR points. Essentially a system where if you read a book you could take a quiz on it and get points if you passed, with each book being worth a different amount of points. A very short book might be 3 points, a book the size of Harry Potter might be worth 40-70. You get it

I was actually good at literacy, I had the highest literacy score in that class. But audiobooks weren't really much of a thing yet and sitting down to read a book was virtually impossible, it's something I still struggle with and thought I was stupid for. I knew how to read and was great at it, even liked the material, but physically sitting down and reading a book was close to impossible. There were kids with hundreds of AR points and I had idk, probably less than 25.

And every few weeks this asshole would have all of us line up from most points to least. He'd go through, first hyping up the front of the line saying how impressed he was. He'd tell the next few they were doing well, to keep it up. Further down tell them to pick up the pace, but god help you if you were within the last 6 or so (some of them had the same issue as me, VERY likely also something undiagnosed)

He'd spend most of this time on those last few students. Berating these 11 year olds individually and intentionally humiliating them, telling them how there are 7 year olds who read more than us. He'd say we had no future, at least nothing better than minimum wage at McDonald's. That or we'd be on the streets. He was the type to bully neurodivergent kids every chance he got and boy that was damaging.

Wasn't the first or last teacher of mine to bully and shame kids and other teachers knew he did this so they'd send them to our classroom. He'd sometimes take an entire hour (I'd counted) out of our class time just humiliating this kid or few kids sent in for things like not doing their work or causing disruptions. He'd sometimes put their sloppy unfinished work or something on the projector and make fun of it. If the kid started crying he'd tell them to suck it up or call them names. And he was actually really well liked by the students, just the ones he wasn't an abusive motherfucker to

[the-blathermouth]

Ranking the STP voices on how helpful they are

MVP:

The Paranoid ("Heart. Lungs. Liver. Nerves.", helps you throw The Wraith in the basement and keeps The Broken in check)

The Hunted (survival instincts, tells you how to kill The Eye of the Needle)

Doing his best:

The Stubborn (Helps in killing The Eye of the Needle keeps you alive even when your fucked)

The Hero (keeps you grounded, suggests peace in the beginning, keep The Broken from killing you)

Doing his best but it's terrible:

Opportunist (on your side sometimes but flip flops constantly)

The Skeptic (takes the blade no mater what, questions everything but his curiosity gets you locked up, can just will you to die?!)

Moral support:

Contrarian

Smitten

Your not helping:

Cheated: (teleports you to the cabin but that's about it)

Cold (is sorta just here)

Broken: (doesn't contribute much of anything other than depression

"BITCH WHAT THE FUCK?!":

Broken (gives into the tower, makes you kill yourself)

Smitten (makes you kill yourself and wants to burn with The Gray)

The Narrator in the tower ending specifically (holy shit)

[noh07]

oops i crocheted for four hours straight gay and did not drink anything the entire time despite it being hot as fuck and me not having much water before that either

[do-you-know-this-adhd-character]

Do you know this (noncanon) ADHD character?

Evidence below the cut!

The intensity varies a bit from regeneration to regeneration but some of them are pretty obviously hyperactive, running around and talking at the speed of light and getting restless quickly. The eleventh doctor has a whole montage of him getting incredibly bored and restless when forced to experience time in order at its normal speed without any adventures to distract him. They often act on impulse, throwing themselves into dangerous situations because they happened to be nearby and it caught their interest. Their mind seems to run at 500 mph at all times. And y'know. I just get a vibe.

Submitter adds in the "anything else" field: One time in an audio story the tenth doctor says "I am many things, but neurotypical has never been one of them". However since I also headcanon them as autistic and he doesn't elaborate, I can't count this as proof of ADHD specifically.