#want to be very clear that i'm not saying that adhd symptoms are incompatible in serious genres

[wallylinda]

I think a lot of things can be said about how ADHD/hyperactivity and the flash family’s connection to that are portrayed as comical in a lot of cartoons and make light of it rather than just allowing it to exist idk I’m not making any sense but you have me thinking thoughts

So there are multiple theories about the source of comedy--ask yourself: what makes things funny?--and one of the most modern ones is the incongruity theory. In layman's terms, the principle of this theory is that humor is humor because it is fundamentally unpredictable. We go into a joke with a pre-formed expectation, and what makes that joke so funny is that the punchline is something completely different from what we thought it would be.

It's a personal pet theory of mine that ADHD, specifically the traits associated with it, are considered to be comedic because of this. Some of the main characteristics of the disorder are the following: hyperactivity, impulsivity, lack of restraint, and absent-mindedness. In a comedy show, think of how many times the punchline relies on these factors. Becky forgot her homework for the fifth time this week, Samantha panics and decides to spy on her crush in a makeshift costume, Rick is constantly over-exaggerating his movements. Every character does this: that's what makes it funny!

But in a superhero show, the tone is naturally going to be much different. Humor is going to be used to offset the tension of the plot, meaning that there can only be select instances of comedy, and that in turn means that they can't have every character playing into over-the-top theatrics. That's ultimately where the issue lies for me, because for writers who don't understand how comedy is developed, they're going to fall back into the pre-established--and often unconscious--patterns and offload all of the quote-unquote “funniness” onto a singular character. The characters with the most levity, and thus comedic potential, are those in the Flashfam, and it’s doesn’t exactly take a lot of brainpower to clue into the very much implied ADHD symptoms of speedsters in question. 

Make no mistake, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it often falls flat in conjunction with this genre. Like put it this way: the JLA are discussing the potential ramifications of *insert serious topic here* and suddenly the Flash pipes in with an inane subject change about food or a pun about moving fast. A) that unnecessarily takes away from the plot, b) it removes the viewer from the mood that the scene is supposed to invoke, and c) it lessens the value of the Flash in the minds of the viewers. I mean, how are you supposed to take this superhero seriously if he’s being written not as a superhero, but as a two-bit comedy skit?

[intersex-ionality]

Yo, regarding the "I can't help it because I'm sick" thing - I'm unsure how familiar you are with TA, but iirc that's one of the 'games' outlined in it, namingly wooden leg. Wooden leg is so called because it's based off the phrase "what do you expect from a person with a wooden leg?". The game itself is most commonly used to avoid responsibility and such, from what I understand. I don't know much about the community, but from what you've said it sounds like that game?

So before I begin this post, I want to acknowledge that yes, transactional analysis has historically had Freudian roots. However, today’s transactional analysts are primarily informed by cognitive behavioural analysis. At this point most (but not all!) TA is basically a type of cognitive therapy/study that helps you to recognize two major things: other people have just as complex and complete a set of internal mental processes as you do (theory of mind), and that all people--yourself AND others--have inherent worth and value (I’m okay, you’re okay).

The wooden leg game is a type of cognitive distortion that is first described in older forms of TA, and while it is sometimes described in condescending ways, I think the general concept has value.

The archetypal example of a wooden leg game is someone with an anxiety-related stutter, who cannot find employment. He blames his stutter, and technically this is correct, because he only applies for public speaking jobs which are incompatible with the symptoms of his anxiety. An easy fix to the problem would be to apply for work that does not set off his anxieties or require him to speak to large groups of people with low fidelity audio equipment in a clear, concise manner that is incompatible with his stuttering. But, by blaming his stutter itself and refusing to take any further action, the man becomes trapped in a sort of cognitive loop wherein he either thinks of himself as increasingly worthless or the world around him as increasingly hostile and broken.

That’s the simplest example, and the one that most closely parallels the obscenely large number of people on microblogging and highly public social media platforms who excuse their own misbehaviour as “symptomatic,” saying things like, “your paragraphs are ableist because I have ADHD” or “I have to insult anyone who disagrees with me because I’m cluster-B,” things like that.

But there are other equally obnoxious examples that people use to excuse themselves from making any attempt at growth or at basic courtesy to others, such as, “no one can be expected to perform unpaid emotional labour on top of the other unpaid labours expect of us by our employers, therefore I have no obligation to be kind to others, therefore being extremely mean to others is justified,” or, “under a patriarchal society, women are always hated for existing as women, therefore any criticism I receive is not because I’m being a right bastard, but because I am a woman.”

It’s basically a way to shuck any personal blame for one’s circumstances. A blame-shifting cognitive distortion. Now, of course, everyone has some level of blame-shifting behaviour. But for some people, this becomes an immense distortion in the way they perceive themselves and others around them.

And since there are a ton of circumstances one can end up in that legitimately aren’t one’s own fault (eg: becoming poor as a result of layoffs at work, being bown non-white in a white supremacist culture), it is very easy for people who have these distortions in extreme, to functionally justify anything they want.

When presented with someone who has the exact same “excuse” as them, but does not take it, this cognitive distortion often motivates people to further justify their inaction by saying that those others are unique and extremely fortunate examples who have other benefits that make taking action easier, are actually just really mild cases who shouldn’t be compared, or are faking.

Of course, one must take extreme care when dealing with this distortion, because the fact of the matter is, although it’s not objective fact, the person in question legitimately believes that they cannot change their circumstances for the better, and that instead the world must change first. As such, interventions that aren’t careful and gentle enough as guidance will be seen as attacks on the person’s sense of reality. Obviously, that makes things worse, giving them new anxieties and reinforcing destructive beliefs.

Furthermore, for some people, it’s not a distortion. They legitimately cannot change their circumstances, because the trouble really is coming from an outside source. In those cases, the therapist’s duty is instead to help a person realize their fundamental self worth, and help them learn not to lash out at others who also are not responsible for the pain unfairly.

So yeah, in as much as this distortion can be said to exist, I would agree that it applies readily to this situation.

[xtruss]

The Disabled Doctors Not Believed By Their Colleagues

People often feel nervous when they visit a doctor with some fearing their symptoms may not be believed. But what if you are the doctor, and your colleagues dismiss your disabilities and mental health difficulties? Miranda Schreiber explores this challenging relationship.

When I was 15, I described what turned out to be the neurological symptoms of mental illness to my doctor. I told him I couldn't do schoolwork, feel the cold, or understand a book. He suggested I go on walks if I was stressed.

This breakdown in communication, in which patient and doctor seem to live in different worlds, is well-documented by disabled people. Many feel they have to translate their experience, because disability and medical structures seem incompatible.

But this experience is familiar to disabled doctors too, and some are seeking solutions.

Sarah Islam was a fourth year medical student at Indiana University when she developed a chronic illness which caused exhaustion, chronic pain, and cognitive impairment. She said her symptoms, which didn't tick a specific box, made her feel like she lacked fluency in the medical language she was learning.

'Brick Wall'

"I remember, even as a med student, having the vocabulary to explain what I was going through but feeling like I had hit a brick wall," she says. "I actually didn't know how to describe it."

With her experience of sickness, Islam shifted from believing legitimate illness could be diagnosed to living as a patient with symptoms which didn't fit a clear disease profile.

But she noticed a change in her colleagues too, when she returned to medical school after a period of recovery.

"If I said the word 'pain' [colleagues] took it as coded language for 'I'm lazy' and 'I can't do my work'.

"They would challenge my reality," she says, something which lead her to conceal her symptoms. "I felt like everything I shared was going to be weaponized against me. They would say 'you walked two days ago so why can't you walk today?' Almost like they caught me in a lie.

"The baseline understanding of what it means to be disabled is not there."

This sort of discrimination is often referred to as ableism - which favours non-disabled people over those with disabilities.

It is made all the harder to confront in medicine when disabled clinicians are vastly underrepresented. Disabled people make up about 20% of the population in the UK and US but only 2% of British and American doctors.

Islam says simple accommodations like taking notes in front of patients, or taking the elevator rather than the stairs, were criticised by her advisors as unprofessional. And these same attitudes, Islam explains, manifest in patient interviews.

"It's completely baffling to me how we can expect patients to respect us when we won't even believe what they're telling us.

"It's scary to be viewed as good or bad because you can or cannot work," she says.

Hardeep Lotay, a fifth year medical student at the University of Cambridge and mental health advocate, sympathises with Islam. "There's the idea in medicine you have to stretch yourself further than is reasonable because that's the nature of the profession," Lotay says, who also researches medical racism.

"I took a year-and-a-bit out from the course. In medical school any difference is seen as weakness, and any weakness is taken to mean you're not as good as your cohort. There's stigma in everyone knowing you've taken time off.

"It can be very negative to see the perception of psychiatry patients from your colleagues and seniors."

The attitudes Lotay and Islam experienced were also identified in research by Drs. Havi Carel and Ian Kidd, philosophy professors at the University of Bristol.

They found medical experts often perceive disabled patients as incapable, unreliable, and emotionally unstable, leading clinicians to "downgrade the credibility" of what disabled patients say.

This discrimination can impact treatment decisions and compromise disabled patients' health, increasing their risk of secondary conditions.

'Gaslighting the Patient'

Revealingly, Canada Care Connection, which helps patients find family doctors, found in its team audits that patients with chronic pain took the longest to place, and that some family doctors refused to see "undesirable" patients because of a disability. "They just won't accept them," one Care Connector wrote.

Joanna, a disability activist from New Jersey, has mast cell activation syndrome, also known as mastocytosis. The disorder causes overactive mast cells - which form part of the immune system - which trigger anaphylaxis. Joanna lived without medical support until she was 25 because doctors believed she was exaggerating her symptoms.

"I wish medical students were taught to be open to information disabled patients provide," she says. "It's okay for a medical student or doctor to admit that they don't have the answer. That's so much more helpful than gaslighting the patient."

This is something the University of Michigan is trying to address. Its medical school has started providing students with teaching sessions focused on disability in its entirety - from disability pride to the everyday and justice.

But there are also the disabled activists, medical students and doctors who propose that the breakdown in communication could be reduced if there were more disabled physicians.

"As a disability activist who's proud of being disabled, there's a vocabulary of identity that I can't use with doctors," says Charis Hill, an activist from Sacramento, California. "They think disability is bad. It's what they want to keep you from becoming.

"With a disabled doctor I wouldn't have to explain so much because we're speaking the same language," they say. "My care outcomes would be so much better because I would be understood."

Lotay and Islam have both used their personal experience to guide the way they approach medicine.

"If a patient comes to you and tells you they're completely deflated, you can communicate with them and speak a language of mental health," says Lotay.

Dr. Duncan Shrewsbury, a clinician and senior lecturer at Birmingham University in the UK who has ADHD, agrees.

"We should be systematically looking at how we support and advocate for disabled learners, both at university and postgraduate training levels," he says.

"It wasn't until disabled people chained themselves to the front of a bus [in the UK] that disability legislation started looking at public services needing to cater to people with different abilities," he says, reflecting on the 1995 protests for disability rights.

The University of Michigan has also tried to address barriers by altering its technical standards for admission. Disabled applicants no longer need to demonstrate physical competencies, like being able to lift a patient.

But Islam observes that practicing medicine is only part of the challenge.

"The barriers start before any of us even apply," she says. "If this had happened to me when I was 17 I probably wouldn't have had the energy, or the finances frankly, to apply. It's clear you are not the person wanted in this field."

But with systemic change, things could be different.

The experiences I described to my doctor when I was 15 did not need to be beyond understanding.

Perhaps, rather than recommend I go on walks, my doctor might have said: "I have felt the same way."

— BBC News | Sunday April 18, 2021