Published on 12, July, 2020
Good afternoon everybody,
I would love to get some input and opinion on the above, and whether it's positive or negative. What got me pondering it was the recent announcement by the chef Heston Blumenthal that he was has been diagnosed with ADHD and has Bipolar Disorder. You can read more about it here:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-13643885/Heston-Blumenthal-tearfully-reveals-wife-Melanie-forced-sectioned-bipolar-battle.html
Please do not connect the source to my political views. It was just the first link I came across.
For context, I was a huge fan of Heston (I once spent £150 on one of his books!) when I was a chef, though that did wane as he became more mainstream. This was prediagnosis for myself.
So yeah, that's it. I'm very interested to hear what you think.
It's good that people are coming out and being loud and proud and showing that you can e succesfull in life, but isn't bi-polar a bit different to autism and maybe has more in common with ADHD in some? I do wonder at the wisdom of putting all neurodiverse conditions in a related lump, will the boundaries both individual and between the conditions get lost? I also worry about what I've termed as diagnosis envy, where people envy the attention that someone gets for having a disability, a bit like all the people who insist they're dyslexic because they're poor at spelling and therefore have to be excused.
I guess the downside of the successful coming out is that it puts pressure on the rest of us to be just as successfull. I think there's already to much pressure to "do things", maybe that works for some, but it wouldn't work for me as I don't work well under pressure.
I wonder if the neurodiverse communities could learn something from the gay comunities about how coming out into mainstream culture effected them, for good or bad?
TheCatWoman said: I also worry about what I've termed as diagnosis envy, where people envy the attention that someone gets for having a disability
Do you mean also the short videos in social media of people pretending to have some ND conditions? For me it has a very negative effects on those who really struggle. Because then they hear humiliating comments from other people and even professionals sort of “yeah now it’s trendy, you are just pretending to get attention!”. I red that from someone’s experience and I myself had similar. I heard from a psychologist and psychiatrist (in one person) - after I described her my problems with my own words, - that now it’s a popular and fashionable diagnosis, everyone diagnoses themselves with autism and adhd. That hurt me. I hoped for some help/advice how to cope with stress. But instead I heard that in fact i have many autistic traits and probably I’m an aspie, but now it’s trendy… after her I’m very worried to seek help anywhere else although I was told only recently few times that I should seek help. Earlier in life I often heard that I’m a weirdo and should change. So looks like people would do anything to get a 5 minutes of attention. Edit: probably not all the social media videos are being uploaded by those who pretend, but it’s hard to say in my opinion.