So I used to make this joke all the time. Now I have chronic tinnitus. For those of you who don’t know what that is, it’s nerve damage in your ears which often comes as a result of being constantly exposed to very loud noise for a long period of time. The nerve damage results in a constant ringing/buzzing in your ears. So far there’s no cure. The severity of it varies, and I’m lucky to have a mild case, which I can barely hear during the day and is easy to block out at night. That said, loads of people with tinnitus aren’t so lucky. Severe tinnitus can’t be blocked out. Those who suffer from it also suffer from severe loss of sleep, depression, anxiety…. the list goes on. Tinnitus also comes with a degree of hearing loss in most cases, making it even harder to ignore. In fact, some people with severe tinnitus kill themselves just to make the ringing stop. Tinnitus can be so severe that it drives a person to suicide. Chronic tinnitus used to mostly be prevalent in older people who worked for years with loud machinery etc, but all of a sudden it’s becoming more common in our generation. Why? Because of people, like me, who listened to their music too goddamn loudly through their headphones.
Deaf by the time you’re 20? Please. That’s the least of your worries.
Please reblog. This post reminded me to move my music further away and turn it down. Someone else may need to be more cautious of their shit too.
Chronic mild tinnitus here, too, due to too many metal concerts in my youth. Turn your headphones down a little. Wear earplugs at concerts. Protect your ears.
Your eyes have an iris that can shrink down, and eyelids that can squint shut, to protect them from light that is too bright. Your ears have NOTHING to block out sounds that are too loud. It’s up to you.
Tinnitus sufferer from drumline in high school checking in. These days I wear earplugs at concerts, rehearsals, clubs, and even movies sometimes. Get yourself a set that look like these ones:
Etymotics Research was one of the first companies I’m aware of to widely market with this
sort of ear plug, and they’re great, because they reduce noise fairly
evenly across the spectrum, and so you hear everything accurately, just
quieter. While they’re certainly more expensive than the foam earplugs
that you see everywhere, they also are washable and last for months and
months, and sound great, if not better than without for live music. Please protect your ears. There is no way to recover lost
hearing.
Apparently I had this. I just thought silence was a ringing sound
you also might have even been “born” with this. a lot of people with sensory issues (especially autistic or ADD/ADHD people) experience this when it’s silent around them but havent actually hurt their ears with music at all.
so its also a sensory processing thing and you can be “born” with it (aka develop with it in childhood) like i have
Wait I thought that ringing was normal?? I hear ringing when its dead silent are you seriously saying my ADHD causes this???? I thought everyone had that???!!??!
normal people dont have that ringing noise. while it’s minor in cases of sensory development issues from developmental disorders, it can be severe if a person with a developmental disorder listens to loud music. i know that sometimes during a sensory overload from autism, the ringing will become terribly loud
Oh lord ok. Be careful with loud noises. Gotcha. I didnt realize not everyone hears that ringing. I thought it was normal so I never asked if anyone else heard it too. Thanks for the warning about loud music! Ive always tried to avoid going to concerts because of the ringing but I thought it was a thing everyone put up with and that I was being a wimp. Im glad I have an explanation!
it really bothers me that so many people on this site treat ableism like it’s black and white.
just now i saw a post where op was like “i’m glad that spinners are popular because it normalizes fidgets and decreases stigma” and someone replied like “no!! it’s absolutely TERRIBLE that neurotypicals are using these fidgets because when they get in trouble they make things harder for mentally ill kids!!” and like you guys do realize that? you’re both right? it isn’t a decisive fact that neurotypicals using fidgets is either good or bad, there are both benefits and consequences that need to be taken into consideration.
a few months ago there was a post going around that was like, *neurotypical voice* why are you bouncing your leg, and somebody reblogged it saying that the post was ableist because autistic kids can get overstimulated by leg bouncing. i go to a school for the mentally disabled, and i’ve been in this exact scenario, my classmate wasn’t able to focus because i was bouncing my leg and although i felt bad i told him that i wouldn’t be able to stop for long because i do it subconsciously due to my adhd. he wasn’t being ableist for asking me to stop, and i wasn’t being ableist for saying i couldn’t, we just both had different needs. in the end, our compromise was that i went to work in the computer lab.
you have to understand that there is always more than one side to issues like these, and that we should be striving for understanding and balance over demonization of one side and blind support of the other. this is especially relevant when people on both sides are mentally ill or disabled, because sometimes symptoms will clash and you just need to deal with it.
Amazing insight - and true for so much of the world. there is a human need to make things simpler than they are, because there is SO MUCH to think about and people are uncomfortable with that.
Being able to find the win/win solution takes work.
anyone else get a fuzzy-restless feeling when you need to do something but your brain won’t focus on anything and you’re silently begging yourself to just do one thing but instead you’re scrolling tumblr even though you don’t even want to be … it’s like your head is filled with heavy electric cotton like you’re both uncomfy and unable to stop
This is the best damn description of executive dysfunction I have ever heard
(In response to some tags.) Yeah, this is real. It sounds like executive dysfunction or brain fog, commonly associated with ADHD and/or depression, among other things.
Having adhd is less about “oh look squirrel!!” and more about when you delete your characters action in the sims and they forget what they’re doing and stand about aimlessly for a while
Concept: Maybe “neurotypicals” who consistently reblog post about autism and other mental disorders and illnesses because they relate to them actually aren’t neurotypical, and just don’t know it.
Even the ones who say, “But everyone does this!” might only be saying it because they do it, and therefore think everyone does, when that’s not the reality.
Like, I remember someone who very obviously had OCD saying, “Everyone gets constant, upsetting intrusive thoughts, and does things to make them go away! It’s normal!” and everyone who responded to them were like, “Uh… No, it’s really not. You have a mental illness.”
I hate how everyone is so quick to assume anyone who relates to their posts without having every aspect of their mental state listed on their blog is obviously an evil, appropriating neurotypical. Maybe they are technically neurotypical, but have one or two traits associated with whatever form of neurodivergence. Maybe they’re neurodivergent and just don’t feel like listing it. Maybe they think they’re neurotypical, and are in the process of realising that they actually aren’t.
Please don’t be so quick to judge. This gatekeeping helps no one.
This is an extremely important point.
I know at least one trans person who didn’t realize they were trans until they were talking about how much they relate to trans things. Only, it was in the context of being dismissive of trans people. “Oh, sure, of course you prefer those pronouns. Everyone does.” But that wasn’t a cis person being dismissive of trans experiences; it was a trans person not understanding that they were trans.
Same thing with a lot of mental illness stuff.
Honestly, if you relate to an experience, you have the experience. Doesn’t matter whether you have it for the same reason someone else does.
On a similar note that I was thinking about recently: perhaps some neurodivergent people who are dismissed by their parents have neurodivergent parents who don’t know it. Like, if your mom says “everyone has that” when you tell her about your depression, there’s a decent chance that she’s not minimizing you, she just has depression herself and doesn’t realize it.
Yes. My parents did this. Both of them now realize they have undiagnosed ADHD.
I was in a lot of activities when I was four and five, and multiple teachers suggested to my mom that I might have ADHD. My mother’s response: “Everyone does this” and “why do you care that she can’t stand in line, cut with scissors, or go for thirty minutes without zoning out, but not that she can spell her first, middle, and last name perfectly?”
The problem is, this sort of thinking causes harm, both to the undiagnosed person and any children they might have.
I’ve talked a lot here about how much I’ve suffered because I wasn’t diagnosed until I was 20. The whole “if you’re so smart, why can’t you do x? You’re so lazy and selfish” bit. But my mother, for example, didn’t just berate me. She was even harder on herself. I constantly saw her calling herself “stupid” when she was late or forgot something or made some sort of ADHD mistake. Think about how much self-hatred she could have saved both of us had she realized that ADHD was real and she had it.
TL;DR, a lot of people who say “everyone has ADHD” (or autism) have it themselves and don’t realize it, AND THAT DOESN’T MAKE IT OKAY.
There’s a lot to adhd that most people don’t realize. While attention issues and hyperactivity are well-known, the majority of people don’t know most of the symptoms. Here is a partial list.
-Poor motor skills
-Delayed physical and social development
-having a “multi-track” style of thinking
-Forms of disordered thinking, including blocking, circumstantiality, clanging, derailment, pressure of speech, tangentiality, and more.
-Hyperfocus
-Fidgeting
-Restless leg syndrome
-Forgetfulness
-Poor concept of time passage
-Overactive metabolism
-Sensory processing issues
-Meltdowns
-Inability to understand nonverbal communications
-Obsession with fairness or balance
-Impulsivity
-Poor social awareness
-High emotionality
-General executive dysfunction
-Atypical response to stimulants
-Racing thoughts
-Tactile issues
-Discomfort with a lack of pattern or predictability
-Echolalia
-Easily bored, and finding boredom to be highly upsetting
-Difficulty understanding and following instructions
-Literal-mindedness
-Delays in linguistic development
-Auditory processing issues (lots of us keep subtitles on all the time, or rely on lip reading, and really hate phone calls!)
-Poor short term memory
This is nowhere near an exhaustive list. The reason I’m making this post is so people realize that adhd is a developmental disability that affects every aspect of our lives, and is more than just distractibility or high energy. We’re not just poorly behaved, and in fact, we’re probably trying our best. So please be patient with us. Stop telling us that this isn’t real. Thank you.
“video games linked to adhd” gee i wonder why ppl with adhd would be drawn to an interactive medium that fully engages your brain and gives your hands something to do at the same time. it is a mystery
I just happen to be doing extended research on this topic and yes, video games are linked to ADHD…in that they are being considered useful teaching and therapeutic tools for people with ADD, ADHD, and ASD because they’re “intrinsically motivating” and help with “social skills, fine motor skills, language skills, reading and writing, and critical thinking”! In fact, they’re theorizing that video games help make these people more social with their peers, not less.(x)Pretty neat!
I was asked to do some research on ADD. The main thing people forget about writing characters with ADD is the symptoms. There are a ton of symptom lists around, but nobody seems to want to do the research. Below is a test you should give to your characters to determine if they are realistically experiencing ADD. I was diagnosed with ADD via a similar test, and it is definitely accurate. -Grammar
Also I would add please be aware of if you’re writing someone with Inattentive, Hyperactive, or Combined type ADHD. What most people call ADD is ADHD-Inattentive type. Most girls with ADHD are Inattentive type (although some are Hyperactive or Combined type), and that’s why they go undiagnosed so much of the time, since parents and teachers are able to notice the hyperactive symptoms much more easily. (I’m Combined type ADHD and that’s the only reason I think that my teacher noticed my symptoms, because now that I’m an adult my inattentiveness is just considered to be “laziness” or “forgetfulness” on my part.) But overall this is a pretty good list.
