From one point of view it’s a list of criteria created by a group of Psychiatrists, in closed door meetings to describe the experience of people who are not part of those conversations.
These criteria are general and don’t appreciate individual nuance.
What a diagnosis does not account for is mindset, determination, resourcefulness, creativity and other amazing qualities.
Qualities that often defy the myopic view of what a person with that diagnosis can accomplish.
One of the best ways to put your creative mind to use is by finding the equivalent of emergency exits, trap doors, windows. Those unconventional ways of working around the challenges of your ADHD.
The conventional approach remains a desire to teach a student with ADHD how to find their way into the box their peers without ADHD are encouraged to fit into.
I’m not saying teachers do this but the system teachers are handcuffed into honoring certainly does.
I see small changes happening in some districts, spearheaded by true thought leaders. But the changes are excruciatingly slow.
Here’s one idea for dealing with this reality in the meantime.
Do your best to understand the inside the box rules that still drive much of the world.
This is important research and preparation for you.
Because the time will come when they want better results than they’ve been getting but can’t seem to think beyond the limits of the box they’ve cozied themselves into.
Then here you are. Someone who has committed herself to installing a bunch of escape doors and windows into the sides of the box.
So many windows and escape hatches that the walls of the box collapse.
Then watch the minds around you be blown by your creative and innovative thinking.
It’s ironic how a system so committed to honoring an antiquated box, will often come to folks like us when they finally realize they’re trapped by their own creation.
A diagnosis doesn’t need to be a declaration of permanent disability. When it can be a fire that forges the kind of creative thinking that moves society forward.