this post was submitted on 13 Jul 2025
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ADHD doesn't make you smarter or faster.
Disagree.
It may make one smarter if it causes them to have to work harder than others to reach the same level.
With speed it is too easy to be distracted getting things done quickly and efficiently can become a coping skill.
If you have to work harder than other to reach the same level and to keep it, you are not smarter or dumber, you just have a disability that makes it harder.
That's not what I said.
I can't say I'm surprised how adamantly people want to play the disability card. Life's hard. My family is full of people with adhd and the ones that lean into it are all doing very very poorly. Those of us that have worked out coping mechanisms have all increased our socioeconomic position.
It's your life. Do with it what you want.
This sort of thinking isn't unique to ADHD. For example, there are also Little people who refuse to see themselves as disabled.
That doesn't mean those who choose to see themselves are disabled are wrong but anyone who demands someone see themselves as disabled is not only wrong, they're also an asshole.
That ADHD is a disability is a fact, it makes living in society harder. Also, saying that someone has a disability and that someone is disabled is different, I did not say that.
You worked out coping mechanisms that you must employ so that life isn't harder than baseline for you as long as you apply them, I would say that you are working harder than someone that doesn't need to think of coping mechanisms.
I completely agree that someone that's little isn't a disabled person because they are more than their disability, but denying that what makes them different from others makes their life overall way harder would be unwise. It's a disability for which a lot of countries have money and help programs specifically because life's harder than for people who don't have it because society sin't designed for little people, or for people with ADHD, or whatever other thing.
Let me repeat it because I really want to drive home the point that I never said that you or anyone else is disabled. Disabilities are part of what defines a person, not what solely defines it, but three's nothing wrong with acknowledging that something is a disability because it makes living in society harder.
Edit: I reread your old comment and you did say the following:
That's what I was commenting on, your premise is that if ADHD makes one work harder to reach others' level, then that will help them be smarter. I disagree with that notion, I would say that if with ADHD you are able to reach others' level, you were smarter to begin with. So the smartness of the person is irrelevant to my comment, it's the part about having to work harder to reach the same level that I was highlighting. You being able to work out the coping mechanisms and keep using them is because you are smart, not the other way around.