Most ADHD stigma doesn’t arrive as open hostility. It arrives as a throwaway line from someone who thinks they’re being helpful, or funny. Naming the four shapes it takes makes it much easier to call out.
S—Stereotyping
Thinking all people with ADHD are the same. The comic draws it as perception versus reality: the perception is a row of identical squares, the reality is circles, stars, triangles and squares in every size and colour.
T—Trivializing
Belittling people with ADHD.
- “You need to grow up”
- “That’s just for kids”
- “It’s over-diagnosed”
- “That’s not an excuse”
O—Offending
Insulting people with ADHD.
- “You’re just being lazy”
- “What a total slob”
- “SQUIRREL! hahaha”
P—Patronizing
Being condescending towards people with ADHD. This one splits in two.
Minimizing:
- “You seem to be able to focus on video games just fine”
- “See? You finally did it. That wasn’t so hard, was it?”
- “You just need to sit down and focus”
Symptomizing:
- “Your ADHD is acting up”
- “You’re being over-sensitive because of your ADHD”
- “Did you take your meds today?”
Why the last one stings most
Symptomizing is the hardest to push back on, because it’s dressed up as understanding. Once any strong feeling can be reclassified as a symptom, you lose the ability to be straightforwardly annoyed about something without it being evidence about your brain.
If you’ve been told to “just sit down and focus” one time too many, The Anti-Planner was written for you — by someone who has heard all four of these.
