Quit Blaming Everything on ADHD
How many of you have heard this one before? “Oh yeah, that’s just my ADHD kicking in again.” Or how about this gem? “I just can’t concentrate. I think I have ADHD.” For those of you nodding, (I’m sure most of you have even said these words) we here at the Surly Birds are asking you to please stop. You don’t have ADHD. You’re not going to have ADHD. Quit making excuses for your tendency to not focus on things you don’t want to do anyway – like work.
Look, I understand that ADHD is a very real problem that affects a lot of people. But if you’re reading this website, and you haven’t been diagnosed with any form of attention deficit disorder, you don’t have it. Believe me. If you even had the slightest hint of ADD or worse, ADHD, your parents would have had you at the doctor’s office before you could count to 10 (or get distracted before you even made it to 10) so that you could stop being such a pain in their ass.
But these days, it seems like everyone is incredibly quick to play the ADHD card. Since when is it copasetic, let alone cool to jump to a debilitating disorder to excuse spacing out? You got an F in chemistry? Yeah, I think I have ADD or something. Did you finish your homework last night? No. I tried, but my ADD kicked in and I had to go do something else. And of course, the absolute worst, turning the disorder into a noun – Yeah, I did terrible on the ACT. I think I’m ADHD.
We don’t know how it happened, but somewhere along the line, not being able to focus on anything at all for extended periods of time became not only acceptable, but a point of solace and justification for poor performance. Most people even joke about it. Only thing is, it’s these same exact supposed victims that can sit for hours in front of a television ‘gaming’ or even longer in front of a computer monitor blogging and tweeting. Are you telling me it takes less concentration to read articles on the Internet and draft responses to them than it does to sit in a classroom and do nothing except listen to a teacher? I don’t think so. You just don’t want to do it.
Yet somehow, “being ADHD” has become part of our mainstream vocabulary and might be the most overused excuse for failure or shortcomings that we’re aware of – with “being OCD” about something coming in a damn close second. Don’t even get us started on that.
So what do you think? Agree or disagree? We want to hear the most common ways you hear people using ADHD as an excuse too. So let’s hear it:
Guilty as charged. I’ve used “ADD” as an excuse when playing golf (all 3 times I’ve played). By the 6th hole my “AD..”, um, I mean I really begin to suck more than I did on the first 5 holes. I just like to drink and drive the cart anyway.
Apologies Surly Birds, I’ll work on it…
maybe that’s just because you suck at golf…
that kinda was my point…