Autism and ADHD don't have symptoms

ADHD doesn’t have symptoms.

Autism doesn’t have symptoms.

The Cambridge dictionary states the definition of ‘symptoms’ to be…

‘any feeling of illness or physical or mental change that is caused by a particular disease’

Honestly, we could end this article here. Enough said.

Symptoms is a word that belongs to the medical and psychiatric industries, which once upon a time included what we now know as neurotypes. So unfortch we’ve inherited a lot of medical speak that no longer makes sense. Such as the word SYMPTOM when discussing anything at all that can be perceived as a characteristic of a neurotype.

And it might feel like semantics, but language is a living construct. It evolves, it has the power to change things slowly or catapult concepts into existence or extinction. Every word we use to contextualise inherent facets of humanity is vitally important, and if the context shifts it has the power to shift our entire sense of self.

Hyperactivity isn’t a symptom of ADHD, because it’s not disordered, not a problem. It’s a way of being, a state of mind, a characteristic of being human. A human trait that exists often in highly sensitive people, people with larger amygdalas, people who’s brains prune less neurons, people with a deep sense of interest in a topic, people who’s trauma is active in their bodies, people who’s brain functions are stimulated for dozens of reasons and often hyperactivity just best describes a person for no real reason.

Imagine claiming that a non-hyperactive person has the symptom of non-hyperactivity. It’s absurd. And it’s less absurd than calling hyperactivity a symptom.

“Well”, you might say, “hyperactivity can cause problems, it can hold us back, what about the stigma?”

And to that I say we have to stop using the word stigma every time we could be using the word discrimination. Stigma refers to disgust. It’s overused and out of context in the case of hyperactivity. And, more importantly, why is a hyperactive person held back? Hyperactivity doesn’t inherently hold us back. Truth be told it actually launches us forwards. If we are held back because we are sent out of the classroom, because we get bored, because we are ostracised - well then, it’s not an ‘us’ thing.

It’s a problem of neuro-normative expectations. A ‘them’ thing.

And if you replied to that with “but that doesn’t matter in the real world” I’d say “why are we settling for the so-called real world despite being in the process of creating a more inclusive one?!”