Last week I sent out reminder about a Free ADHD Teleseminar through my Support for ADD mailing list. In the reminder email I had a disclaimer about the terms ADD and ADHD. I got a really strange reply back about the disclaimer that I am going to share and respond to here.
While I realize the ‘correct’ medical definitions need to be used why don’t we sub type them and put in big bold letters in front of those awful words ‘predominately all attentive’; ‘predominately hyperactive – go getter’ and combined.
Isn’t that much more positive to someone having to deal with this?
I don’t know, I think being realistic is sometimes much more helpful that only being positive. Inattentiveness and hyperactivity do cause challenges for those people who live in the real world.
We continually give in to the negative terminology surrounding being ADHD instead of helping people understand the wonderful gifts they have and how we can use them to our advantage.
I really don’t see how accepting medical terminology of a neurobiological condition is giving into negative terminology. Also I’m not ADHD, I have ADHD, and am more than just my ADHD. Nor do I see how using medical terminology prevents me from helping my clients focus on and use their strengths and talents.
I love being ADHD and have converted everyone I have come into contact with (which is everyone I know & that’s a lot of people) that they are so very blessed to be this way and look at the way they used their gifts.
That’s wonderful that you love having ADHD. As for converting people to think they are blessed, well that sounds a bit more like being a cult leader than helping to spread ADHD Awareness. I think a person has the right to make up his or her own mind about whether he or she is actually blessed. As an ADHD Coach I don’t brainwash people. I help my clients find strategies and solutions and focus on their strengths and talents. I leave it up to them as to how they choose to view ADHD.
Don’t get me wrong. Life is far from being a bed of roses but I’d rather be a ‘hunter’ any day of the week than die a long slow death as a ‘farmer’.Just standing up for my many kinfolk!
Again, I think it’s great that you are living a happy and productive life. As for dying a long slow death as a farmer, well I really don’t think the other 95% or so of the population who don’t have ADHD and are farmers really think they are dying a long slow death. I actually know a lot of non-ADHD people who really seem to enjoy life.
3 replies to "I’m an ADHD Coach, Not a Cult Leader"
I don’t usually comment on postings that involve such a strange conversation. BUT. There are people who have posted that are worth responding to and some that aren’t. With all due respect Tara (and ya know that I have the deepest and most powerful respect for you, whomever this person is I’m not sure that I would have continued to respond to their nonsense.
AD/HD IS a medical disorder and most likely a “learning disorder” in itself (we’ll have to wait for the next, or even the next after that DSM). There are many symptoms/criteria of AD/HD that anyone and everyone in the general population has to some degree. There are symptoms of AD/HD that people who have other disorders, such as ‘Generalized Anxiety Disorder’, have in common. Unless one is assessed and diagnosed by a qualified professional then they can not claim to have this medical diagnosis. “AD/HD like symptoms” yes, the disorder, NO.
It becomes even more clear to me as time passes that people should not be allowed to become an AD/HD Coach (or as I like to refer to myself: AD/HD Life Skills Coach), unless they are thoroughly trained in all of the particulars of this medical disorder; trained how to specifically work with people who have this diagnosis and coach TO the particular strengths and weaknesses of the effects of this medical disorder on people who have lived with it all of their lives; and I DO NOT mean one or two tele-classes either!
Now, without being hunted or plowed, I will get back to my Sunday reading. I pray and hope for peace and mindfulness for all.
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That letter must have been a joke. The whole “hunter-farmer” reference? Strange…
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