It definitely is, and people are varying degrees of intensity. But to be diagnosed means there are consistent patterns that affect everyday life. And not just in a superficial sense. And it’s not just one thing.

Like, being awkward or shy doesn’t now mean you’re on the spectrum. You might just be awkward, and shy. And that’s okay. You can try some personal growth classes, do some exercises, build confidence. Cool.

Maybe you didn’t learn how to clean and now you have terrible habits as an adult. That sucks, doesn’t mean you’re ADHD. You might just need to learn some life skills, get organized, reshape some habits.

But if you’re literally struggling to keep to a routine because you fail to complete tasks, get overwhelmed, struggle to be consistent, cannot build new habits even when you know you need to… you might want to get checked out. That is not the same thing.

One is a pattern of problems that affects all aspects of life. The severity/degree of which may vary person to person, but it’s the wide ranging pattern, NOT the superficial “lol, I lose my keys sometimes, I’m so ADHD”.

you have no right

Never claimed I did. The doctor does. Go get a diagnosis. If you’re not going to do that, then stop playing disorder pokemon.

Because it does take away from others. I shared in other posts exactly how it does. The babyfication of it all, and how it misinforms and downplays it to the larger society. Because those people are likely going to be the public’s exposure to it. The “self diagnosed but pretty sure” people FAR exceed the number of clinically diagnosed actually struggling.

A lot of diagnosed people (especially with severe mental disorders) are not shouting their problems from the rooftops. Theyre embarrassed by it, they feel less than or broken by it. Theyre not bragging “sometimes I lose the will to care for myself and live in a pile of trash”. “I fail to achieve my goals and find success because I can’t manage a consistent routine”. They dont want people to know that.

If you think you need mental health treatment, by all means, go get it. Do that. But, pretending online isn’t therapy and it isn’t helping you or anyone.

Shit, I even forgot to mention how people with their “look at me” list of self-diagnoses make people with REAL disorders feel inadequate or imposters. In comes TikTok Grifty McAutism talking about how they got their shit together and a legion of undiagnosed cosplayers (who really just needed to learn some personal responsibility and life skills) doing the “omg, me too, this helped so much”. Meanwhile the person with actual struggles is made to feel like either, a) they’re not trying hard enough, or b) they’re a lost cause.

“Thousands people are saying how they overcame it, or learned this coping mechanism… why can’t I?”

That’s real harm, all so someone can selfishly feel like “a quirky little mess uwu”…

Hurt me? No one in particular.

Hurt people with real struggles and disorders? Everyone self-diagnosing via TikTok Md.

Sorry, I’m gatekeeping disorders here. And the gate is “go get a real fucking diagnosis”.

People self-identifying themselves with disorders as though it’s a fun way to make them special and unique can fuck off. Like, the people that have these disorders (most of them) don’t want them. They are things they struggle with all day, everyday. And then these kids make it their costume.

Like, I’m sorry you don’t have a real personality, but being a poser for mental disorder isn’t it. It only hurts the people with those actual struggles. It spreads massive amounts of misinformation about those disorders. Makes it harder for actually diagnosed people to be take seriously. And diminishes the severity of their actual diagnoses.

Right. The OCD stuff drove me up a wall. Because I knew people who had actual diagnosed OCD and struggled to trust their own mind/eyes, and they’d have to go back and check, and back and check. People having actual panic attacks midday because suddenly they’re worried they left the stove on, even though they checked it like 30 times before leaving.

But then some RaWr_xD kid would be like “omg, I HAVE to organize my nailpolish, so OCD” (Insert ValleyGirl accent as appropriate). Completely diminishing my friend’s hours lost of their life, everyday, to being equivalent to the basic concept of properly putting things away…

And then he’d explain to people that he has OCD, and their expectations of what that meant were completely inaccurate. Get upset at him because he’s “doing the OCD thing”, thinking it was some goofy quirk or performance, and not a thing he struggles with and literally told them about. Employers included.

Everything is “neurodivergent” now.

Oh, you sometimes forget where you left something? Neurodivergent.

Oh, you have a particular way you like to organize things that works for you? Neurodivergent.

Oh you don’t organize at all? Also neurodivergent.

You don’t like some foods because they taste weird to you? You bet your sweet little snowflake ass, neurodivergent.

And look, I’ll give it to you that the field has opened up, there is better research into psychology, autism, adhd etc. Diagnosis are obviously going to go up as understanding goes up… but ffs… So many people watch some TikTok self-help “coach” and think “omg, I do that!! that means I’M different and special now! lmao, so neurospicy”. It’s the “I wash my hands after cooking, I’m OCD like that” bullshit. Back when EVERYONE who did anything with even the slightest modicum of care/detail would say they’re a little OCD.

And it just makes light of people with actual struggles, with REAL “neurodivergence”. As if it’s just some quirky thing. So now people with OCD are seen, NOT as someone with a debilitating disorder that literally consumes hours of their day and faculties. But, instead, they’re just a little silly, just a goof.

Everyone now is like “omg, sometimes I just daydream and forget what I was doing, I’m soooo ADHD”… like…

No, I have ADHD… are you struggling to do things in a manner that causes you severe internal panic? And even though you logically know what should be done you can’t bring yourself to take action because you get overwhelmed when trying to think of all the tasks and subtasks and prep work and then you don’t know where to start and so you just …

don’t …

do …

anything, even as your mind is screaming?

And then the guilt of not having accomplished the goals feeds into a pattern of failure and anxiety to the point where you just stop caring to try anymore?

Sorry, just a little neurospicy. My brain a widdle fuckywucky, lolol so random. Right?

I’ve been eyeing ZorinOS for two reasons.

One ZorinOS 18 just released this month, and it feels like it would be an easy transition as a lifelong windows cuckboy to use.

Two, my daughter does home/virtual schooling and the educational ZorinOS seems to offer a lot of useful features on their educational/school build. Because while playing games on Linux is cool and all, the main problem I have witha full household swap to Linux… is that schools and so much of the wider system are built around windows. And I worry that changing to Linux would screw up things she needs to do with school.

Actually, the keys part is fake. But Superman offering the liquor bottle is real.

For added context, he’s offering the bottle to SixPack, an alcoholic and minor hero. Unknown to himself, SixPack is a sleeping god whose dreams warp reality. He was starting to sober up after a traumatic event but it was causing him to dream a version of the world without superheroes, our world. Superheroes were losing their power or becoming vulnerable.

And so, Superman figures this out and to prevent the collapse of their known universe, he offers SixPack a bottle of liquor so that he forgets this other world and the sleeping god becomes dormant again.