dude this literally happened to me an hour ago my classmate asked me why i got a week extension for a presentation and for the first time i decided to dance around it what i realized was pretty confronting as i was describing my condition truthfully without assigning the label i saw their reactions were totally different than if i had just plainly stated it was adhd the facts i stated were  - i have a neurological condition  - it makes it harder for me to focus and my memory is shit to the point where i forget what im doing as i walk through the house and i have to try harder to understand things  - i have trouble speaking and expressing myself and i stumble over words and it is annoying  her reaction was like omg wow that sucks so much she described it as alzheimers and i thought from my experience thats pretty much on the money she didnt enquire any further because it was just a casual conversation and i didnt elaborate  even now when i read these words back i go holy shit having adhd is terrible but thats the weird thing is this strange sense of dissociation you get from your symptoms when you frame it as adhd even to yourself when i say it like that i and everyone else think of naughty dumb children or slow adults that need to be pitied or not respected it inadvertently minimizes the real lived experience that is just so damn painful and yet so invisible unfortunately thats just general vibe that has been cultivated in todays society  and to be clear its not like im trying to compete in the suffering olympics by comparing my condition to others with real  disabilities see i caught that thought just now but i needed to leave this in to show exactly how hard it is to shake this mindset but the symptoms are still objectively on their own absolutely terrible so the sympathy for them are real its so strange how telling the truth in a certain way elicits a completely different reaction