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Frank Thinks He Has The Answer.

We don't know who asked for his opinion, but we can only conclude Frank Furedi's article published Feb 8th was to inspire a reaction from the adult ADHD community, and in turn raise his own profile.


Why else be so insulting?


Unless maybe, just maybe, Furedi has not met an ADHD adult and is basing his slurs on pure assumptions of what we must be like.


Either way, it warrants a reaction.

But we choose to respond over reacting, despite being adults "willing to infantalise themselves."

That is what Frank Furedi offered as the "main problem with the rise of ADHD diagnoses among adults," describing the label as a "cop-out."


Furedi's ignorance is actually blatant from the off with his chosen subtitle, "By identifying as ill, adults get to behave like naughty children."


It's such a shame this laughably ill-informed article has very unfunny consequences for an already vulnerable group of minds.


Let me just explain something.

A naughty child is a naughty child, Frank, regardless of being an ADHD child or not.

To compare ill adults to naughty children is just bizarre and, as is becoming a common theme, trashes the validity of ADHD as debilitating and even deadly.

The truly tragic thing is, adults who are condemned to the behavioural challenges of ADHD, the "naughty" ones, guess what happens to them?

They make up at least a quarter of our prison population.

They end up addicted, unemployed, homeless, 5 times more likely to commit suicide and dying up to 25 years prematurely. That's what "we get" with our ADHD.


Furedi demonstrates his incomprehension further when presenting our reasons for desiring such a label as "to avoid taking responsibility for behaviour, such as poor organisation, inconsistency and a failure to complete tasks."

He even goes on to say that, "Anyone in possession of such a diagnosis can declare with conviction, ‘it’s not my fault!’."


Declare to who exactly? That's what I'd like to know.

Our bosses?

Our partners?

We don't get a magic pass alongside our diagnosis that allows us to "avoid responsibility."

No one really cares that it isn't our fault. Not even us when we're giving ourselves a hard time for getting it wrong, again.


People often won't even tell employers about their ADHD, suspected or otherwise, through embarrassment and fear of discrimination. So articles like this do nothing to help and everything to aggravate situations.


Furedi, with his own article, provides us with a strong example of his own statement that, "self-control and discipline used to be considered integral features of adulthood. But not anymore."


Well, there is no self-control exerted by Frank over his desire to attack us. No discipline applied to create something moral and integral for our race to digest.


A click-bait article that frames identifying as ADHD as, "Giving up on any attempt to achieve self-mastery."

That is something Frank Furedi wonderfully showcases he has not yet achieved with such poor, public behaviour.


As we said at the start, it's almost amusing because it's just so bad. But we're well aware of what devastating impact these pieces are having.


According to Furedi, ADHD "shows how little we value the authority and responsibility that comes with maturity."


We think all this shows how little we value diversity and the responsibility that comes with being an evolutionary race.


Whilst we have media enabling the publication of misleading information, A Different Human Design remains committed to fighting for our community.


If you are struggling with your mental health, ADHD related or otherwise here are some useful places to turn:




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