extranormativity

Now that I've just completed another work week and started another off week, I'm back to reading "ADHD 2.0" (#Hallowell and #Ratey 2021). One issue I'm noticing with it: relentless #extranormativity (normalization of extreme #extraversion and marginalization of #introversion). The authors assume, for example, widespread enthusiasm for entrepreneurship, which would be an absolute nightmare for me: all the schmoozing and networking with people I'd much rather never meet or interact with. This #extranormativity seems to be a pervasive problem with literature on #ADHD in general, as opposed to literature on autism, where if anything #introversion is taken as the norm.

It's reinforcing my impression that #AuDHD is a fundamentally different phenomenon from standalone #ADHD (without autism). Many, perhaps most, of the characteristics #Hallowell and #Ratey list for #ADHD fit me perfectly, but some others might as well be characteristics of Martians, they're so utterly alien to me.

@autistics

I've returned safely from a virtual diorama of #extravert hell — otherwise known as Chapter 4 of "ADHD 2.0" (#Hallowell and #Ratey 2021). Its title is "The Healing Power of Connection", and it's even worse than that title makes it sound to #introvert ears. I had already decried the #extranormativity of this book, but at least before it was merely implied. In Chapter 4, they announce it openly:

"Create ... for yourself ... a connected life. It is the key to pretty much everything good in life. ... A deeply, variously connected life is the most enriching gift you can give yourself and your family."

"It's wonderful to introduce children to people from out of town, even from out of the country, and make dinner a big deal where people meet to eat and greet."

"Engage in some kind of spiritual practice ..."

"Visit graveyards ..."

"Learn about your ancestors."

"... talk to non-related old people about their lives, in detail."

"Be on the lookout for any charismatic mentor."

😱 🤯 😵‍💫 🤢 🤮

To me, all of this conjures up images of jungle vines extending tendrils to wrap and bind me (Quick, my machete!); of the Borg extending assimilation tubules to transform me into one of their own number; of green slime from "Doctor Who" invading my tissues in an effort to turn me into more of itself.

No doubt Hallowell and Ratey mean well. Then again, I'm sure the Borg must think assimilation is the most priceless gift they can give anyone.

Much of my life has been a struggle to DISCONNECT myself from a culture which, although I was born into it, I perceived from the first as alien, and which did its best to indoctrinate me into its vile ideologies, especially those of a "spiritual" nature — and despite my discomfort, came frighteningly close to succeeding in that effort. (I do, however, appreciate my wife's inquiries into my ancestors; among other things, she was able to demonstrate unequivocally that they had owned slaves, contrary to what I had been told.)

Hallowell and Ratey can KEEP their "connection".

@autistics

I've now finished Chapter 2 of "ADHD 2.0" (#Hallowell and #Ratey 2021). I've had some hard things to say about this book so far: its #extranormativity, its tone of pontificating certainty, its overconfident reliance on dubious #fMRI findings, the appalling glimpse of support for #ABA in a skimmed later chapter. But in the second half of Chapter 2, I've found something really interesting and potentially helpful, something that rings true from my experience, quite apart from any #fMRI findings.

The authors point out a way that #anxiety and #depression can arise purely from the #attentional-focus problems definitive of #ADHD, and NOT from the cognitive errors to which #CBT attributes such problems. The idea is that the obsessiveness of #ADHD, when focused on anything negative, creates a self-sustaining, self-amplifying vortex of negativity. Their description makes it sound almost like a bad trip on #psychedelics. The solution is NOT to try to debunk the negative thoughts that make up the vortex, #CBT-style; indeed, that approach might make things worse by reinforcing the focus on the negative thoughts. Instead, try to refocus on — indeed, obsess about! — something positive instead.

Indeed, #anxiety and (especially) #depression were my own psychiatric diagnoses (not counting bipolar disorder, which later psychiatrists rejected decisively as a misdiagnosis). #CBT was worse than useless. Instead, I got help from antidepressant drugs — and I don't think it was an accident that the best one for me turned out to be Wellbutrin (bupropion), which doubles as a third-line #ADHD drug. And the subjective experience of depression, and of recovery from it, matched Hallowell and Ratey's attentional account, rather than the error-correcting story #CBT tells. I suspect that if there were such a thing as "attentional psychotherapy", I might have benefited from getting that instead of #CBT.

@autistics