Interesting, thanks for sharing a different view on this. I can understand that. For ADHD it’s the same of course, you can’t separate your personality from it. A question like “Would you like to have not had ADHD/autism?” makes no sense, because then we would have been entirely different people.

I’ve never heard someone say “I am autism” or “[person] is autism” though, like people seem to do with ADHD. In the case of autism, what would you use instead of people-first language?

[–] Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 points 3 months ago (1 children)

For autism you'd just say someone is autistic/I'm autistic, I think people just say he's ADHD/I'm ADHD because I'm not sure there's a comparable way to adjective-ify ADHD like there is with autism/autistic.

[–] watersnipje@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 points 3 months ago (1 children)

In Dutch, we do: we call someone an ADHDer. I’m not opposed to that, I call myself that occasionally. It’s just the “watersnipje is ADHD” phrasing that really rubs me the wrong way, it’s like sand in my teeth every time I read that.

[–] AnarchistArtificer 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

That's super interesting, thanks for sharing. Sometimes my friends use the phrase "AuDHDer" (autistic person who also has ADHD) or "ADHDer".

I agree with you about the phrasing in the post being weird. Do you find that it feels different if it's said by someone who has ADHD, potentially towards other neurodivergent folk? I ask because whilst I don't think I really use phrasing "I am ADHD"/"She is ADHD", I do know that the way I speak about neurodivergence is different when I am amongst other people who are neurodivergent.

[–] watersnipje@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 3 months ago

Hm, I’m not sure. Lots of people have ADHD, so it’s not that often. I’m not “out” as having ADHD at work, and I think there, I’m more inclined to say “person with ADHD” than “ADHDer”.