An essay on ADHD, DID, ADD & Bipolar disorder

They cannot afford

(An essay dedicated to those with ADHD, DID, ADD & Bipolar disorder)

People who live with disorders cannot afford to live in fear of what they carry with them.
If a disorder has become a part of you then the disorder is now a part of you. It is as much
a part of you as your culture or gender. Your disorder whether it is one or a combination
of ADHD, ADD, DID, or Bi-polar is as much a part of you as your own skin. Even more,
the disorder has become just as much a part of you as your own race or skin. People who
live with these disorders cannot (nor should they) live in fear of simply being who they
are for the sake of making life more convenient for everyone else.

For example, imagine along with me to illustrate. So, let us pretend that you developed
any of the aforementioned disorders. Next, ask yourself a question, how would you feel if
you were cognizant of how the world viewed those with your particular disorder? How
are children with what you have treated? Even worse, imagine receiving he news that you
had been born with a genetic propensity for developing a disorder. Imagine not having a
choice over what you were born with? How horrified would you be? Imagine being born
with a disorder and your parents take you to see a therapist to receive “treatment or
therapy” Just for being born as what you are. Imagine being put on permanent medication
because what you were born as has no cure. Imagine the nightmare even further; you are
placed on psychotropic drugs because how you were born is an inconvenience for
everyone else. Even sadder, is when the party that recommended you for this treatment
was someone you trusted to love you genuinely and unconditionally, like your parent(s),
friend(s), significant other, or other confidant. Imagine just being born, and being treated
like you wee born broken. How could any loved one think that this is good news?

If after you watched all the pharmaceutical commercials, would you be more encouraged
to get rid of your socially disdainful and co-morbid traits more commonly known as
symptoms? Would you cringe at the headlines that have been so popularly printed in the
majority of magazine articles, clinical reports, and textbooks?

Would you read the latest report regarding the resent research that has been conducted on
people with your disorder? If you were to find out that you were born with a disorder like
ADHD, ADD, DID or Bi-polar; would you opt to take medication, in order to alleviate
the symptoms associated with being you? Or, would you seek professional counseling, in
order to discuss the mental and emotional trauma associated with being born as you are?
You can even discuss the pain everyone else experiences, as a result of coming in contact
with your kind?

Unfortunately, being the bearer of any one of these disorders while young can be jarring
beyond belief. A person who lives with ADHD, ADD, DID, or Bi polar while young
receive their chastisement from society before they even have the ability to develop a
social consciousness. They are chastised for how they were born before they even know
who they are. Their entire lives are skewered by the views of others before they have
even had the fair options of deciding their own fates. Yes, so before they are even young
enough to even spell or understand the meaning of the word ‘ostracism,’ they have
already become the recipients of it. Being born with any form of disorder does not always
play out like in the cartoons or action and sci-fi movies; where the disorder that develops
is one that makes life better and more convenient for all. Comparatively, people born
with disorders don’t get to be the poster children for heroism or cool at all. The people
who live with these disorders cant afford to live with the ostracism of simply being born
who they were. They cannot afford a single day of the disrespect and belittling
underestimations that come along with these insultingly condescending labels.

Even worse, all of the commercials in contemporary society usually help to reinforce the
negative descriptions of what it looks like to have a disorder. Imagine all of the news
reports that you have seen that effectively and have creatively highlighted what was
wrong with having a disorder? The media usually indicates when an atrocity committed
was the result of someone with a disorder who did not take his or her medication that day.
Think of how often that you have already heard about how people with disorders let
people down in their families, at work and among friends. How would you feel if you
heard and saw how the world can view people like you as a monster? Imagine the stigma
associated with having a disorder. How would your friends and family react to you
because of your disorder? Think about that for a moment.

Unfairly, it can almost seem as if, people who have ADHD, ADD, DID, Bi Polar are
incorrigible, irresponsible, unwanted, unlovable, sick, usually cannot help screwing up
thus we should expect them to make more errors than “normal” people; unless they are
seeking regular under supervision treatment and taking regularly prescribed medication to
keep their third arm in check. Getting diagnosed seems as if it may also influence
perpetuating a lifetime of limitations, public indifference and societal ostracism.

And, if you are under the consistent care of a mental health care professional, you may be
able to live a semi-to-close-to-normal life; but it all depends upon if you take your
medication regularly. Yes, you can make an attempt at behaving in the most socially
acceptable way possible, but what is the cost? And can you afford to be medicated
forever for a cure that will never come?

Now, the last two questions are indeed viable options that can be selected for the purpose
of seeking treatment due to the states associated with ADHD, ADD, DID, Bi Polar.
However, I would like to invite you to consider another possibility. Let us imagine what
would happen if you learned how to master your disorder and bring order to these ‘so-
called’ disorders. Disorder means broken. People who live with these disorders cannot
afford to live in fear of what they carry with them. The cost is far too high “the rest of
your life” is far too long to live with a label given to you by someone else. Life is too
short live in the shadow of another’s’ diagnosis and public opinion. The rest of your life
is too long to be considered broken by someone else. The cost is too high to live the rest
of your life being medicated into becoming the most socially acceptable version of what
others feel is more convenient for them.