Those presumtions, or I would rather say prejudices, didn't manifest themselves out of thin air though.
I've been on the other side of the river where people were using thier disorders, or having forged papers stating such things, to have a get out of jail free card to use when caught red-handed when on thier crime-spree. Until they did something really serious, they were basically safe, as law enforcement prefered to just avoid having to torment themselves while dealing with them, not to mention being branded by the pubic for abusing thier power over such people.
My friend, which was a girl, not to mistake her for a girlfriend, was working in a shop in the city close to mine, where a youngster with diagnosed ADHD used to come there, among many other shops. You would think he was quite polite and nice person who wouldn't cause too much trouble, just a bit lost. Well, if you could just look past his stealing spree, then I would say yes. He even used to laugh you in the face when caught red-handed, because his petty theft wasn't really "grave enough" for police to tormet themselves with his disorder, so all what they did was just taking and returning what he took and escorting him out of the shop. Well, that was going on for about few years until one of the shopowners had enough of him and kicked his ass. It worked like a charm, because he left the city and never ever returned. But who was later the well known villain in the city? Yes, of course, owner of the shop.
In my local "master thieft drunktard clown junkie" is diagnosed with kleptomania. He used to use his disorder for around ten years or more as an excuse for his stealing spree, before even police stopped beliving in his bullshit. Because, how could you still believe it's kleptomania, if you can see him peddling his stolen wares on local market rather daily. When you see him inside any shop there is 69,69% chance he is going to steal something and 30,31% chance that he entered the shop to steal something, but he forgot so he'll be back in a ten minutes or so to steal something.
A girl I used to work with was so abused by her boyfriend she ended up in the hospital. I don't remember with what they diagnosed her, but it didn't end well, sadly. She became a junkie and a thief, causing problems to her family and friends.
And I know, not everyone with a disorder is like that, but it's hard to see the white, when you're in the dark while also blindfolded. Because someone has a problem, it doesn't mean he should be treated differently, either better or worst. We all have problems and our deamons we need to fight.
As for My Dorm, and Emma, she's only adult by number, still a teenager in mind and body. A young female filled with ever changing cocktail of hormones boosted by watching huge amount of porn. Because she act's like it, doesn't mean she does have it. In my opinion she is in need of guidance and good breaks, as she goes from 0 to 100 in matter of seconds, clearly not understanding the consequences of her actions.
Ok.
Tell me, what do you think an ADHD person is. What do you think the condition is. What are the consequences of it.
Remember, that I am one, I have lived with it. I am married to another one. Had and raised 4 others (as best I can). I say this before you think that you can pass around anecdotes and biased info as truth.
Just so we start the conversation from a more informed place, the estimated (there are no firm numbers, and never will be) number of people carrying this genetic condition and passing it down their genetic tree, is about 5%. There are all over the world some locus that either by isolation or social constrictions these rates go much higher, up to an astounding 20% in a few places. These locus are small. Very small. Think small town with less than 10,000 people.
Also, with a condition that does most of it's "damage" on the executive parts of the brain, what would you expect the result would be? I say "damage", but there's none of it really. It simply makes our brains have different speeds. We process information very fast, but, since the executive processes are delayed, work memory is not fully engaged, which leads to deficient memorization. Because the language centers are under the purview of the executive center, many of us have a form of dyslexia, yet, we are usually very proficient on a second or third language, because these are NOT managed or stored in the same places.
The way that society in general treats the young carriers, is fundamental on their development. From low self esteem, caused by the "standard" tests, to, social isolation, caused by their difficulties in socializing, all that leads to unbalanced adults that are unable to lead any form of stable lives.
The fact that the executive centers are slower in response, causes us to be VERY impulsive, have a rather large range of emotions (all of them), we are extremely adept to have teenage pregnancies, to get addicted (to anything and everything), to develop many types of comorbidities that will further cause us many more problems. Kleptomania, is one of them. One of the rarer ones tho. That can also exist out of the ADHD complex. We are MUCH more prone to divorces. We are WAY, WAY more prone to suicide. We have a higher number of accidents, with fatalities is the highest, with motorbikes is simply out of the average. These numbers are even worse if you separate them by gender, with males having a rather low chance of surviving above their teen years without any of this happening. ADHD women have the same rates, but, have different ways that they are affected. Comorbidities are also different between males and females. The reason for this is known but I'll refrain to explain it here, because when you can't even understand the basics of this condition and speak of it has something that is the fault of the carrier, then it is completely impossible that you will understand the rest.
An ADHD carrier is a victim. But, it is easier to blame them instead of understanding them, right? They are as able to change their brains and it's processes as you are. They have no responsibility of the way they were born, yet, society decides to brand them as defective and blame them for not being capable to escape their genetic prison. The fact that anxiety, depression and suicides are so high among us (my oldest boy, tried it at 7 years old) also contribute to the social out-casting. It is now established that almost all (as high as 90%) of the adults that survived their teens as ADHD, have PTSD symptoms, caused by the extreme conditions they have lived under.
I'll stop here.
Peace
