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13winters 's review for:
TLDR: Overall, I find this book to be poorly reasoned, ableist inspiration porn. "Look how these few people with a whole lot of support that most of you lack made it! If they can do it, so can you!"
Written by someone with such an astonishing level of privilege that critical, intersectional thinking is a foreign notion. Archer is confused as to how there can be such divergent rates of ADHD in different states, and has decided that it's proof that it's mostly a Big Pharma conspiracy. It couldn't possibly have to do with access to credible diagnostic testing and continued medical care, or stigma. No, no, it's all just a conspiracy to make money.
Sure, there's plenty to criticize about how people are diagnosed and the treatment paths, but Archer's overall assumption (and argument) that ADHD is just a purely amazing strength that only negatively impacts a very few is objectively wrong, and he continues to ignore the fact that ADHDers have to, you know, run a life. Keep a job that pays. Make appointments and keep them. Keep in touch with friends (unless you want to be forever alone). He inevitably concludes that we're all just a few tweaks away from living amazing lives, and definitely not needing medicine.
I kept wondering if Archer has actually worked with anyone with ADHD, and is just reporting second hand the amazing outcomes that he's heard from a bunch of other doctors. Surely, if he actually worked with a large number of ADHDers he'd have a far more nuanced understanding of how it affects lives and have seen just how wrong he is.
Dude, if I could have an amazing life by "just doing" some things, you'd be right. I wouldn't need help. But the life I want and the life I live don't allow me to only rely on the "strengths" of ADHD, and by the way, I don't keep trying different things because I have some amazing strength for failure. I keep trying new things because they are new and different and currently holding my attention. And when I do fail, it's not awesome. It's yet another thing that I wanted to do, wanted to succeed at, that my ADHD f'd up for me. Has it ever occurred to you that not all of us have the desire to do something just because it's one of a few things we can do? That we might like to get to pick something and drive towards it, and get good at it and not fail? Or even that we don't live in a society that allows us to live in such a way that we can afford to just be a failure until we finally find something? I don't have the money to do that, and I'm far more privileged than many other ADHDers on that front.
Written by someone with such an astonishing level of privilege that critical, intersectional thinking is a foreign notion. Archer is confused as to how there can be such divergent rates of ADHD in different states, and has decided that it's proof that it's mostly a Big Pharma conspiracy. It couldn't possibly have to do with access to credible diagnostic testing and continued medical care, or stigma. No, no, it's all just a conspiracy to make money.
Sure, there's plenty to criticize about how people are diagnosed and the treatment paths, but Archer's overall assumption (and argument) that ADHD is just a purely amazing strength that only negatively impacts a very few is objectively wrong, and he continues to ignore the fact that ADHDers have to, you know, run a life. Keep a job that pays. Make appointments and keep them. Keep in touch with friends (unless you want to be forever alone). He inevitably concludes that we're all just a few tweaks away from living amazing lives, and definitely not needing medicine.
I kept wondering if Archer has actually worked with anyone with ADHD, and is just reporting second hand the amazing outcomes that he's heard from a bunch of other doctors. Surely, if he actually worked with a large number of ADHDers he'd have a far more nuanced understanding of how it affects lives and have seen just how wrong he is.
Dude, if I could have an amazing life by "just doing" some things, you'd be right. I wouldn't need help. But the life I want and the life I live don't allow me to only rely on the "strengths" of ADHD, and by the way, I don't keep trying different things because I have some amazing strength for failure. I keep trying new things because they are new and different and currently holding my attention. And when I do fail, it's not awesome. It's yet another thing that I wanted to do, wanted to succeed at, that my ADHD f'd up for me. Has it ever occurred to you that not all of us have the desire to do something just because it's one of a few things we can do? That we might like to get to pick something and drive towards it, and get good at it and not fail? Or even that we don't live in a society that allows us to live in such a way that we can afford to just be a failure until we finally find something? I don't have the money to do that, and I'm far more privileged than many other ADHDers on that front.