My buddy Ian Hines, in a post about Molly Zametkin:
Yet as someone who lives and breathes on the internet, I can very closely relate to her concerns about how your Google search results can affect your reputation. ADHD is strongly associated with unreliability and underachievement — two things no budding professional wants to highlight at the top of their resume.
But what I think Molly has realizing — and what I’d emphasize to anyone in a similar situation who may be reading this — is the simple truth that while you may have ADHD, you aren’t ADHD. Your condition does not define who you are, anymore than poor vision or asthma would.
This hits on something I’ve been struggling with a lot recently, as I continue to wrestle with my (astoundingly accurate) diagnosis of depression.
I have friends who lead off most conversations with “How are you doing?”. While I know many of them really do have good intentions, it can be tiresome.
So I lie. Which is part of what got me to where I am today.
Sometimes I just want to shoot the shit. Talk about trucks, tattoos or music. Debate about the virtues of webOS vs. the widespread adoption of Android. Smoke a cigarette on the front porch while enjoying a beer with my neighbors. Watch the stars.
Too often, other people want to stray to far into my psyche. And too often I want to ignore it.
But — as with almost everything — the correct path is the moderate one. Defining myself by my disease and ignoring it are opposite and equal evils.
I think one reason I swing so quickly between the two is that I have a sense of shame about not being strong or faithful enough to “power through” what life has tossed my way.
I also know that kind of thinking is faulty. But it is hard to shake.